The real Sochi

I had a couple of hours to kill before my flight home so went to the real Sochi - about 40 minutes away on the train from the Olympic Park. The Olympic Park and Village which is all newly built is stunning but to be honest there is a whole strip along the coast after Adler that hasn't seen much love for a long time (unless you count hanging Olympic logo posters off derelict buildings!).

Sochi itself however is very very smart - you come out of a beautiful station with clock tower into a lovely square and I spied some very smart yachts in the marina from the train as we were approaching. Sochi was fairly heaving with Olympic tourists and there were lots of the Sochi buses waiting to bus people into the Olympic Park (as well as the train) but it was the locals I focussed my attention on - those that I mainly saw seemed completely bemused by everything - they were very friendly but very bemused!!

More photos of the last few days here if you are interested