Travelling from Helsinki to Moscow aboard the Tolstoy Train

We left our accommodation at the Borgarnes last night and arrived at the Helsinki airport at around 12.30 AM, as there is a 3 hour time difference between Iceland and Finland. After breakfast at our hotel we took the shuttle bus from our hotel to the airport to catch the train to the city. There we had to first look for a locksmith to cut Pam’s luggage lock, as she had left the keys in our hostel in Borgarnes, Iceland. After this was done a new lock purchased, we stored our luggage in the station’s lockers. We had part of the day to explore Helsinki, prior to leaving on the Tolstoy train heading for Moscow. Our first stop was the botanical gardens. This was a great place and really worth visiting. The buildings there are very ornate. The gardens host a world renowned research centre, which conduct significant, specially into lichen. We went to the main Lutheran church in Helsinki. This is certainly a massive building. But it is very simply decorated inside. Later we wondered around the market which is held around the harbour area. There was a fairly large cruise ship in docks area. Therefore, we found ourselves amongst many tourist wondering around. Today was a special day for Pam and I, as we are celebrating our 37th wedding anniversary. Pam had found a nice café in Helsinki. This is one of the best known café in this city. It is well known for its cakes and chocolates. For those living in Melbourne, this place would be our Brunetti. We had a nice lunch here, prior to visiting the largest department store in Finland- Stockmann. We got back to the train station with plenty of time to spare, prior to boarding the Tolstoy train heading to Moscow, where we will arrive tomorrow, some time after 9 am. To our surprise our cabin had items for dinner included in the cost of the ticket. Another interesting fact was that the staff do not speak English at all, so we had to rely on hand signals. Although there is a sign inside the cabin pointing to WIFI being available, getting access, was rather difficult as all the instructions were only in Russian. As we had had a long day, we decided to go to bed early tonight, to our surprise just around 9.40 pm we heard a loud knock on the door to be told that immigration staff are on board. We needed to leave our door open and we were told we could not leave the cabin at all. We first had an official coming in, about 15 minutes later. This was not the Russian official but the Finnish. After another our had passed another official comers in and asks us questions about our luggage. This person was from the customs area in Russia. Another 45 minutes pass before 2 more officials a woman and a man from immigration ask for our passports and visas. I was also requested to provide another documentation with photo ID as well as my passport. After more than 2 hours the immigration and customs officers left the train and we were then truly ready for bed. See some more photos from today’s journey here: https://adobe.ly/2NAdMeO A great day in Finland.