Sunday in Moscow was really hot. After our late night Greg and I decided to have a sleep-in, whilst the rest of the group went of to visit a monastery.

We joined the group again in the afternoon to visit the Kremlin. Security was very tight, we had to pass through two checkpoints to enter the buildings. We passed sentries who had to stand at attention without moving for an hour, tough on a hot humid day. The main attraction were the churches that surround the oldest courtyard in the Kremlin, Dormition Cathedral was where the Tzars, up to Ivan the Terrible, where crowned.

After the church we moved to the Armoury where treasures of the Tzars are held. It was an amazing exhibition with clothes, jewellery, armour and other possession of the Tzars on display. The costume exhibition contained jackets worn by Peter the Great and dresses belonging to Catherine the Great. The dresses had real pearls and precious stones sewn into them. Other things on exhibition where carriages and Faberge eggs.

We spent about two hours in the museum we headed back to the hotel where Andrei met us and drove us to his apartment for dinner with his family. Andrei's home is in a building which had contained communal living where five families lived in one apartment and share the bathroom and kitchen. Andrei had recently renovated the apartment completely gutting it and making a lovely three bedroom apartment for his small family of four.

Andrei's wife Olga had made us a traditional Russian summer meal made up of smoked salmon, sturgeon, veal tongue and salads. We spent another lovely evening of talking with my friend into the night. We bid our farewell with another bear hug from Andrei.

Today we are travelling to Minsk, a long trip by bus but I think everyone is enjoying a beak. Our tour guide has been playing documentaries about Russian history on the bus television. And now, guess what, an episode of Air Crash Investigation about the death of the Polish president in an air crash. Our tour guide is Polish and he talked about the current political situation in Poland, which stems from the death of the President in the crash. Greg is in seventh heaven and I'm writing the blog, read what you will from that. Update from the crash - apparently someone reset the barometric altimeter to the wrong setting - I knew that would be the problem.

The countryside is lush and green there are lakes and rivers everywhere. Birch trees line the highway, its beautiful. We are making our last stop in Russia in a small town called Yarchevo where will are having lunch at local diner called "The Old River Bed". I've been impressed with the food in Russia and last meal here was excellent. I had a very tasty salad followed by chicken soup.

As we drive through little towns I'm noticing smokers going - it's a sign that they are smoking the meat for the winter.

We are nearly at the Belarus border. I've enjoyed our stay in Russia St. Petersburg and Moscow are beautiful cities. I had expected that the Russian would be the dour examples portrayed in Hollywood movies, we did find the odd dour one but mostly they tried their best to engage with us.

Now Belarus.