DAY 155 MONDAY AUGUST 27 MOSCOW

Had an easy morning and packed up ready for transfer to the St Petersburg Station at 12 noon. While waiting in the lobby a large painting on the wall showed us that St Petersburg also has a mermaid even though the river (Neva) is fresh water.

 At 12.15 we had no van so Pam swung into action again giving the rounds of the table to Real Russia. Our promised van would not be coming they told us, so please call a taxi.  Eventually a small taxi (no meter, no taxi signs) arrived at 12.50 and we piled in.  Our train was due to leave at 1.30.  The driver said "10 minutes".  At 1.15 we were stop/start in thick traffic and he said "five minutes".  When the Station came in view the square in front of it was completely full of vehicles inching along.  The driver did a good job of forcing his way through and we climbed out at 1.25, thinking "lost cause".  We all ran the 100 metres through the station to the platform entrance where people were putting bags through the Xray conveyor.  Pam sprinted straight through past the security and found a train guard ready to close the doors.  She held them up while we all arrived and the train departed 30 seconds after we got on.  Bevan would have been proud of us.  We found our four seats arranged around a table and had a very good trip of four and a half hours at 200 km/hr.  They served us the best meal we have yet had on a train.  Three courses,  two rounds of drinks and tea/coffee.

Looking out of the window we saw mainly forest and the occasional village flashing past.

As we were getting close to Moscow we saw many high-rise apartment blocks, some, like this one, quite decent.

We got off the train and immediately found our driver with his sign.  We followed him for 10 minutes to the old Mercedes minibus and he delivered us carefully to our hotel at 7pm.  The staff here are unfriendly, particularly the security ones.  The Wifi is only available in the lobby.  It costs $25 for 3 hours if you want to have it in your room.  More about the hotel tomorrow.