We said goodbye to Leonid and boarded the train in Moscow bound for St Petersburg. It was a fast train and we travelled at up to 220 km/h during the journey. When we arrived in St Petersburg we were met at the station by our local guide, Natalia. She took us to our hotel, the Astoria, which is right in the heart of St Petersburg directly in front of the magnificent, gold-domed St Isaacs Cathedral, which is the main cathedral of the city. The Astoria itself is a ...

We arrived in Moscow in the late afternoon and were met by our transfer guy who greeted us by saying "Saleem". I stupidly thought that this must be the way to say "hello" in Russian and so a few minutes later I asked him "So 'Saleem' is how you say 'hello' in Russian?" Turns out his name was Saleem. We drove to our hotel and checked in to the beautiful Hyatt Park right in the heart of Moscow. At 6:00 our guide met us at the hotel and took us for a fantastic Ar...