Our first real foray into the Russian rail network. And the start of the second half of our adventure. We were glad to be at the station early, as there were a few formalities to complete. Firstly, scanning all luggage as you enter the train station. How annoying, we had just clipped all our bags in for the walk from the car park. It all comes off again and through the machine it goes. Next on the agenda, coffee. And figuring out what platform we need to go to. Matching up the crylic characters on our ticket with those on the big board, we figured this out. Packing up our bags again, we headed off to the platform. But wait, you need to unload all of your luggage again for another round of security screening before entering the platform. We packed up again, hiked down the platform to find our carriage - second to last - and joined the queue. Our passports checked and scanned and we were finally aboard.
We were in a booth of 4 and had the 2 window seats. A comfortable, fast, modern train. The 4 hour journey passed uneventfully. Steph tapping on the iPad, reading & napping. The train was full and mostly Russian speaking, except for a large English-speaking Indian family group in the rows in front of us. They were busy chatting about their time in St Petersburg and their plans for Moscow.
We arrived into one of the 9 main train stations of Moscow, it was grey, dreary and drizzling. For the last time that day, we packed up our bags, and headed off to the meeting point where our host was going to pick us up.
