Trans-Siberian 2: 16-18 January We had a pleasant surprise boarding the train in the evening in Irkutsk - it was shiny and new and didn't smell of cheap Russian cigarettes which made for a more pleasant journey. There was also the notable lack of blasting music, no ice on the inside of the windows and the hot air wasn't suffocating us. Result - or so we thought, the cabin wasn't any more comfortable though - the design and layout was exactly the same, just in ne...

Irkutsk: 14th - 16th January We arrived into Irkutsk in the evening and were met off the train by Sergei who had the tickets for our next leg and drove us to our hotel - the Hotel Victoria in the middle of the old town. We sampled the local food, beer and wine and retired for the night expecting a good day of exploring the next morning. All looked good first thing, but just as we were about to leave Sue had a funny turn and ended up spending the day in bed wh...

Trans Siberian Railway - Tuesday 11th January to Friday 14th January Boarded the train in Moscow which left at shortly after midnight on the Monday evening (10th) expecting a 3 day train journey to Irkutsk. The train is pretty old but probably just what we expected. Each berth sleeps 4 people but we paid a supplement to have either sole use of a 4 berth or a smaller 2 berth so that we could avoid sharing (way too old for that malarkey!). We were lucky enough t...

Moscow: 8-10 Jan 2011 Arrived without issue; negotiated passport control (slow), the airport express train (easy) and the Moscow underground (not so easy); fortunately the one year of Russian Dan did at school and some helpful locals got us to our stop near the hotel - a big Soviet number where the heating is permanently on and we slept with the window open. Once we sussed the underground (and got a map with both the cyrillic and english station names on), th...

Happy New Year everyone! Back in Southampton now following 6 glorious days of eating and drinking too much in Scotland. No Flybe delays today - a good omen or a fluke?!? Final set of jabs tomorrow and catching up with friends over the next few days. More eating and drinking me thinks!! Only 4 days to go before we set off for Moscow. All flights and route now confirmed (provided we don't change it again!). Key dates below. Keep in touch! xx 8 Jan 201...