Having booked a river cruise linking Moscow and St Petersburg over a year ago, it was with trepidation that we set out last month from Heathrow.

Many friends queried our wisdom and even the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website warned of possible antipathy towards English visitors.

Travel provides a 360 degree view, rather than the narrow field of vision seen from cameras, and our pre-conceived image of Moscow evaporated as we saw the beautiful buildings, wide spaces and pristine cleanliness everywhere we went.

Victory Day, May 9, may have had an effect, but we were well received and if one spoke the odd Russian word, like “spaciba” (thank you), people were thrilled one had made the effort. The treasures in the Kremlin armoury, the art in the Old Tretyakov museum, the Bolshoi and the Metro were all astonishing.

We travelled to St Petersburg on the Volga Dream and between stops at riverside villages and towns we were treated to Russian language lessons and Russian history lectures by Professor Ludmilla Selezneva, a very passionate presenter.

Since AD1000 Russia has suffered four major disintegrations and together with the astounding events surrounding Peter the Great’s period it is unsurprising that the Russian psyche is so defensive. Everywhere we went we were well received, with interest in us being balanced by our interest in them.

The boat crew, of course, did everything they could to make our stay on board as pleasant as possible, and any problem was rapidly sorted.

St Petersburg, of course, was something else again, but with so much damage done in Second World War, it is remarkable how much has been restored.

Visits to the Peterhof with it gilded statues and fountains and wonderful gardens were splendid. The State Museum, the treasures in the Hermitage, especially the Gold Room, and St Catherine’s Palace came well up to expectations, but being so early in the season the crowds were much less than expected. Unseasonably good, warm weather certainly helped too!

People we met were pretty well of a similar opinion about politicians as we are, but the popularity of the president is very great on the basis of restoration of pride.

Indeed, the dissolution of the USSR with the removal of many state subsidies on housing, education and health has left a significant proportion of the population wishing to put the clock back. Interestingly, embargoes seem to have encouraged local production of substitutes. As one local said: “We Russians are lazy, we just import goods we want.”

So hence the headline of this missive, and the encouragement to travel.

John Bradbury

Duncannon Mead

Stoke Gabriel