Day 23 - Tour Day 12 – Relaxed Start - Thu 25 July 2019 – High Speed Train to Moscow.

Sunrise:         4:22am                                              Sunset:          8:49pm

Forecast:       16 to 24 and partly cloudy in St Petersburg.  17 to 22 & light rain in Moscow

A very relaxing day for me today. I went down to breakfast at 8am and left the breakfast room  around 9am. I went back to my room and got everything ready for my 12 noon checkout and then went downstairs to read my book (first real chance since arriving in Europe) and people watch for an hour or so. Back to my room around 11:45am to get my bags and then checked out.

I then left the bags in the luggage room and went for a walk over to the mall with Bianca, as I needed to get off my butt, as it is a travel day. 

Come 2pm we were all on the bus, which drove us about 500 metres to drop us off on the other side of the road. We collected our hand luggage from under the bus and then walked the few metres to the station. 

I should explain that the road that the hotel is on, has 3 lanes of traffic going in both directions and if you are crossing the road on foot, you need to use the pedestrian crossings, which are timed crossing’s, as are all the intersection lights in St. Petersburg. Plus, the crossing’s are about 2 blocks apart.

We had to pass through 2 security checks before getting on to the platform. We are all in coach/car #9. Once we were all seated it was just a matter of waiting about 10 minutes before the train departed exactly at 3pm. AND I am really cross with myself, as I never took a photo of the train. :(

Sapsan is a modern high-speed train of German quality constructed by Siemens in 2009. Its speed goes up to 250km/h.  Sapsan trains take less than 4 hours on the Moscow - St. Petersburg journey. Over 10 Sapsan trains are regularly communiting between the two cities, from early in the morning to late in the evening. Usually there are 10 cars per train, offering different classes of service from economy to business. Recently, there has been a new 20-car Sapsan train where every type of car is doubled in quantity.

The above is from their website.  Our train only had 9 cars.

The train made 2 stops on the way to Moscow and was only stopped at both stations for 1 minute, then on its way again. 

A view from the fast moving train

A view from the fast moving train

It rained for a short while, when we were at the first stop but the outside temperature was still in the low 20’s. 

The highest speed that the train was doing, that  I noticed on the screen, was 229km/h.

The train arrived in Moscow on time at 6:45 and we were all on the Insight bus by 7pm and departing the station area.  There are 9 train stations ("vok`zal" in Russian) in Moscow and all of them are located in Moscow center. The three train stations: "Kazanski", "Yaroslavki" and "Leningradski" are located at the same area next to "Komsomolskaya" metro station (north-east center). Yaroslavsky train station is where the Trans-Siberian trains depart from, while Leningradsky station serves St. Petersburg trains. 

Kazanski Station

It only took 30 minutes to get to the hotel, which is the best hotel so far. 

 I’ll try to remember to take some photo’s tomorrow of the ‘common’ areas in the hotel. It is one of the The Seven Sisters.  Stalin's high-rises are a group of seven skyscrapers in Moscow designed in the Stalinist style.  They were built from 1947 to 1953 in an elaborate combination of Russioan Baroque and Gothic Styles.  The towers are inspired by the Giralda, the medieval tower of the cathedral of Sevilla.   At the time of construction they were the tallest buildings in Europe, and the main building of Moscow State University remained the tallest building in Europe until 1997.

Our bags were already in our rooms when we got there.  I quickly took photos of the room and the view.

Checked out the amenities and then went down to the bar to have my nighcap with Nicole.  Diane came along shortly after and joined us.  She ordered french fries for her dinner.  I had bought some almonds and dried apricots from the supermarket yesterday, and had been snacking on them on the train, so didn’t feel like eating anything.  Though, I did enjoy the olives and crackers that came with the “black russian” cocktail I had. After that, it was back to my room to unpack clothes for the next couple of days, including what to wear on the plane home on Sunday.

The security in this hotel is tight.  You go through the outer entrance door and then pass through a security detector similar to air port security. Like a lot og hotel now days, you need to enter your room key in the elevator before entering your floor and then on the 8^thfloor (I don’t know about the other floors) you need to insert your room key in a door, that allows you to get to the hallways that the rooms are on. That is a first for me.

Steps Walked                     5,277

Hotel: Radisson Collection Hotel Moscow.

Meals: Breakfast