The Adventure Continues

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The last few days has seen us on a train from Cardiff back to London then Eurostar under the Channel Tunnel and across France to Brussels. We were treated to a three-course meal with wine and we toasted Pete C's birthday as we sped through the countryside. At Brussels we quickly swapped to a German high speed train - a marvel of engineering. Slick and superfast, it sadly lacked the seat-side service and finesse of the French.

Pizza and red wine dinner at Koln (Cologne) railway station then, within the hour we had boarded a Russian sleeper train. We divested ourselves of our luggage in the tiny, basic and disturbingly grey-green two-berth cabins and made our way to the Polish restaurant car. Here we spent an hour or so nursing ginormous Polish beers and watching the austere, grey concrete German railway stations pass by.

Two days on a Russian sleeper train was a memorable , if somewhat drab experience. We were woken at 4am on the first morning by rapping on the cabin door and a curt request by a uniformed German border guard for 'Passport!' He stamped our passports whilst we watched, bug-eyed. A minute later a uniformed Polish border guard appeared and the same performance was repeated. Seemingly the first guard signed stamped us out of Germany while the second stamped us into Poland.

Polish countryside - green and flat - passed by. Our restaurant car was lost in Warsaw and was not replaced so for 24 hours we survived on pumpernickel, ham, cheese, fruit and red wine bought at a supermarket at Koln railway station and boiled eggs nicked from the breakfast buffet in Cardiff.

By Tuesday morning we had arrived in Moscow. We quickly learnt that you haggle for taxis and that, no matter what the agreed price, your driver will attempt to weasel more money out of you on arrival at your destination. We also learnt that you can buy beer on the street, that Russian women are partial to tight pants and very high heels, that Moscow as a city is as huge and busy as anything we've ever seen before and that, if need be, you can buy an angle-grinder outside the metro station.

We've photographed many, many beautiful golden and coloured 'onion' domes. We've seen the Kremlin and Red Square. We've followed Russia's history from the Stone Age to the advent of Communism at the History Museum (seemingly Russian History stopped some time in the 20th Century.) We've also walked and walked and walked.

Today we explore some of Moscow's Soviet history (at a slower pace and in much cooler temperatures - 11 degrees rather than the beautiful blue sky days of 18 degrees we've had.) Tomorrow we start our tour of the 'old kingdoms' of Russia in the Golden Ring. Stay tuned!

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Photos

Waiting for the train
Waiting for the train to Moscow. Koln railway station.

Russia here we come
Russia here we come!

Moscow
Now that's a big, busy city.

St Basil's
St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. One of many photographed 'onions'