Hi everyone

Well, here we are in Russia! Everything is still a bit surreal, but we're getting in to the spirit of things!

Our journey began on Saturday when we left Newcastle for London and made our first 'travel buddy', a lovely lady in her 60s who sat opposite us in the first class carriage on the train and was on her way to see the birth of her first grandchild. All very nice, but not really world-travel-chic so far!

We spent Saturday and Sunday in London, going bowling, having Sunday lunch and doing as quick "hello and goodbye" to our friends in the smoke (hi Lou, Kate, Oggy and Steve - thanks for the send off!). We left for Gatwick early Monday morning, when thanks to some emergency engineering works we were seriously delayed and only made it to the baggage drop with minutes to spare after sprinting through Gatwick screaming "EXCUSE ME!!" At anyone who dared stumble across our paths!

On arrival in Moscow, we were met at the airport by our driver, Alexei (a good, sturdy Russian name, we thought!) Who took us to our hotel. Along the way, someone (coughbriancough) decided it would be a good idea to broach the subject of political assassination with Alexei... Who turned out to be quite as staunch supporter of Mr Putin and thrilled us with a good 20 minute lecture on his supreme contributions to mother Russia

Today has been the first day that we've really felt like we were travelling. We've been on a 3 hour walking tour of Moscow this morning. Our guide Leena (serious liberties may have been taken with the spelling of her name!), was great and showed us the highlights of the city. Proving once again that Geordies really are the hardest of them all, Leena was kitted out in a full length padded coat, hat, scarf and gloves to show us around, while we were melting in just a fleece and a t-shirt each in the 10° weather! Apparently we've been very lucky with the weather as it's usually still snow everywhere at this time of year.

The architecture is stunning and we've managed to fit in the Bolshoi theatre, Red Square, the Kremlin (armed police outside), the conservatory, the state armoury and many other amazing buildings. Leena had an amazing knowledge of Soviet history and we have learned loads about Leninism etc. We wanted to visit Lenin's mausoleum, where his embalmed body has been on display for 90 years (morbid? Yes. Essential viewing? Definitely!). Unfortunately it's closed til April.

To round it off we went to a traditional Soviet cafe for dinner, where food mostly consisted of meat, potatoes and cabbage as you'd expect!

Tomorrow is mostly going to be more sight seeing in Moscow before we board our train to Mongolia around midnight. We'll update you as soon as we can!

Things we have learned so far:

• Moscow is beautiful but extremely dusty
• It's not true what they tell you; not all Russian people are miserable... Only some of them are

Love to you all! Xxx