We’ve spent weeks kayaking in the Siberian no man’s land, shaggy and covered in lice from the wilderness – and then we arrive right in the heart of one of the biggest metropolises in the world.

I negotiate with a few cheeky taxi drivers at the airport until I get a rate that I like, and then I have Uli and I driven straight from the airport to Red Square.

It is incredibly warm here too; 2018 will be a record summer not only in Europe.

I am impressed by how huge this city is – almost 12 million people live here – and how beautiful the city center is. Apart from the images of the Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral, I had more images in my head of run-down streets and prefabricated buildings. These certainly still dominate the cityscape. From the plane you could see the enormous size of the city and the galactically large prefabricated buildings.

But the city center is bursting with splendor.

It seems to be a special day and a festival is taking place on Red Square. An arena has been set up on the large area, where riders on their horses perform special dressage in front of the spectators to the best sounds of the Finnish metal band Nightwish.

The square is full of stalls selling things and we squeeze through the crowd of curious tourists with our Siberian expedition luggage.

I am impressed by the beautiful buildings. The heat fits as little with the image of Moscow as it does with Siberia. It should be snowing, grey and dark. The opposite is the case.

Unfortunately, we only have a short time. The connecting flight to Germany is waiting for us. The adventure is now finally over and it’s time to plan a new one.