Well, the midnight train to Moscow wasn't quite as romantic as it sounded! I was delivered tothe station 2 hours before the train was due to go (erring on the side of caution, perhaps, but better than not being delivered at all, I suppose) and had to wait on a freezing platform - no waiting room, benches, etc until the train arrived. I fondly imagined that the train would miraculously be half empty and I'd have a compartment to myself, instead I found that I was sharing with 3 rather taciturn Russian gentlemen (one was actually quite chatty but very few seem to speak English). Anyway, that wasn't the problem, the problem was that they took turns to snore!! So not much sleep was to be had. However,the Russian countryside and small villages looked like black and white pictures from a book in the pale light of dawn. The black of the forests and the rather randomly placed houses, with their steeply pitched and half hexagonal (?) roofs, and the white of the snow. It was worth staying awake for (just!).

I am in a very modern skyscraper of a hotel (24 floors - I'm on the 16th) about 5 metro stops from the centre of Moscow. It is very comfortable and has an internet cafe!! which is not exorbitant!!! So, I'll try to maintain more regular contact between now and Monday. Well, it is a lovely sunny day so I might just go and check out the local area and start sightseeing in earnest tomorrow.