Lewisham, United KingdomDeparture from the UKBremen, GermanySchuelpBack to BremenChristmas in the HarzDriving in the HarzAround Bad Harzburg and Christmas Market in GoslarWinter Tourism im HarzAnd home againViennaNew Year'sSightseeing in Vienna Day 2More sightseeing in Vienna and some plansArrival in BudapestTickets Booked!Bath HouseTrain to LvivWe made it to Ukraine!Leaving LvivOdessa, UkraineEventful arrival in KievMorning in KievOn the train to MoscowBrief stop in MoscowOur first trip east of the KnownOn the train to Kazan - a lot to catch up onkazan - at an ungodly hour of the morningOn the train to YekaterinburgOne night until SiberiaSiberia!!!!! Tobolsk - it's not on Google Maps! It's 4 hours north of TyumenDay trains5 Hours from IrkutskSafe arrival in IrkutskLake BaikalBack to IrkutskGoodbye to BaikalAn Experience in Ulan-UdeCrossing the Border - Happy New Year and Australia DayPlans changing in HarbinEnchanted with BeijingBeijing WanderingsCrashingMore CrashingSam's almost better againSecond last day in BeijingLast day in BeijingTianjin, ChinaIncheon ArrivalSeoul!!!Exhausting full day of enjoying SeoulI still love SeoulRainy and grey in BusanUnvalentine's DayInfinite turtlesDry land againA Perfect EndCoolangatta International Airport, or lack thereofBrisbane, AustraliaMum and Dad's
 | samandleonie |  | Heading East |  | One night until Siberia |
Not enough votes to display rating.
Jan 16 2009, 12:05 PM
2 photos
Embed trip
View in Google Earth
Rss news about this trip
GPX Track
Journal
Location
Yekaterinburg, Russia
I'm very much looking forward to a shower tomorrow. This is the longest train-only period we have planned, though, and we're holding up fine. At least it's not hot.
We spent today in Yekaterinburg by necessity. We could have travelled direct from Kazan to Tobolsk (our destination tomorrow), but the arrival in Tobolsk was at 1 in the morning, so we opted to stay a day here and get some practical things out of the way.
It is an interesting city in its own right, so we did the walking tour from the Lonely Planet first thing – past the site of the building where Tsar Nicholas II, his wife and all of their five children were executed by the Bolshevik revolutionaries. There's now a church there and two memorial crosses. We'll further follow the final days of Tsar Nicholas tomorrow, as he spent a while in prison in Tobolsk before being taken back to Yekaterinburg to be executed.
Tobolsk was one of the first Siberian cities, founded after the Moscow-backed Cossack force defeated the native Tatars and destroyed their capital, Sibir. It now has an eighteenth century Kremlin and not many hotels. We don't have a booking, despite our efforts today. We sat in the food court of this shopping centre using the wifi for hours. We have accommodation for Ulan-Ude and Irkutsk, but we're flying by the seats of our pants for tomorrow night.
Things have got a bit messy with these unexpectedly booked-out trains, but revising our plans has ultimately been fun. We found a further complication though. We're arriving in Manzhouli (the border dive in northern China) on Chinese New Year. Transport away from there could be a little crazy. We did confirm there should be plenty of trains going from Manzhouli to Harbin, but we could possibly have trouble getting a ticket. We'll see what happens.
Comments |
Log in to add comment |
No comments