To Moscow

Left Yaiva for Moscow this morning which meant a 3 hour drive to the airport at Perm. It's -35 degC and it still only took us 3 hours for the 230km drive. Like I said before "God bless studded snow tyres".


Transport cafe for a fag & coffee break.


The road to Perm, doing 140kmh here and its warmed up to -28 because the sun has risen.
Get to the airport for 11:30 and check in eventually. Girl at desk then points us upstairs where the VIP lounge is - we are fortunate enough to have business class tickets- so up we go. The next lady at the VIP lounge then informs us that we do not have to check in with the other 'class' of passenger and in future we should check in at the VIP lounge where we will be looked after and escorted to the plane when boarding. We must ignore the tannoy messages about boarding etc as you are business class and will be escorted! Well, that's us put on our place and very nice it is too. It's certainly an extra level of service that we didn't experience with Lufthansa.


Also, travelling with Siberian Airways was a very pleasant experience on the 'plane as well - at least in first/ business class!!
Once at Domidedovo Airport, we have no problem hooking up with our driver as he's prepared and is standing at arrivals with a big Eon sign. We still ran the gauntlet of the 'unofficial' taxi drivers and there was some dodgy looking characters in that lot.


What can you say about our first impression of Moscow? From the drive in I would say they are in desperate need of an orbital motorway. They seem to have a type of inner ring road 10 lanes wide (5 each way) but that was solid both ways all the way to our hotel. Took us nearly 2.5 hours to do about 35 km - manic.
The hotel is very grand, especially the reception & lobby areas, but the equivalent of £8.75 for a pint of Stella makes you wonder where you are. I thought Norway had the gold medal for rip off bar prices. Then again it is a posh hotel, and a pleasure to have a fully functioning and hot shower plus someone else other than Al B cooking my tea for me.
We meet up with Arthur - our oppo in Surgut, and have a good chat over dinner a beer.
Tomorrow it's the monthly report to the Moscow big chiefs. We finish that around 4pm, then we're planning a trip to Red Square, followed by a visit to a vodka museum and then a meal Russian style, all courtesy of a Russian contact of Arthur.
Friday it's homeward bound back to Blighty for 28 days, then we do it all again.

Location:2-й Красносельский пер.,,Russia