We docked in Moscow at 1.00pm on yet another beautiful sunny day. Sadly for us our cruise along the Russian lakes and rivers had come to an end. This had been a wonderful experience from start to finish and we were sorry not to be completing the Moscow part of the tour.

Initially it looked like we wouldn't get to see any of Moscow as we needed to be at the train station by 4 .00pm to catch our train back to St. Petersburg. However, after talking to the lovely Olga and pleading our case, she put the wheels in motion so we could at least stay on tour as far as Red Square before making our way to the station.

Our group gathered on shore to meet our local guide so with luggage in tow we joined them. Once our luggage was stowed on the bus we were off to take in the sites of Moscow. We couldn’t quite believe we were here so were quickly taking photos out of the bus window knowing that our visit would soon come to an end.

We alighted from the bus just across the street from the famous Bolshoi theatre – what a bonus to be able to see and photograph this amazing iconic building. Our group meeting point was opposite the theatre at the Metropole hotel so Trev, Sal and I were given strict instructions to return there by 3.30pm to collect our luggage from the bus and wait for the taxi that would take us to the station .

With our guide leading the way we walked the short distance to the entrance of Red Square. On the way it was good to see the number of Cafes and shops with people out and about enjoying the atmosphere. There were also Disney characters from Shrek to Monsters Inc. interacting with the children and characters dressed as Stalin and Lennon performing for the crowd. It wasn’t quite what we had expected.

On entering Red Square we saw all the things we had come to see including the Kremlin and the wall dividing it from Red Square and at the far end St. Basils Cathedral. It was an amazing feeling standing in this ancient square that had played such an integral part in Russia’s history. Our guide explained Red square was originally meant to serve as Moscow’s main market place but became the place for ceremonies, proclamations and coronations by Tsars and eventually the centre for all major government ceremonial events.

Our mission to see Red Square was not complete until Sal and I had raced to its far end to stand in front of and photograph the beautiful St . Basil’s Cathedral which is the iconic landmark adorning all things Russian. Mission accomplished we were now happy to leave and head for the railway station.

On our way back as we had a few minutes to spare we decided to have a quick look at the department store that fronts Red Square having been told by our guide that it was very exclusive and only rich tourists could afford to shop there. To our surprise we entered the most amazing store we had ever seen and as our guide had described all the elite retailers had store space there. You couldn’t help but wonder what the old Soviet leaders would think of such capitalism on Red Square.   

The wonderful Olga was brilliant to the end and escorted us to make sure we collected our luggage and met with the taxi driver who she ensured would take us to the correct station to catch our train. There was a last minute hiccup when Trev realised we had dispensed with all our Roubles and the taxi driver would only take Roubles however after signing his life away at the bank Trev had sufficient Roubles to pay the taxi driver.  

We arrived at the station on time and despite not understanding the language managed to locate the correct platform then waited with the milling crowd to board the train. On a scale of 1 to 10 this train was probably a 4 – this train was definitely not in the same league as the Allegro we had arrived into St . Petersburg on just one week ago.

Standing on the platform looking through the train window we could see our boxed evening meal had been placed neatly on our seats ready for us when we boarded the train. The only problem with this was the sun was streaming through the train windows onto the food so, for someone who is a fanatic when it comes to food temperatures it looked like the best and only option was to go hungry rather than risk food poisoning.  

Finally we were allowed to board the train so after stowing the suitcases and getting settled we decided to see what our box of food contained. There was a baguette filled with questionable processed meat and lettuce that had turned a lovely shade of brown in the sun. Fortunately the other items were dry biscuits, pate, jam, a muesli type bar and sweet biscuits together with a bag of water.   So we made the best of a bad lot and had jam on dry biscuits for dinner – Yum!! This was definitely not the Allegro and definitely not the evening dinner cruise we were supposed to be enjoying as part of our tour of Moscow by night!

We arrived into St . Petersburg and once again ran the gauntlet of the waiting taxi drivers. A "friendly" young man at the station helped us down the steps with our luggage and as he spoke a little English we told him we needed a taxi so he immediately relayed this to the guard on the station door who phoned his “mate” the taxi driver. We were quickly bundled into the mates taxi bound for the hotel for the price of 50 Euro. In hindsight we think our friendly young man was the lookout for the other two and we’d been well and truly conned!

If only the taxi driver from our previous visit operated his taxi from this train station we would have pre-booked him for our return visit. Sally was so concerned she was taking photos along the way so that if anything happened to us the pictures would tell the story – in hindsight it sounds really funny.

After a rather hair raising ride with our crazy taxi driver who kept turning around and winking at me we arrived safely at the Staybridge Apartments at the Holiday Inn Hotel . Once we negotiated our way through the hotel we arrived at our apartment and what a surprise, it was a beautiful 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment on the 16^th floor containing everything you could possible want.

We couldn’t believe we were experiencing such luxury after just getting off our very average train to now be in such a lovely apartment, particularly in Russia. Trev chose to go to bed while Sal and I, despite the late hour opted to order bowls of lovely hot soup from room service to erase the memory of the jam biscuits we had eaten on the train. This was a satisfying finish to a very interesting day.

We requested a late (2.00pm) checkout from our apartment so we could at least explore a little of St. Petersburg that was close by. Sal and I with cameras in hand walked several blocks to where we had seen another golden domed church that was just waiting to be photographed. While walking the streets of St. Petersburg we felt safe just as we would in most other countries.