In Moscow

Day Three

April 8th 2008

Total Miles 3300

Trip Miles 800

This morning at 0800 we arrived at Leningradski train station, Moscow.

During the night our passports and visas had been politely checked by fairly fearsome looking Russian border guards and customs officials. We slept fairly well, the rhythmic clatter of the wheels lulling me to sleep and keeping Morag awake. She informed me the next morning that she doesn't sleep well on trains! This worried us both as we had many thousands of miles yet to travel. The kids seemed fine as ever - they travel well. After a breakfast of Chocolate Wheetos they went bananas - additives! That was pretty funny to watch in four square metres of train carriage. Strangely I didn't think so at the time.

We wandered off the train - having fun deciphering Russian signs - written in the cyrillic alphabet and Russian of course.

We arrived at the Hostel Asia for a day stop, as our train left that night. After a long wait for rooms we got into the lift to head upstairs. The car moved initially and then ground to a halt! Much shouting into the speaker ensued - only muffled Russian assurances came back. Initially the girls were upset but soon we resigned ourselves to our fate. After what felt forever the car started to inch upwards. After about an hour the door was pulled open by strong hands and were were pulled up onto the first floor. As we exited the shaft we were amazed to see an old lady standing on the roof of the lift sticking screwdrivers into the doors to keep them open. Max said she looked like she was trained.

The rest of the day was spent around Red Square, St Basil's and the State Department store - a kind of Russian Harrods on Red Square called Gum.

That evening we boarded our train for Irkutsk - the Trans Siberian Train called The Baikal.

Moscow was very old the taxi had no seat beat  the lift broke down and all the people were unhappy