robin ince tour

Edinburgh Fringe Preview July 7th The Bill Murray, London. Tickets

Edinburgh Fringe Preview July 10th The Bill Murray, London. Tickets

Edinburgh Fringe Double Preview July 11th Walthamstow Trade Hall. Tickets .

EDINBURGH FRINGE MELONS: A Love Letter to Stand Up Comedy August 2 – 27 (Not 15th) – 8:35pm Robin’s first solo show was a disaster, but a disaster that ended with him punching a melon with Vernon Kay’s face drawn on it before singing Mustang Sally (still no cruise ship bookings). Despite this, actually, because of this, Robin ended up playing to arenas with Professor Brian Cox. This is the story of how he fell in love with comedy thanks to The Goodies and Rik Mayall and how after 30 years he started to find his voice. Winner: Rose D’Or, Sony Gold and The Arthur C Clarke Award. The Stand (New Town Theatre). Tickets.

Weapons of Empathy August 2 – 27 – 1:00pm Award-winning comedian and bibliomaniac, Robin Ince, takes audiences on a celebratory tour of the places books can take us, and of the ideas that can make wonder and widen the sky. Robin was the Bookseller’s Association 2022 Author of the Year. The Times Literary Supplement described Bibliomaniac as ‘joyous, irreverent – liberating and life-affirming’ while Eric Idle said ‘one of the most delightful books I have ever read… always making me laugh’. Expect a chaos of words and ideas, love and delight. And also a very long reading list. Gilded Ballon at the Museum. Tickets.

Weapons of Empathy (Extended Edition) September 21st – 7:30pm Contact, Manchester. Tickets

Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People December 1st and 2nd – 7:00pm Contact, Manchester. Tickets

Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People December 15th, 16th and 17th – 7:00pm PLUS 11:30am matinee on the 16th Kings Place, London. Tickets

The Bibliomaniac Tour To celebrate to launch of Robin’s new book, Bibliomaniac, he will once again be visiting bookshops all across the UK. All dates and info here .

• Moscow concerts Moscow concerts Moscow concerts See all Moscow concerts ( Change location ) Today · Next 7 days · Next 30 days
• Most popular artists worldwide
• Trending artists worldwide

• Tourbox for artists

Search for events or artists

• Sign up Log in

• Get the app
• Moscow concerts
• Change location
• Popular Artists
• Live streams
• Popular artists

Robin Ince tour dates 2024

Robin Ince is currently touring across 1 country and has 1 upcoming concert.

The final concert of the tour will be at Unknown venue in Chesham.

Currently touring across

Upcoming concerts (1) See nearest concert

Chesham Fringe Festival

Past concerts

Contact Theatre

Moseley Folk & Arts Festival

The Laugharne Weekend

View all past concerts

• Most popular charts
• API information
• Brand guidelines
• Community guidelines
• Terms of use
• Privacy policy
• Cookies settings
• Cookies policy

Get your tour dates seen everywhere.

• But we really hope you love us.

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

‘People were baffled and scared’: Robin Ince on the vital failure of his Edinburgh festival debut

Nineteen years since his first fringe solo show, the comedian returns to riff on punching melons – but this time with a hard-won happiness

My career was transformed when I repeatedly punched a melon with the face of Vernon Kay amateurishly scrawled on it. A shamanic spell perhaps?

For the first 11 years of my standup life, I was moving further and further away from that teenage excitement I experienced when I sat in a basement room and saw The Joan Collins Fan Club (now Julian Clary ), Kit Hollerbach and Jeremy Hardy for the first time. I had increasingly become lazy in my thinking and accompanied by a perpetual hangover.

In 2004, I ended up punching a melon on a nightly basis as the messy crescendo of my first Edinburgh fringe solo show, The Award Winning Robin Ince, star of The Office, Series one, Episode 5 (First Bit). The show was merely meant to be a bit of silliness in which I arrogantly and self-deceivingly layer out my hackish career as a TV writer, standup and guest on satellite TV shows, as well as my short appearance in The Office.

I still receive repeat fees of up to £12.41 a year.

The show was not a success. Those who liked it really liked it, but many were left baffled and scared. It was a depressing experience, made worse by the flat I lived in for the rest of the year flooding with sewage, though the water company insisted it was rainwater. It was just that this rain had a lot of excrement and toilet paper in it. I am sure you’ve been caught in one of those showers. The depression meant I could only talk to people if I was on stage. Socialising was impossible, replaced instead by weeping in Greyfriars cemetery.

But it turned out to be a vital failure.

After the fringe, I killed off much of what I had been before and started an alternative variety night called The Book Club. This was where I started my working relationship and friendship with Josie Long .

My problem had been trying to make myself into what I thought a standup was meant to be rather than using standup to be me.

For the last 19 years, I have been shushing the unhelpful, aggressive critical voice with increasing effectiveness. I wasn’t made for the mainstream. I think of Urban Spaceman Neil Innes who thought that when you played in rooms with more than 200 people, the connections start to fray. As he said: “Before you try and become rich and famous, you should find out who you are, because you might find out you are someone who doesn’t want to be rich and famous.”

My inner critic was trying to turn me into what I wasn’t meant to be.

I remember one night at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol. It was my first tour date of a new show having only finished touring the previous show 48 hours before. It was chaos. I was not certain what had happened or how it had been received, but when I walked into the bar it was filled with elated people who wanted to talk. In all the cacophony, they had found honesty that directly connected to them. What my professional mind saw as a terrible failure to follow the rules, my amateur mind saw as potential.

One of my favourite reactions was when a parent after a gig said: “My daughter just told me, ‘Dad, that’s what my head sounds like.’”

Though another favourite was the 75-year-old retired bricklayer who said, “I didn’t understand a word of that, and I’ve had a lovely time.”

In the last two years, I have never been happier as a performer. I am always excited to get on stage, to find out what happens, to not feel that you must chain yourself to joke after joke, that you can go other places too, as long as you are not being boring. I still follow my three cough rule.

One cough from the audience, I think: “Well, people do sometimes have a tickly cough and the venue is a bit dusty.”

Another cough immediately after the first: “Just a coincidence these coughs are too close together?”

Third cough straight after: “Nope, this means people are noticing the irritation in their throat more than the irritant on stage – time to reinvigorate.”

I am excited to return to the Edinburgh fringe this summer. It has been 12 years since my last full run and, what’s more, in one of the shows I will be regularly punching a melon again.

It will be the first Edinburgh fringe where I will be comfortable in my skin on and offstage (most of the time at least). I have realised that I prefer talking about my enthusiasms than about my dislikes. After shows, people will often say, “you must be exhausted”, but it is quite the opposite. I am more excited to be alive.

When I was, like so many other comedians, diagnosed with ADHD, I thought my wife would be cross and just think I was showing off. I am not easy to live with. Instead, she smiled broadly and said she had always thought I was bipolar.

Now, I find more often than not, I am brimful of joy and riding a manic phase. When I recall all those fringe years where I was paranoid, anxious and so sure of my failure, I now know that those failures were just what I needed and if I fail again, I will fail better.

Robin Ince – Melons: A Love Letter to Standup Comedy is at the Stand’s New Town theatre, Edinburgh, 2-27 August. Robin Ince – Weapons of Empathy is at Gilded Balloon at the Museum, Edinburgh, 2-27 August.

• Edinburgh festival 2023
• Comedy (Stage)
• Comedy (Culture)

Most viewed

This versatile comedy veteran delivers a highly improvised set which can cover a vast range of subjects and material. As seen on Mock The Week, Never more...

• Apr 13 Sat Bath, Green Park Brasserie Robin Ince View Tickets
• May 03 Fri Darlington Hippodrome Robin Ince - Weapons Of Empathy View Tickets
• May 04 Sat Barnard Castle, The Witham Robin Ince View Tickets
• May 08 Wed London, Four Thieves Pub Laugh Train Home Robin Ince, Ada Campe, Abi Carter-Simpson, Ben Van Der Velde View Tickets
• May 23 Thu Hitchin, Queen Mother Theatre Robin Ince Bec Hill, David Ephgrave View Tickets
• May 25 Sat South London Theatre Centre Good Ship Comedy Robin Ince, Keith Farnan, Sharon Wanjohi, Ben Van Der Velde View Tickets
• May 27 Mon Margate, Tom Thumb Theatre Robin Ince View Tickets
• Thu Jul 25 Jul 28 Sun Southwold, Henham Park Latitude Festival 2024 Kasabian, London Grammar, Keane, Duran Duran, Khruangbin… View Tickets

September 2024

• Sep 20 Fri Totnes Civic Hall Robin Ince Claire Ferguson Walker View Tickets

Fans who like Robin Ince also like

Andy Zaltzman

Simon Munnery

Michael Legge

Richard Herring

Bridget Christie

Robin Ince: Bibliomaniac

Tuesday 17 th  October, 7 pm,  The Poly   Tickets: £8 and £5

Award-winning comedian and self-confessed bibliomaniac Robin Ince, takes us on a celebratory tour of the places books can transport us to.

Why play to 12,000 people when you can play to 12? In Autumn 2021, Robin Ince’s stadium tour with Professor Brian Cox was postponed due to the pandemic. But rather than do nothing, he decided instead to go on a tour of over a hundred bookshops in the UK.

Packed with witty anecdotes and tall tales, Bibliomaniac takes the reader on a journey across Britain as Robin explores his lifelong love of bookshops and books. It is the story of an addiction and a romance, and also of an occasional points failure just outside Oxenholme.

What they say: ​

'A unique, funny picture of Britain... A love letter to bookshops and the vagaries of public transport.' Richard Osman

'Ince's love of books is infectious.' 'Books of the Year'  Independent

'Wonderful... This is one of the most delightful books I have ever read.' Eric Idle 'I like books and if you're reading this you almost certainly like books too. But Robin Ince really, really, really likes books, and this tome takes us on a whirlwind adventure around Britain's bookshops and inside the head of a bibliomaniac who also happens to be a fine travel writer and generous raconteur.'   Ian Rankin Robin Ince is a book-lover's book-lover, a man who responded to publishing his last volume by visiting over 100 bookshops in 100 days. He is a reader without prejudice, a lover of every type of fiction and non-fiction, able to find something that interests him in everything: the sure sign of a man with a curious mind. You need Robin Ince in your life; you need his book on your shelves. -- Natalie Haynes

About Robin Ince:

Robin Ince is co-presenter of the award-winning BBC Radio 4 show and podcast, The Infinite Monkey Cage. He has toured his award-winning stand-up across the world, both solo and with his radio double-act partner, Professor Brian Cox. He is the author of I'm a Joke and So Are You and The Importance of Being Interested.

• Literature & Fiction
• History & Criticism

Buy new: $18.00

Other sellers on amazon.

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Bibliomaniac: An Obsessive's Tour of the Bookshops of Britain Hardcover – March 1, 2023

Purchase options and add-ons.

• Print length 288 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Atlantic Books
• Publication date March 1, 2023
• Dimensions 5.5 x 1.9 x 8.2 inches
• ISBN-10 1838957693
• ISBN-13 978-1838957698
• See all details

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Editorial Reviews

About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atlantic Books (March 1, 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1838957693
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1838957698
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.5 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.9 x 8.2 inches
• #1,714 in General Books & Reading
• #3,497 in Travel Writing Reference
• #14,428 in Actor & Entertainer Biographies

About the author

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top review from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Start Selling with Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

• They’ve Made Us
• Book Shambles
• Science Shambles
• Taking the Universe Around the World
• An Uncanny Hour
• Tips for Existence
• Brain Yapping – The Podcast
• Wife on Earth
• Rapid Motion Through Space – An Incomplete History of Speed
• Documentaries & Specials
• Bibliomaniac – The Series
• Science in Zero G
• Genetics Shambles
• The Quest for Wonder
• Catch Up – The Stay at Home Festival
• Nine Lessons and Carols for Socially Distanced People
• Robin Ince’s Blog
• Brain Yapping
• Postcards From the Energy Frontier
• Blog in a Teacup
• An Inquiring Mind
• White Coats at Dawn
• Dirty Science
• Lost in a Good Game
• Sifting the Evidence
• Notes in the Guestbook
• Robin Ince + Chris Hadfield’s Space Shambles

Select Page

Robin Ince’s 100 Bookshop Tour

Jul 26, 2021 | Events , Featured , Previous | 9

To celebrate the publication of Robin’s new book, ‘The Importance of Being Interested: Adventures in Scientific Curiosity’ the award winning comedian is setting out on a tour of talks and book-signings at 100 independent bookshops around the UK.

“Ince makes profound – and funny – reflections on our tiny lives in a massive universe” The Observer

“The Importance of Being Interested is sparkling. It made my brain throb at times, but also made it buzz”. The Independent

Read Robin’s blogs from the road here . Or watch videos recorded on tour here .

100 Bookshop Tour Dates (More being added all the time so check back regularly)

• October 1 – 3 – Laugharne Weekend Festival. Info and tickets .
• October 4 – Online Book Launch on The Cosmic Shambles Network with Tim Minchin. Free to watch here .
• October 5 – Online event with Facebook group Go Stargazing
• 4pm Chorleywood Bookshop (The bookshop of Robin’s childhood). Signing.
• 7pm Tring – Our Bookshop – Launch event with talk and signing
• St Helens – The Book Stops Here .  Afternoon signing and talk. 
• Manchester – Blackwells Bookshop (Venue TBC). Talk and signing.
• October 9 – Glasgow – Mount Florida Books . Evening talk followed by conversation with Josie Long.
• Stewarton – The Book Nook . 11am. Talk and signing.
• Carlisle – Borderlines Book festival . Afternoon In Conversation with Lee Randall. 
• Settle – Limestone Books . Lunchtime.
• Ilkley – Ilkley Literature festival . Evening. 
• Wotton-Under-Edge – Cotswold Book Room . Afternoon Talk. 
• Bristol – Bookhaus – Evening. 
• Sidmouth – Winstone Bookshop – 3:00pm talk.
• Exeter – Oxfam . 6:00pm
• October 14 – Crickhowell – Book-Ish . Evening.
• Pontypridd – Storyville Bookshop . Lunchtime.
• Swansea – Cover to Cover. Evening.
• Cardiff – Shelf Life Books . Lunchtime.
• Penarth – Griffin Books . Evening.
• October 17 – Birmingham – Think Tank . 1pm.
• October 18 – Oxford – Blackwell Books.
• October 19 – Hebden Bridge – The Book Case. 6:30pm
• Chorlton Bookshop – Lunchtime.
• Cheadle – Greenhouse Books . 4pm
• Bramhall – Simply Books . Evening.    
• Crosby – Pritchard’s Bookshop . Afternoon.
• Liverpool – The Reader at Calderstones Park. 4pm
• Liverpool – Merseyside Skeptics (with News from Nowhere). Evening. 
• Harrogate – Raworths Literature Festival . Lunchtime. 
• Leighton Buzzard – Book . Evening.
• Wivenhoe – The Wivenhoe Bookshop . Lunchtime.
• Colchester – Red Lion Books . Afternoon.
• Norwich – Norwich Science Festival Show – Norwich Arts Centre (with The Book Hive ). 5pm
• Okehampton – Dogberry and Finch . Lunchtime.
• Crediton – The Bookery . Evening.
• Totnes – East Gate Bookshop . Lunchtime.
• Ivybridge – The Ivybridge Bookshop . Afternoon Teatime.
• Plymouth – Plymouth Humanists . Evening. 
• Liskeard – The Bookshop . Late Morning.
• Mevagissey – Hurley Books . Afternoon.
• Penzance – Acorn Theatre with The Edge of the World Bookshop . Evening Show.
• October 28 – Falmouth – Beerwolf Books . Evening.
• Bridgwater – The Snug Bookshop . Afternoon Teatime.
• Taunton – Brendon Books . Evening. 
• Caversham – Fourbears Books . Lunchtime.
• Eastbourne. The Lamb Inn . Evening.
• Uckfield – The Picturehouse – Late morning + movie.
• Shoreham-by-Sea   – The Ropetackle (with City Books ). Evening.
• November 1 – Margate – The Margate Bookshop . 7pm.
• November 2 – Canterbury – Gulbenkian theatre: The Linda Smith Lecture . Evening.
• Gerrards Cross – Gerrards Cross Bookshop . Afternoon Signing.
• Chorleywood – Chorleywood Bookshop . Evening Talk.
• Market Harborough – Quinn’s Bookshop . Afternoon.
• Leicester – National Space Centre . Evening.
• Southampton – October Books. Afternoon Talk. 
• Winchester – P&G Wells . Evening.
• November 7 – Berkhamsted Book Festival in association with Waterstones Berkhamsted
• Southwold – Ways With Words . 11:15am
• Special London Launch Event with Katie Mack, Helen Czerski, David McAlmont, Helen Zaltzman & Hugh Warwick. Kings Place . 7:30pm. 
• November 9 – Stratford-Upon-Avon Literary Festival . 3:30pm
• November 10 – Nottingham – Five Leaves Bookshop . Evening.
• November 11 – Ely – Topping and Co . Evening.
• Harrogate – Imagined Things . Afternoon signing. 
• Ripon – The Little Bookshop . Evening.
• Holmfirth – Read . Afternoon.
• Leeds – Truman Books . Evening.
• November 15 – Bath – Topping and Co . Evening.
• November 17 – Farnham – Blue Bear Bookshop . Evening
• Letchworth – David’s Bookshop . Afternoon.
• Cambridge – Cambridge Junction . Evening.
• Brick Lane Bookshop .
• West End Lane Books
• Kirkdale Bookshop
• Bookseller Crow
• Kew Bookshop
• Sheen Bookshop
• Waterstones Piccadilly
• Dulwich Books
• Stoke Newington Bookshop
• Word on the Wate r 
• Wanstead Tap with Newham Bookshop
• Malvern – Malvern Book Co-Operative . Afternoon
• Ledbury – Ledbury Bookshop . Evening.
• November 25 – Hay on Wye – Hay Festival Talk .
• Shrewsbury – Book Festival with Pengwern Books . 1pm
• Sedbergh – Westwood Books . Evening
• Corbridge, Whitley Bay & Newcastle. Forum Bookshops . Three events across afternoon and evening.
• November 28 – Malton. Kemps General Store . 8pm.
• November 29 – Edinburgh. Portobello Bookshop . Evening.
• Edinburgh – Lighthouse Bookshop . 1pm 
• Linlithgow – Far From the Maddening Crowd . Evening.
• Hexham – Cognito Books . 4:30pm.
• Hexham – Queens Hall. 7:30pm.
• Barnard Castle – McNab’s Bookshop. Lunctime
• Barnard Castle – Witham Hall . 7:30pm.
• Saltburn – The Book Corner . 2pm
• Stockton – The Drake Bookshop . 7pm.
• December 4 – Newcastle – The Stand. 4pm 
• Halifax – The Book Corner . Afternoon.
• Hull – Wrecking Ball Press . 7pm
• December 6 – Hull – JE Books . Lunchtime.
• December 7 – Warwick – Warwick Books . Evening
• December 8 – Tonbridge – Mr Books . 7pm.
• December 9 – Hungerford – The Hungerford Bookshop . Evening.
• December 10 – London – Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People with The Cosmic Shambles Network Bookshop . Evening.
• December 11 – London – Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People with The Cosmic Shambles Network Bookshop . Matinee.
• December 11 – London – Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People with The Cosmic Shambles Network Bookshop . Evening.
• December 17 – London – Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People with The Cosmic Shambles Network Bookshop . Evening.
• December 18 – London – Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People with The Cosmic Shambles Network Bookshop . Evening.

The Cosmic Shambles Network is only possible due to the generous pledges of our Patreon supporters. There’s lots of great rewards available for supporters. Subscribe below.

Hi The link for the Letchworth event (Nov 18th) is incorrect – takes you to the Bath event page. Cheers

Good spot, thank you. Corrected.

Hi, The link for Kew takes you to the Bookseller Crow site.

Fixed. Thank you

Hi, I’m trying to book the Birmingham event on October 17th but I can’t find a link, I get taken to the actual museum.

Can you please send me the link?

Should be under the Whats On section of the museum site

Amy plans to do a bookstore Chester/north Wales area?

We’ve already done our Wales leg last month I’m afraid!

Swansea, Crickhowell,Pontypridd,Cardiff,Penarth, All South Wales. Appreciate you can’t go everywhere but nothing North Wales, nearest was Liverpool.

Leave a reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Privacy Overview

• Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Best of Moscow by high speed train

By shuguley , February 15, 2014 in Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Recommended Posts

Sure would appreciate someone who has taken "Best of Moscow by high speed train" from St. Petersburg could please share their impressions of this shore excursion. From the description this sounds like a very long day.

Wondering how the 4 hour train trip was in terms of accommodations, etc. Also what time did you leave the ship and what time at night did you return? Were both legs of the trip on the high speed rail (I read that slower trains also travel the same tracks)?

My wife and I are considering this excursion. We thought that if we are making all the effort to go to Russia then how could we pass up going to Moscow, walking in Red Square, seeing St. Basil, etc.

Link to comment

Share on other sites.

If you are considering this on the 2015 June Baltic cruise on Voyager; my suggestion is don't. There is so much to do in St. Petersburg and although a train is one of my favorite ways to travel the time would be far better spent in St. P.

Thanks for the advice. Yes, this would be on the Voyager during the 2015 season but not yet sure exactly which cruise.

We did the Moscow excursion "on a different luxury line", but from your brief description it sounds very much like the same trip, so I will operate on that assumption. It is a VERY long day! We left the ship at 5:30 AM and returned at 12:30 AM. The highspeed train trip is comfortable, and while they call it "Business Class" it does not compare well to the equivalent class on say Rail Europe. When we did it in 2011, we did have highspeed both ways, and the trip back seemed much longer as the adrenaline and excitement had worn off!:D

Moscow itself is not that terribly different from any other big city in the world, but this Cold War kid never thought he would ever stand in Red Square, never mind walk the grounds of The Kremlin, or tour The Kremlin Palace, or see (but not visit) Lenin's Tomb, or visit The Armoury. But he did, and he loved every minute of it! Yes, it is a long day, and you barely scratch a scratch on the surface, but it is worth it. There is a tremendous amount to see in St. Petersburg, but every Baltic cruise goes to St. Petersburg, so you can go back if you choose to. Not every cruiseline offers you the chance to see Moscow.

I have not personally done this tour, but our last time in St Petersburg, the private guide that we hired for a day was leading the regent tour to Moscow on the high speed train the next day. He said it was way better than the previous alternative, which was flying to Moscow and back. He said that you actually got to Moscow faster because you didn't have to deal with airline checkin etc. it did seem like a very long day to me, and there is so much to see and do in st. Petersburg that I didn't consider doing it.

countflorida

We toured to Moscow from St. Petersburg via the hi-speed SAPSAN train last September, from a Baltic cruise on the Oceania Marina. You need to have a two-night, three day port call in St. Petersburg to take this tour because the tour typically leaves the ship around 5:00 - 5:30 AM and doesn't return until after midnight the next day. We didn't take the ship's tour; we made private arrangements with TravelAllRussia for three days of touring, the first and third days in St. Petersburg and the second day the tour to Moscow by train. Our cost for the private tour for three days was about the same as what the ship charged for the excursion to Moscow alone. There are a number of private tour agencies that operate in St. Petersburg and offer the Moscow train tours; we would strongly recommend them over the ship's tours.

All three days had private guides with car and driver. The second day, the driver picked us up at the ship and took us to the train, but we were alone on the train, and met in Moscow by the guide on the station platform. After our tour and dinner, we were brought back to the train and after the return train trip met by the driver and taken back to the ship. Because you are alone on the train you must have your own Russian visas.

If this is your first visit to St. Petersburg, I would agree there is much more to see there. We found Moscow somewhat a disappointment, particularly Red Square. The Kremlin and the cathedral in Red Square were also worth seeing. But the best thing we saw was the Moscow subway! I worked for the Washington Metro system back in the 1980s as it grew from 40 to 80 miles and although I was in the computer area, I learned a lot about the challenges of running a subway system. We used the Moscow system to get across the city from where we had dinner to the train station, and I was amazed at the cleanliness', speed of operation, the short headways maintained, and the courtesy of everyone involved. A very impressive experience!

We had been to St. Petersburg before, and so had the time to take a day and go to Moscow. Also, I really like trains, and the SAPSAN is a German train set running on Russian rails. Seats are like first class domestic air, spacious but not too plush or comfortable, but with enough room. Not too much recline, and almost 8 hours on the train in two shots is a lot for an old man. They come through and sell drinks, candy, etc. but the sellers don't speak English and no one around us helped, so we had just poor coffee once coming, and brought stuff with us for the trip back. Not too much to see from the train either, particularly on the return when it is night the whole way.

If you decide to go, take a private tour and avoid the overly expensive ship's tour. I'm glad we did it, but wouldn't bother to repeat the tour; we've seen Moscow.

Thanks so much to all of you for the thorough and thought insight. Yhe information you have provided is most helpful.

countflorida: Your detailed post is very helpful. We are not quite ready for a Baltic cruise but should do so within a year. Time enough to do our pre travel research, bookings and visa gathering.:) Thank you!

Emperor Norton

Sure would appreciate someone who has taken "Best of Moscow by high speed train" from St. Petersburg could please share their impressions of this shore excursion. From the description this sounds like a very long day.   Wondering how the 4 hour train trip was in terms of accommodations, etc. Also what time did you leave the ship and what time at night did you return? Were both legs of the trip on the high speed rail (I read that slower trains also travel the same tracks)?   My wife and I are considering this excursion. We thought that if we are making all the effort to go to Russia then how could we pass up going to Moscow, walking in Red Square, seeing St. Basil, etc.

I did this on Seabourn. IMO DONT. Take Aeroflop (er Aeroflot). The train has non folding seats where you are literally knee to knee with your fellow passenger (facing each other). Further they don't believe in air conditioning. It's also the worlds slowed bullet train. I think I would have found more enjoyment wandering around the St. Petersburg and Moscow airports.

Countflorida,

This is a little off topic,, however we had planned a river cruise in Russia but decided we would rather stay on land and have booked about two weeks with Travel-All-Russia using the private guide and driver. I'm curious as to how you found them as a tour company.

The guides they provided were fine. We had a different guide each of the days in St. Petersburg, but both were flexible, pleasant, knowledgeable and spoke English very well, as did the guide in Moscow, incidentally. She was a bit aloof, distant, not too friendly, but otherwise fine. In fact, she was the one who suggested taking the Metro, which unexpectedly became one of the highlights of the Moscow excursion. If I have a complaint with AllTravelRussia, it is with their plan and its execution (more later).

I had requested emphasis on World War II (in Russia, the Great Patriotic War) sites and info. In scheduling us, they weren't careful about dates and a couple of the sites we wanted to see were scheduled on the third day, after we'd been to Moscow. But both sites were closed that day of the week, and that info was readily available, right on web sites describing them. Also, the included meals (lunches in St. Pete, dinner in Moscow) were not what we asked for: light meals with some choices, so we could avoid things we didn't like and choose things we did like. My request was ignored; we were given full Russian meals with a fixed menu, no choice. On the first day, a fish dish was the entre, but I am allergic to fish. Fortunately, I had the e-mail I'd sent with me and showed it to the guide, and she was able to change my entre to chicken, which was very good actually. But we didn't want a 3-4 course lunches or dinner (in Moscow). We had the guide drop the lunch the third day, although we never got any credit or refund. But, particularly in contrast to the ship's tours, the prices were so reasonable we didn't worry too much about it.

The people who were on the ship's tour to Moscow saw us boarding the same train for which they were forced to queue up and wait on the way back, and asked us what we had done. I was candid and open so they were not happy when I explained what we had arranged and particularly what it had cost. Also, when we returned to the ship, we found they had laid on a late supper for those who had gone to Moscow, so up we went and had something. Well, it turns out the late supper was supposed to be just for those on the ship's tour, but we and others on 'independent' tours, there were a dozen or more of us, crashed the party, actually got there first, and they didn't realize it until the larger group arrived and there weren't enough tables/places set. By that time, the 'independents' had all gotten served and were eating; what could they do?

A couple from the larger group sat down with us and asked us about our tour, and they were the ones I told about our arrangement and its cost. They turned to others who’d been with them and announced the details, loudly enough so the whole room heard, which started a lot of bitching and complaining. I gathered they weren't very happy with the ship's tour to begin with, and this was the straw that broke the camel's back. We finished up and beat it out of there, but overheard later that one of the excursion staff came to check on something and ran into a real mess. I caught a cold on the trip, which forced me to bed the second day following in Tallinn, so by the time we reappeared we heard about the contretemps' but apparently no one recalled who started it, thankfully.

Because of what happened to us, I would probably not use AllTravelRussia if I were to go again, or if I did, I would be sure to get confirmation of every detail of the tour. They do have good reviews generally, and we were certainly helped by their visa department and liked the guides and drivers. Their weakness, I say now with full 20:20 hindsight, is that once the sales person who plans the tour, sells it to you and collects your money, he (or she) transfers the plan to their Russia office for implementation; there is no follow-up to make sure it gets done right. And that is where our problems arose; we paid for a custom tour but got a standard package with a few destinations switched, and no one checked them out, even to see when they were open the day we were scheduled to go. If you check every detail that’s important to you, it should be OK, but that’s a hell of a way to have to do business, in my opinion.

Thank you for the 20/20 hindsight observation on your Russian tour operator, and better priced than the ship's excursion cost.

Thanks very much for the feedback.

We had the same experience as you so far as price. We originally booked a Viking Cruise but, hearing some things about the river cruises that made us unhappy, looked into other options. T-A-R cost the same or less than a cruise and had us in hotels for 11 days. We opted for the private tour. They have three tour levels, based on hotels. We originally opted for the four star as it did not cost much more than the three star hotels. Finally we decided to throw it all in and upgraded to five star. In Moscow we will be at the newly opened Kempinsky which is two blocks from Red Square. In St. Petersburg it is the Grand Hotel Europe, one of the most vaunted luxury hotels in Russia. Location is important for us as the tours use up only part of the day so being in the center of everything for our independent touring is important. As with many other cities, the less you pay, the farther out of the center of town you are.

We have been working with our salesman in D.C. and he seems to get back to us with the changes we want. He recently returned from Russia so is up on everything. When I asked they said they paid the full TA commission if I wanted so I got my usual TA on board so he is watching our back and giving us that extra level of comfort. He also set up our air, which I know pays him little or nothing, and got us business class for much less than T-A-R wanted for economy, though it took working for a while with a consolidator. He's happy to get his 10 percent on this trip without having booked it. He also took care of the trip insurance. We've been doing a lot of research on the CC sister site Trip Advisor and will write a report there. We will, I guess, become a source of info for CC members after having spent 5 days in Moscow and 6 in SP.

• 4 months later...

scubacruiserx2

Anybody considering a day trip to Moscow from St. Petersburg on the Sapsan may want to look at our travelogue filled with pictures.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1927687

Very informative. Thanks dor sharing. Jeff

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in

• Welcome to Cruise Critic
• ANNOUNCEMENT: Set Sail Beyond the Ordinary with Oceania Cruises
• New Cruisers
• Cruise Lines “A – O”
• Cruise Lines “P – Z”
• River Cruising
• Cruise Critic News & Features
• Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
• Special Interest Cruising
• Cruise Discussion Topics
• UK Cruising
• Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
• Canadian Cruisers
• North American Homeports
• Ports of Call
• Cruise Conversations

Announcements

• New to Cruise Critic? Join our Community!

Write Your Own Amazing Review !

Click this gorgeous photo by member SUPERstar777 to share your review!

Features & News

LauraS · Started 15 hours ago

LauraS · Started Wednesday at 07:36 PM

LauraS · Started Wednesday at 12:53 AM

LauraS · Started Tuesday at 07:17 PM

LauraS · Started Monday at 10:08 PM

• Existing user? Sign in OR Create an Account
• Find Your Roll Call
• Meet & Mingle
• Community Help Center
• All Activity
• Member Photo Albums
• Meet & Mingle Photos
• Favorite Cruise Memories
• Cruise Food Photos
• Cruise Ship Photos
• Ports of Call Photos
• Towel Animal Photos
• Amazing, Funny & Totally Awesome Cruise Photos
• Write a Review
• Live Cruise Reports
• Member Cruise Reviews
• Create New...

Keep up to date with the Big Issue

The leading voice on life, politics, culture and social activism direct to your inbox.

Robin Ince’s 100 bookshop tour: Car parks and cagoules

On tour there are always people with stories that change you, and they more than make up for the selfish oafs that love their anoraks and their luggage, writes comedian Robin Ince.

To celebrate the publication of his new book,  The Importance of Being Interested: Adventures in Scientific Curiosity , award winning comedian Robin Ince is doing a tour of talks and book-signings at 100 independent bookshops around the UK. Here he writes about his trip. For his previous column, click here .

Norwich is the location for my first signing sessions in a multi-storey car park. It is a brutal and brutalist surrounding to autograph a book on cosmic beauty, and it is all done from the boot of a car.

I am caught between images of the gangster classic Get Carter and a shoot-out scene from ’80s cop caper Dempsey and Makepeace . Twelve copies signed and the dodgy deal is done (it was actually the most convenient place to sign a bunch of books sold online, but I hope I have created a sense of subterfuge you don’t get from Professor Brian Cox).

On the train to Exeter, stood in the vestibule as usual as the carriages are packed and mask-less. In a scene I conjure in my head I am played by Steve McQueen.

I repeatedly imagine a confrontation with a bulky and arrogant man who, despite the overcrowding has spread himself out across two seats, his thighs spreading out like ripe racist camembert.

His son sits in front of him similarly taking up two seats, as the love he has for his luggage is greater than his consideration for other humans. I do not want his seat, this is not the reason I am imagining the Hollywood confrontation scenario, it is the woman who was told that “this seat is taken” (by a cagoule) that I am angry about. She sits on her shawl in the vestibule with me and tells me the story of a friend.

One day, in a tropical storm, the friend took shelter under an overhanging roof. The house owner charged out and screamed that she must get back out into the rain immediately.

A week later, the house owner was rushed to hospital with a life-threatening condition. You will be able to guess who the doctor was who cared for her. Lucky that doctor was not off ill having got soaked in the rain. Arriving at a beautiful bookshop in Okehampton, all memories of the lumpen man are erased by kind people. 

After a night talking in Plymouth, I take a cab to the station. The driver tells me about her inquisitive 10-year-old son and all the strange facts he knows. He loves talking about the stars and planets and astronauts. One day, he said to his mum, “You know Uranus?”

“Of course, it’s a planet.” 

“No, I mean your anus,” and then he told her just how much it could potentially dilate and just how much could be stuck up your bum. She told him to avoid telling that to the teachers at school. What a terrifying show and tell. 

Day 24 

Falmouth is home to Beerwolf Books, one of my favourite bookshops in the country, but it’s a dangerous place. It is a pub too. You buy your books, then have a pint. You must leave now. If you have a second pint then all your willpower is vanquished and you buy another eight books. 

Day 25 

Throughout my run in the West Country, people have been kind and gone out of their way to make my tour as easy as it can be. In Somerset, I am offered lifts to and fro by Laura, a mature astrophysics student. She is also a hairdresser. She tells me how people react to her being a hairdresser with astrophysicist ambitions and much of it is patronising.

That is one of the problems of how we place people in boxes. After my gig in Taunton, she tells me some of the ways I could have answered the questions thrown at me and I am now certain she would have dealt with the quandary of time and black holes far better than me.

This is one of the many reasons I love touring, there are always people with stories that change you, and they more than make up for the selfish oafs that love their anoraks and their luggage. 

Robin Ince’s 100 Bookshop Tour – Cosmic Shambles runs until December 18

This article is taken from The Big Issue magazine. If you cannot reach  your local vendor , you can still click  HERE  to subscribe to The Big Issue today or give a gift  subscription  to a friend or family member. You can also purchase one-off issues from  The Big Issue Shop  or The Big Issue app, available now from the  App Store  or  Google Play .

• First person
• From the magazine

Support the Big Issue

Recommended for you

Zayn Malik: 'I wanted to forge my own path, write my own story and see the world'

We owe children an apology for the state of the nation, says Caledonian Road author Andrew O'Hagan

Zayn malik speaks on new music, home city bradford and identity: 'i'm a very northern man'.

Nish Kumar: 'My experience of being a brown man in Britain shifted after 9/11'

Most popular.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know

Get our free pet archive magazine special.

Okay By Me in America

Vladimir Ivanoff (Robin Williams), the Soviet musician who defects to America in Paul Mazursky's sentimentally satisfying new comedy, Moscow on the Hudson , walks around his new home in wonder, a man who hasn't yet learned what he should be afraid of. To be precise, Vlad doesn't defect to America, he defects to New York, that many-towered Babel where, as this movie has it, virtually no one speaks more than a few words of English. Understanding only fragments of what he sees and hears, Vlad isn't wary the way a native New Yorker would be, so he doesn't think it unusual that his best friend is a black from Alabama, a sort of internal émigré; his girlfriend an Italian; and his lawyer a Cuban who floated to Miami some years ago. In this democratic polyglot community, where foreigners confront ex-foreigners, and accents bounce off one another like bumper cars, even the Immigration Service is run by immigrants. ("Who's your boss?" demands an irate Hispanic gentleman who has been kept waiting. "His name is Ronald Ray -gone," says the lady official, in thickest Jamaican. "Now sit de f--k down!") Vlad fits right in.

In Moscow on the Hudson , all these people surprise us with their kindheartedness. They not only like Vlad, who is easy to like -- a solitary saxophone player in love with American jazz -- they also like one another. Moscow on the Hudson is Paul Mazursky's benevolent neo-melting-pot myth; it's about how Babel's towers reach to heaven. Though some of the movie may strike us as naïve or false, we're pulled along by the sweet dreams of a director with so broad and instinctive a sense of human solidarity.

Halfway through The World According to Garp , I began to think Robin Williams might need weights in his shoes to keep from floating in the air -- he was that insubstantial. But this time Williams is securely grounded; he has a real character to play, and he's extraordinarily touching. Bearded, and hairy as a Russian bear, he's a small, nearly innocuous figure in the Moscow scenes, clutching himself against the cold, grimacing at the sight of a three-hour waiting line for toilet paper. Like many citizens of Eastern Europe, Vlad has developed certain defensive strategies. When Jewish protestors are hauled off in black cars, he looks the other way; at the one-ring circus where he plays in the orchestra, he ritually bribes the K.G.B. agent assigned to keep an eye on the performers. His best friend, Anatoly (Elya Baskin), the circus's star clown, is a maudlin fellow with a woebegone rubber face and flapping arms, a noisy complainer whose indiscreet miseries could get them both in trouble. Vlad hates the Soviet Union, too, but he keeps quiet about it. Williams gives him a small, enigmatic smile -- almost a memory of a smile; he makes him a man in a deep freeze, passively accepting despair.

Using Soviet-émigré actors here and in Munich (which doubled for Moscow), Mazursky creates an intensely Russian atmosphere of silent paranoia and strangled exuberance. Vlad's family, with whom he lives in a standard, cramped Moscow high rise, are all professional entertainers, including Vlad's grandfather (Alexander Beniaminov), an enraged, disappointed old man whose half-cracked tirades against the state are always causing a scandal. Williams speaks Russian along with the others, and he's convincing enough, though the native Russians have a guttural sound he can't match. In a great moment, Vlad sings a forbidden Duke Ellington song he calls "Take A Train," and the whole family joins in with shouts and cries but completely off the beat. I don't know if Paul Mazursky could dramatize a scientist's or writer's hunger for intellectual liberty, but his understanding of an entertainer's need for freedom is instinctive -- the need is inseparable from the expressivity.

Mazursky's touch in these Russian scenes is astringent and rueful; the American stuff is much broader. The circus troupe, in New York on a tour, stops at Bloomingdale's, and the Russians become hysterical at the sight of the ground-floor glitz -- designer jeans, lingerie, and sunglasses -- a joke that turns a little sour, I think, on reflection. Anatoly chickens out, but Vlad, taking advantage of the pandemonium, swallows down his nausea and fear, and defects. It turns out he's abandoned a one-ring circus for a three-ring circus. Capitalism offers Vlad a riot of superfluity. In a hotel, he sniffs at the scented toilet paper like an ecstatic bloodhound; later, faced with innumerable brands of coffee to choose from in a supermarket, he faints from indecision.

Mazursky and his collaborator on the screenplay, Leon Capetanos, prepared for the movie by interviewing émigrés, and long sections of the screenplay have the feeling of strung-together anecdotes. Many of the jokey anecdotes are very good, but I wish the filmmakers had sent Vlad reeling through American society in the course of a story and had then folded their satirical observations into it. The way it is now, the movie feels randomly inclusive and jerry-rigged. Vlad is made to race from one job to another; the black security guard (Cleavant Derricks) who protected him from the K.G.B. when he defected at Bloomingdale's becomes his best friend, a friendship that's made the occasion for some liberalizing (pleasant to hear, but not really to the point) about the condition of blacks in America; he falls in love with Lucia (Maria Conchita Alonso), a Bloomingdale's salesgirl, and though Miss Alonso, a pop-singing star in Venezuela, is a lovely performer, her role is conceived as something of an object lesson. Along with dozens of weeping émigrés of every color and nationality, Lucia takes the oath of citizenship; the sequence raised a lump in my throat, but it also smacks of American self-congratulation.

In a word, Moscow on the Hudson should have been tougher. Scenes of affection and reconciliation come almost too easily to Mazursky, who is so eager to find the humanity in everyone that he sometimes flattens people out. (Evil and malice, after all, are human qualities too.) I find it hard to believe, for instance, that Vlad and his friends, each from a different immigrant group, would go dancing and hang out together. Isn't it more likely that each of the new arrivals would stick with his own tribe? Alas, the movie's family-of-man spirit feels like a crock. To achieve it, Mazursky willfully ignores some of the obvious divisions, such as the tribalization of commerce. It might have been funny, for instance, if Vlad had tried to open a produce stand or a coffee shop and had run into some indignant Koreans or Greeks. If Mazursky had confronted some of this, the movie's "I love America" sentiments would have earned our respect as well as our affection.

Yet Robin Williams's performance holds up. His Vlad comes alive in New York; the city's buzzing disorder makes him gregarious, hopeful, and ready to connect. And though Williams gives a performance of immense sweetness, he's not pulled down by the movie's sentimental tone. When Vlad gets the chance to play the sax with one of his favorite black jazz players, he doesn't make out too well. He's not good enough, and maybe he'll never be good enough. America the bountiful can't solve all his problems. What it can do is give him the opportunity to enjoy life. For a man who has always embraced misery, it's an immeasurable gift.

Related pages

• Moscow on the Hudson Main Page
• Review ::: Okay By Me in America