The border crossing into Russia took me 2 hours, quite a normal time. To my surprise it was not the Russian side that was difficult, but the Latvian officers were more than meticulous. One of our colleagues had no driving license, and should have been retained in Latvia, but a 100$ bill arranged everything. This was on the Latvian side.

There were Russian bikers waiting for us (They drove 700km from Moscow!) and we drove to Veliki Luki for our first night in Russia. Again we offered money to the local orphanage, drove around with the kids and deposited flowers at the monument to the victims of WW2.

The next day took us to Istra, just 80 km from Moscow. It was a really hard day, with continuous rain and thunderstorms. Driving 700 km in a group under these conditions is very tiring, as one has to be very concentrated al l the time, with bad weather, heavy traffic and not always the best roads.

Yesterday finally we arrived at the Red Square, where lots of Russian bikers, and official representatives, including the Luxembourg ambassador awaited us. We were offered bread and salt, and got a cheerleader performance. School kids, together with a Russian biker performed an unusual rap about road safety.