We know from the diary that Erik sent a first letter to Henny from Moscow, but this letter has not been preserved. In the following, we therefore describe the first days of the journey on the basis of the diary entries alone.

15 September

Journey went well. Tupolev was cold and draughty, poor service, not to be repeated. In Moscow: Hotel Minsk, very modern and sterile. We were given an Intourist voucher book for meals. NB. it proved to be fake! We ate a modest meal in the restaurant (borscht + shashlik plus a bottle of wine that turned out to be some kind of port) for 8.25 roubles (more than 32 guilders), equivalent to around half our entire voucher book! Keep a watch out for further foreign currency-milking. Tek used earplugs against my snoring, but proved to snore like a hurricane himself. Wrote a letter to Puck; went to bed quite early.

16 September

Had breakfast in the hotel using the vouchers (we cannot figure out the system). Saw the Kreml: interesting icons, barbarous spectacle of colour and ornament. Visited Gum: abundance of wares, but of a poor quality and quite expensive. Lunched on sandwiches, standing in Gum. Bought a bottle of vodka (R. 3.45). We were picked up in the afternoon by Tichvinsky and Yuri K., a boring and virtuously-diligent ethnologist who showed us around the Oriental Institute (old junk, dilapidated building, ca. 100.000 volumes, founded six years ago) and had dinner with us. Finally, visited the metro: a pompous muddle of marble and porphyry, dreadful.

17 September

Had breakfast and packed our suitcases. At half-past eight, asked Intourist for a taxi to the station. Panic: no tickets or reservation had been arranged; our vouchers could only be used to pay for tickets, not as tickets. After extensive telephoning, took taxi to the station; everything sorted out at the last minute. We have been in the train since 10.11, en route to Siberia. Monotonous landscape, but the forests have wonderful autumn colours. We have a small two-person compartment with one easy chair and two beds, quite stuffy. The Chinese attendants are very friendly and helpful.