At 16.05 we boarded the Polonez sleeper train at Warsaw Central Station. We had a compartment between us with a wash basin (under the table) but it was very comfortable for two.
Initially it was all a little fraught and the train engineer (who we named the ‘fat controller’) was getting very upset with us all standing in the corridor. He was Russian (and scary), but spoke no English, so he grabbed the conductor who spoke a little French to talk to me. He then frog-marched me down to the end of the carriage and put the train intercom in my hand wanting me to announce his instructions in English! I politely declined and he eventually mellowed.
We started out quite slowly as also attached were a number of standard carriages and the train stopped frequently. However, at Brest (the Polish border) all these carriages were deserted and we were were boarded by border police. They were really nice and friendly and checked our passports and left. The train headed off again, leaving us thinking how easy entry in Belorus and Russia had been. When the train stopped again 5 minutes later, we realised that they had been the Polish border police. No wonder they were friendly, they were getting rid of us! The next half hour saw lots of people in scary green uniforms and big hats going up and down the corridor and taking all our passports away. We then even had a sniffer dog which took a distinct fancy to the liver pate in our packed supper. Unfortunately his handler took a distinct dislike to my Robert Harris book – Munich. He stared at it for a while and then three of them returned and the man in charge (at least I assume he was in charge as he had the biggest hat) demanded to see my ‘literature’. After studying it for a minute or two, I was allowed to keep my book.
Once they all left the train we started off in one direction and then stopped and headed back in the previous direction. We realised that we had been shunted into a shed and over the next hour the bogeys on the carriages were all changed. We watched as the carriages (with us in them) were jacked up in the air, the old wheels were wheeled out and new ones brought in and then we were gradually lowered back onto the new wider ‘Russian guage’ wheels. A fascinating exercise and completely exhausting. So much so, that after a couple of Vodkas (kindly provided by another passenger and the tour guides) we headed for bed.
We arrived in Moscow around lunchtime and were picked up by new guides who will accompany us the whole way across to Mongolia. After lunch in a Russian restaurant, we were taken to the Hotel. We then went on a bracing walk (it is minus 8 degrees here during the day!) down to Red Square. Seeing St. Basils cathedral and the Kremlin certainly made us realise we were in Moscow.
