Day 23

We were expecting today to be quite easy. The drive to Nizhny Novgorod was after all only 487km and there were no time controls along the way. However, it took us almost 3 hours to drive the first 163km. It probably felt even longer than it should have because we had changed into a new time zone, setting the clocks back by two hours.

The day’s highlight was definitely driving over a turquoise pontoon bridge which you could feel shake under the movement and weight of our car. One of the Italians felt so inspired that he took out a model of a Riva boat and started photographing it next to the bridge.On the way to the hotel, an official welcome had been set up where many locals had gathered. It was located on a hill and had an amazing view of the Volga. Although I saw it in 2013, it is easy to forget just how wide the river is.This evening the organization had booked us into another Soviet era hotel. The best thing about it was probably the car park, so we decided to head into town for dinner. It turned out that over half the participants had had the same idea. It was certainly a popular night for Italian restaurants in Nizhny Novgorod.