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We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning heralded by birdsong. Samarkand is one of the most ancient cities of the world and a rare one as it has been fought over by three of histories greatest generals; Alexander the Great, Ghenkis Khan and Timur. The ancient part of Samarkand is situated on a hilly area

We are in a small hotel called The Malika Prime which is located in parkland overlooking the Gur-Emir-Amir Mausoleum which is the burial place of Timur, his two sons and two grandsons. It has a fluted azure dome. Close by is the statue of Amir Timur. He played a major role in forming Samarkand as

We had a last look at the old city of Khiva and managed to get to some sights that we had missed on yesterday’s visit. In particular we saw a timber and mud brick minaret by the west gate which gave us great views across the old city and along the western section of the

Today we are based in Khiva at a hotel across the road from the west gate of a most amazing mud brick-walled city. It has colourful domes and minarets which today were piercing the brilliant blue sky. Legend has it that Khiva was founded when Shem, the son of Noah, discovered a well here and

The formalities of border crossing made us forget that it is really Thursday though again sleep meant that we missed the end of the Steppe and the beginning of the desert. We could have slept longer but around 10:00 we were woken by what seemed like an army of itinerant traders selling food, drink, clothes,

We left Volgograd at 19:59 yesterday by train and have so far travelled down the Volga River valley towards its delta and the Caspian Sea. North of Astrakhan at Aksaraiskaya at 02:25 this morning we arrived at the Russian border. Here immigration and customs formalities take place on the train and for more than 2

Having travelled overnight we arrived in Volgograd bang on time at 08:19. The railway station from our hotel room. The city was shrouded in freezing fog which cleared to reveal a very grand city. It was founded in 1589 but made history when known as Stalingrad. In 1942 the city became the scene of an

Today we commenced the long train journey from Moscow to Hong Kong. This first leg had us depart from Moscow Paveletsky Station on an 18 hour overnight journey to Volgograd, 1071km to the south. We are in a first class compartment with a la carte meals served to your own table. Between us we ate

The street plan of central Moscow is a pattern of concentric circles which mark the city’s development outwards over many centuries. In the middle is the Kremlin, the fortified hill which is the country’s political headquarters. It is the former citadel of the tsars and now the residence of the Russian president. It has been

This morning we explored Moscow by open top bus and were able to identify features that one misses the very first time such a journey is taken. We boarded this outside our hotel. It was interesting that the ice rink sponsored by the GUM Department Store was still in Red Square supported by something like