Next: Moscow >

It was in November 2005. German Wings opened the summer schedule for booking, with a big surprise among new routes: Moscow.

I have always wanted to visit Russia, but I imagined a long trip, riding the Trans-Siberian Railway and visiting cities like St Petersburg, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Rostov, Volgograd, Irkutsk, Samara, Omsk, Birobidzhan, Vladivostok…cities I’ve heard a lot about but kown few people that has visited them. Indeed, it’s not that easy to visit Russia: visa is not the real problem, but you have to plan your itinerary well ahead, which is not always easy, and accommodation can be expensive.

Well, I still dream to make that trip one day, but when I found tickets from Cologne to Moscow for the minimum German Wings advertised price, I didn’t hesitate to buy them…You can’t say no to that! Moreover, there were seats available for the first week of May 2006, when Stéphanie and I would be celebrating 2 years together. Until then the cheapest deal to Russia was with Air Berlin, which also has good prices from Europe to St Petersburg and Moscow, but this German Wings offer was exceptional! 19€ a one way to Moscow is something you can't refuse!

We made our Russian visas in April and finally the time came to spend a long week end in Moscow.

As we were flying German Wings, we had an overnight stop in Köln, Germany. We found a discounted hotel, went to a bar not far from the Cathedral, and the morning after we were flying again.

Moscow is served by five airports, Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo are the most important, but we arrived to Vnukovo, served by German Wings and Russian Low cost carrier Sky Express. The best part was to see all those airliners so little known in most parts of the world: Antonov, Tupolev, Ilyushin…and airlines like Vladivostok Avia, Atlant-Soyuz, Utair…

Passport check was efficient and fast. I expected a long line and lots of questions, as Russian customs and border agents are known for, but this didn’t happen. Vnukovo airport is very close to Moscow, we just had to take a short mini-bus ride to a subway station. Of course our first stop was the Red Square, but I’ll tell you about it later…

9th May is known as “Victory Date” in Russia. It's a holiday to commemorate the end of World War II. We couldn't see the big organized parade, as we left the city on May 8.

Next: Moscow >