Geo: 47.0167, 28.8497Saturday finished with our nigbt at the opera. La Boheme sung in italian with russian surtitles, or were they ukranian? A beautiful and historic opera house, but not a world class company. An enjoyable evening though,, partly down to the performance and partly to the people watching. With a few hours to fill before Liz went off for her flight to Warsaw, first leg of her trip home, we had a good breakfast, dropped into the cathedral to see what was happening to find a service in progress in a clean bright white and gold space, then a last walk through the town back to the hotel and. then Liz into a taxi to the airport I had more time to fill before my train so I went to the archaelogical museum, lots of ... read more

Geo: 44.5144, 34.1757Sorry, got a bit behind with the blog posting and the photos, so here comes a catch up. We have had three days, or is it four, depends how you count those days when you arrive early on an overnight train, on the Crimean coast and have done a lot, despite hot sweaty rides in matruskahs (minibus to you and me). We went to Chekovs house here in yalta and were in the very room in which he wrote Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. He spent his last years here, with lots of visitors like Rachmaninov before going off to Germany for treatment for his tb and never returning, dead at 44.. His sister continued to live in the house and turned it into a museum. They love roses here, Chekov planted 100 ... read more

Geo: 50.4536, 30.5038So I had done little reconnaissance trips Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, cracked paying for and working out the way around the metro, so when Liz arrived on Thursday afternoon we were all ready to get out to see the sights. And we have walked our feet to stumps over the last 48 hours. Thursday it was St Michaels monastery of the Golden domes, St Sophia Cathedral and St Andrews church together with viewpoints over the river, walk through a park, awful art on display and dinner in Mafia restaurant in the middle of town with a very nice bottle of dry white Georgian wine. Friday morning off early =metro and walk - to Kyevo Pecherska Lavra, historic site where chritianity first came to Russia and the heart of the Russian Orthodox church, now ... read more

Geo: 47.2, 39.6593The train turned out to be quite fun, there are four beds in these second class Sleeper carraiges, no first class on the Vladikavkaz to Rostov train, and none left on the Rostov to Kiev. So my first travelling companion was a Russian lawyer, (advocate it said on his business card - in Russian of course, who spoke some English and we got on very well, he was full of questions about England, why did I not have to carry identity papers like him?, what was the average house price etc. At the first stop we were joined by two Russian air force officers, who spoke no English and at least one of them seemed to resent the fact that I had come to Russia without being able to speak Russian, but he clearly ... read more

Geo: 42.264, 42.7075I have left this as being in Kutaisi to make sense of the map, though I'm really in Tbilisi again. Back in Tbilisi for an evening and a day, chance to go to the traditional architecture museum and will fill an evening with the marionette theatre (subtitles in English) before heading off back up the military Highway and into Russia on Monday, assuming all goes to plan. My guide here has written out for me in Russian everything I need when I get to Vladikavkaz station, cancel one ticket I'm not using (Sochi to Rostov) and buy Vladikavkaz to Rostov and Rostov to Kiev. So here I am about halfway through the trip, in time if not yet degrees of the circle. Done a lot of travelling as a car passenger in the last ... read more