They tend to do things on a fairly hefty scale in Moscow.

Red Square, The Kremlin, jaw-shuddering measures of vodka. For Scotland women's skip Eve Muirhead, the trip to Russia for the Le Gruyere European Curling Championships, which get underway today, has already been a bit of an eye-opener.

Forget the famous landmarks, however. It's the size of the suitably titled MegaSport Arena, host venue to the 37th staging of the competition, that has left a considerable impression on the 21-year-old from Perthshire.

"This place is huge," said the quadruple world junior curling champion, of a stadium that could easily accommodate the population of her native Blair Atholl five-times over. "It's a 15,000-seater stadium and it's probably the biggest arena I've ever played in.

"We had some time off the other day to have a look around the city. It's a new experience for me coming to this country and it's been all good so far."

Having enjoyed a meander around the Russian capital to take in the sights, it is now time to focus on the job in hand, which begins with round-robin matches against Norway and Denmark today.

A year ago, at Champery in Switzerland, Muirhead, and her team-mates Kelly Wood, Lorna Vevers, Anne Laird and alternate, Anna Sloan, had to settle for the silver medal as they went down 8-6 to Sweden in the final.

This weekend, Muirhead will launch her assault on gold with an essentially new team made up of Sloan, Claire Hamilton and Adams siblings, Vicki and Kay. The majority of the faces may have changed, but the determination to succeed remains very much the same. With a runners-up medal from the 2010 World Championships also on her sideboard, you can understand why Muirhead is probably getting scunnered by the silver.

"Sweden are obviously going to be the team to beat again and we will certainly be going in looking for a bit of revenge," said the Great Britain Olympian, whose Swedish counterpart from last year's final, Stina Viktorsson, has since retired from competitive curling. "It's a new team for me in the senior ranks, but we played a lot together in the juniors over the last couple of years and we're as well prepared as we could be for this. When you've had a silver medal, you're desperate to take that extra step and I'm sure these silvers will make the gold even more valuable when it comes."

With the medal mission mapped out, there is an equally important sub-plot to the European campaign. The championship doubles up as a qualifier for next year's World Championship, with the top-eight teams securing a trip to the showpiece in Canada. "The first thing is to make sure we qualify for the World Championships, then we can go for the medals," added the Scot.

Coached by her dad, Gordon, Muirhead is used to the reassurance of parental guidance amid the cut-and-thrust of top-level competition on the ice and the Moscow event promises to be even more of a family affair.

Her older brother Glen, a former national junior champion, will also be involved in the men's team, skipped by Lockerbie Olympian David Murdoch, the double world champion and three-time winner of the European crown, in 2003, 2007 and 2008. It was a close run thing to get on the plane, though. In last month's European Playdowns in Perth, Murdoch's precision, final draw-shot edged out Scottish champion Tom Brewster's rink in a tense, late-night decider to secure a passport to Russia.

"It's Muirheads all round over here," added Eve. "I was definitely far more nervous watching Glen than when I was playing myself. It was really weird. But he did really well and playing here will be a new experience for him. We're all playing in the same arena and I'm sure I'll keep an eye on him. It's good to have somebody else there that I can watch when I'm between games as it can be a very long championship."

Hopefully, for both Muirheads, it will be a long week that reaps the ultimate reward.