61. Holiday in Russia-29.08.05.09.19

I finally plucked up the courage to visit a station in St. Petersburg on the third day of our holiday. A lack of operational knowledge thwarted my initial attempts so my initial visit was unsuccessful!

This was a day that I had been looking forward to, a chance to tryout Russian Railway's Sapsan high speed train on a journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. This train uses classic lines that have been re-alligned, re- signalled and re-laid meaning that they can travel at up to 250 KMH. Russian Railways (RZD) are justifiably proud of Sapsan, it certainly knocks spots off our 'high speed' lines being excellent value and is proving incredibly popular with passengers judging by the full train and that bookings needed well in advance; we struggled to book our three seats four months prior to travel!

I managed a brief visit to two of Moscow's station on our final day. I spent a while at Kiyevsky station and the took the metro to Belorussky station. This was so I could check out the airport express service that we were going to use the next day in order to get to Sheremetevo airport.

For our journey home we flew by Aeroflot from Moscow Sheremetevo airport back to Heathrow. In order to get to the airport, we took the excellent Aeroexpress service from Belorussky station. Approaching Heathrow necessitated a flight in over Essex and then Central London affording some superb views from the 'plane as the weather was clear.