Day 54

I have read many blogs, travel guides and articles portraying the Russian police as pretty much a bunch of corrupt bully boys. Well I say balderdash to that! I made it to Penza today. A medium sized city, so so in appearance, confusing to navigate and with killer hills (not heels) on its outskirts. After much huffing and puffing I found the train station, a thought that this would be a good area to find a hotel. I wondered around the station to see if there was a notice board or map of the city, when two police officers stopped me. After a quick glance at my passport they asked what I was doing.I told them looking for a hotel a which point they said wait! I was a little puzzled but obliged. After much scurrying officers would occasionally pass by and say wait, and buy me some Kvass, a rather nice fermented rye drink, widely available throughout the former Soviet Union (and no, it won't get you drunk as the alcohol content is less than 1%!)

So I carried on waiting, but after a while I got a little bored and thought about leaving. But I was unsure whether to leave as I felt I should do what the Russian police had asked me to do, and wait. I did not know why they had asked me to wait, I thought some bureaucratic thing was afoot. So I kicked my heels for a little while longer until an officer who spoke a little English came up and asked me to go with him. At this point he led me straight to the train station hotel, explained in Russian to the staff that I wanted to stay and showed me to my room! Very grateful at their help (and a little relieved that the waiting was over!) I settled into my room.

My evening was spent walking around town and eating shashlik. Penza has a very long, smart pedestrianised shopping street running through the middle of the city. A good place for a night time stroll and a bit of people watching before bed.

Day 53.

Not so tired today! I pass through a very curious little town. It feels like a cross between Russia, Switzerland and Nepal! I stop for lunch and take some snaps. I head off and later stopped by a curious police officer who wants to know my story. I reach Nizh Lomov, a dusty one street town whose guest house has the world's most lethal, slippery shower that almost kills me. As I lie on the floor staring up at where I was about one nanosecond ago I feel glad that I did not fall in the other direction where the sink is!

Day 52

Tired, tired, tired. Today I feel exhausted. Hills, traffic, dust and heat take their toll. At 5pm I give up and stop for the night. There is still good 3 hours of day light left but I am not interested. I snooze and then head to the cafe. I order a 4 course meal and stuff myself silly while I watch the dinner ladies chat and laugh about life.

Day 51.

A quiet day, caught in a bit of a down pour at one point. I stop at a road side cafe and swap coins with some local lads who like to collect currency. I get a rather cool Yuri Gagarin 1 Rouble coin! Later I am stuck in a traffic jam near a level crossing. I get to the front and the warning lights are on, train approaching! However most of the traffic ignores this and lazily moves on, over the crossing. One lorry gets half way across and then stops, stuck in traffic. This can't be good I think. And then I catch a glimpse of the train. It is moving at an even more lazy pace than the vehicles that surround me. I begin to understand. Everyone spots the train. Space opens up before the lorry, it moves forward and no one follows. The train passes by like a car passing through a herd of cattle on an English country road.

Day 50

 Moscow has 3 concentric orbital routes, I am now out of the third ring. Things are becoming rural again. I amazed at how quickly the affluence of central Moscow is replaced by villages that still have communal stand pipes for water. One does not have to travel far to see the difference in Russian lifestyles. I had always thought sites like this would be common east of the Urals, but not within 100 miles of Red Square. The commuter towns however are still smart, Kolomna for lunch and Ryazan for the evening.

Day 49

Do svidaniya Mockba, but not as quick as I would have like. I think that following The Moscow River out of the city might be a nice way to leave. Instead I end up lost in an industrial zone and trying to navigate through the outskirts without map, compass or much else. I find an escape route after much swearing to myself, but find this road leads to a big road which led to a motorway! I ask a taxi driver, and passers by which way I should go, all point down the motorway. It seems that it is perfectly legitimate to ride a bicycle on the motorway in Russia. However every bone in my body and years of conditioned learning are screaming at me NO!! I CAN'T RIDE HERE, THIS IS A MOTORWAY! After a while I calm down. I soon realise that riding on a motorway is safer and more pleasurable than normal routes! I have plenty of space in the hard shoulder. The road is wide, smooth and straight. I am relaxed and spot other cyclists going the other way. This is actually great fun and becomes one of the nicer afternoons of cycling in Russia. I begin to wish that this road would take me all the way to Kazakhstan!

Fortunately my motorway did not do this...!

Day 48

I like TV towers. I like going up them and seeing the views over the city I am in. Earlier in this journey I went up the Villnius TV tower. Now I planned to go to the Shukov Tower. However due to bad navigation I end up at the wrong tower, The Ostankino Tower instead! Ultimately fortunate as tourists can not enter the Shukov Tower.

Once the worlds tallest freestanding structure, and still Europe's, Ostankino has a viewing deck at 337 meters that gives superb views of Moscow. Peering through the binoculars at a teeny tiny Red Square, Kremlin and Arbat time flies. I consider going to The Space Park, but as it is late it is mostly closed. I return to the hostel and get ready to leave Moscow. I rather like Moscow and shall miss it!