We left Houston through Intercontinental Airport on Friday, May 27, 2006 at 9:30 p.m. for a 9 hour flight bound for Moscow, the first city on our tour of Russia. We had a 2 hour layover in Paris. Arriving in Paris at 2:50 p.m., Paris time, it was cool with drizzle coming from the sky. From Paris, we boarded a 3 hour and 15 minute flight to Moscow. Once in Moscow, we toured for two days and then boarded an overnight train to St. Petersburg travelling through Novgorod on our way.

Upon arrival in Moscow, we could not find our luggage on the luggage belt and were informed that it had been lost so we proceeded to meet our guide, Katra, who took us to Moscow Hotel, a very tourist hotel with gambling machines at the entrance and money exchangers on the second floor. Upon arrival at the hotel we met several other people that were going to be joining us on the tour. We were also directed to the money exchange office and warned that the exchange rate was not very good at the hotel and that we should only exchange what we had to, at the time, and to wait until the next day for exchanging large amounts of money. We soon learned that Moscow has very little darkness, at night with total "dark" being from about 11:00 p.m. to around 4:00 a.m. We sound found out that their definition of "dark" was relative and that the darkest it really got was equal to the sun being just beyond the horizon but with still plenty of light.

The next day, Saturday, at around 8:00 a.m., we went down to the buffet room to eat breakfast. At 9:15 a.m. we boarded a bus for a tour of the city. First, we were taken to Red Square which happened to be closed for a celebration that was taking place, at the time. Because of this, we were taken to a souvenier shop to exchange our money, for a better rate, and buy some T-Shirts, which we proceeded to do. After that, we went back to the Kremlin to see the Church Square, the Tsar Bell and the Tsar Cannon.

Next, we went to the "food court", an underground tunnel that had American fast food resturaunts and a few souvenier shops. We ate and then walked around seeing the Historical Museum on one end of the Red Square and then back to the Food Court as it was raining at this time. At 4:00 p.m., we to a Metro ride to the Moscow Hard Rock Cafe to get some shirts. From there, we went back to our hotel for the night.

On Sunday, the third day, we had breakfast and then boarded a bus back to Red Square. Red Square has four significant structures surrounding it, all being very famous. To the North is the Kremlin with Lenins' Tomb in a structure attached to the Southern Wall of the Kremlin. To the West is St. Basils. To the South is the GUM. The GUM was originally a palace but was later converted to a department store. On the East side of Red Square is the Historical Museum. Lastly, to finish out that day, we were taken to the Moscow Metro and another guide explained the history of each part and shown how to use the Metro and to be aware of pickpockets and the such. Pickpockets are very frequent and quite adept at their profession. While in Moscow, two people had their wallets stolen, on while using the Metro and one while dining at a resturaunt. Back to the hotel to finish the day.

Monday we were given a free day to explore at our leisure. We took the Metro back to Red Square to take some more pictures and go inside St. Basils' Cathedral. From the outside, St. Basils seems small and crowded but upon entry you are astounded find that it is much larger than it seemed and had many significant landmarks and pieces. We took pictures of many things and then took the Metro back to the hotel to rest for a while. Later on, we joined an optional night tour of the city. We saw the Peter the Great Statue, a view of a convent, Moscow University and a monument. All in all, this tour turned out to be a dissappointment after all of the expectations that the guides had given us were not met.

The 5th day in Moscow, Tuesday, May 30, we visited the Trinity Monastery of St. Sergiyev. This monastery is very similar to St. Basils' and has a similar 5 Bell Towers. After finishing the Trinity Monastery, we were taken to eat. The place and the food was terrible and we were happy to leave when finished. At around 9:30 p.m., we were taken to a train station to board a car to St. Petersburg. Each car had several cabins each of which had 4 beds. The cabins were small and designed to fit 2 couples. We shared a cabin with a very friendly couple from Michigan. Our train trip lasted 8 hours arriving St. Petersburg after passing through Novgorod.