The sapsan train took four hours to do 700km to Moscow. Billed as high speed, it’s certainly faster than all the other trains we’ve been on here but not quite a bullet train!
It then took 75 minutes to travel less than 6km on the bus to our hotel – maybe not the best transport choice in the rush-hour but it meant the least walking pulling cases. We spent most of this time at a standstill, giving us plenty of time to look about. We could admire the roadworks and new paving, no doubt in time for the footie fans next year.
But the last thing we expected to see, having travelled all round Kazakhstan, was a Sainsbury’s bag!
We finally got to Hotel Arbat and the receptionist was adamant he needed our visa registration form, but I said we didn’t need one and didn’t have one … so he rang the last hotel and said they would send it … and he seemed happy to check us in so that was all that mattered.
We checked out a couple of restaurants and ended up choosing this one for dinner, with a huge bread oven for cooking katchapuri, Georgia’s version of pizza, Chris was delighted and the khatchapuri went very well with a bottle of Georgian wine.
So tomorrow we get to explore!
Off Travelling Together 