Moscow and St Petersburg: Monday, October 1, 2018:

I set up the Facebook page for the travellers group. The supermarket opened at 10am so I bought dried fruit and nuts for the train journey to St Petersburg.

I got a luggage label and the train ticket and we caught a bus to the station where there was a porter service for the larger luggage items.

They look like bullet trains and we had to show our passports to board but we all had allocated seats.

The journey was smooth and efficient and our luggage arrived safe and sound. We met our guide Anya, who the group reckoned she looked like Amy Whinehouse, and our driver was Sergei.

There was a hold up on the way to the hotel as an abandoned car was blocking the road. The driver called for the “so-called evacuator” to remove it. It was too close to a zebra crossing and too far out into the road. After a short time a bloke came running across the bridge and moved his car.

There is an Irish pub near the hotel called Old Friends and we had a meal at the restaurant recommended by our guide. It consisted of a very good Azerbaijani mutton kebab.

Tomorrow we need to meet at 9am and get our picnic and breakfast will be between 7am and 10-30am.

Reassuringly there is a security device in the lifts, where you need to use magnetic key, which is to avoid strangers getting to the upper floors/rooms.