Left Moscow and headed for Novgorod, a medieval city of about 350000 people. Novogorod used to be one of, if not the biggest city in ancient times. Upon arrival, we headed to the Fortress of Novgorod (the Russians love their fortresses!!) for a bit of sightseeing. It ws pretty cool, but much the same as what we had seen (palaces, churches, statues etc). We had a look around the town itself, which was really nice, before having dinner at the hotel. As it was Stu's...

Arrived in Moscow at 6:30am after a long painful overnight flight from Barcelona. We arrived not knowing what to expect from Russia, and the Contiki Tour we were about to embark on. To be honest, I can't say my initial impressions of Russia were great. We arrived at Passport Control/Immigration, and I kid you not, there were a few hundred people pushing and shoving, yelling and screaming trying to get to the solitary passport check desk. It was like a scene from ...