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Holtyboy's Travel Blog
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Location Date Europe 
1624921200 South America 1575590400 Asia 1557010800 Africa 1493506800 Oceania 1430694000 North America 1423872000 -
Location Date UK 1624921200 Germany 1602802800 Slovakia 1599346800 Ireland 1573344000 France 1570316400 Poland 1568502000 Austria 1561762800 Belgium 1560034800 Italy 1554591600 Spain 1553990400 Netherlands 1548547200 Georgia 1528498800 Azerbaijan 1527980400 Bulgaria 1490486400 Norway 1480723200 Switzerland 1462575600 Portugal 1454803200 Croatia 1449187200 Slovenia 1448668800 Russia
1311375600 Ukraine 1309388400 -
Location Date Moscow 1311375600 Vladivostok 1311030000 Khabarovsk 1310943600 Ulan-Ude 1310684400 Irkutsk 1310425200 Krasnoyarsk 1310252400 Novosibirsk 1309993200 Yekaterinburg
1309647600
Arriving into Yekatrinburg (or Ekatrinburg) saw us cross into Asia as we passed through the Ural Mountains although I must admit that I do not really remember seeing any mountains.
Yekatrinburg has the dubious honour of being the place where Nicholas II, the last Russian Tsar, and his family were shot during the Russian Civil War in July 1918. The Church on the Blood was built on the spot where this happened although the church is actually very modern having only been completed in 2003.
The city itself was quite pleasant from memory and there were some nice buildings and decent shopping streets too. There also seemed to be lots of street art dotted about which added to the character of the place.
On our second day in the city we hired a driver to take us Ganina Yama which is now a Monastery site that is still under construction marking where Nicholas II and his family were buried after they were killed. It really was quite a moving area to wander around and take in the many displays featuring photographs of Nicholas II and his family.
After Ganina Yama we visited the Asia / Europe monument - not the busiest of tourist attractions close to Yekaterinburg - before heading back into the city itself.
After this, our second full day in the city (and our third night at the Park Inn), it was time to head on again with our next destination being Novosibirsk just under a 1,000 miles further east. This time we would be travelling on Train 44, the 1203 departure Local Time (or 1003 Moscow Time) for a twenty hour trip in a second class compartment. On this leg of the journey we would also pass the half way point of our rail travel as we made our way steadily to Novosibirsk.
One of Heather's stipulations for this trip was that we had a compartment to ourselves when travelling so where there was no first class available we would book all the available beds in one compartment. This did mean however you could leave the upper berths made up for sleeping and keep the lower berths available for seating.
As a general rule of thumb the higher the train number the older the carriages will be on that service so we have done Train 16 already and that was quite nice, this is Train 44, we have Train 2 and Train 8 (twice) to come on future legs but also Train 362 to look forward to as well. That one should be quite interesting!
Yekatrinburg has the dubious honour of being the place where Nicholas II, the last Russian Tsar, and his family were shot during the Russian Civil War in July 1918. The Church on the Blood was built on the spot where this happened although the church is actually very modern having only been completed in 2003.
The city itself was quite pleasant from memory and there were some nice buildings and decent shopping streets too. There also seemed to be lots of street art dotted about which added to the character of the place.
On our second day in the city we hired a driver to take us Ganina Yama which is now a Monastery site that is still under construction marking where Nicholas II and his family were buried after they were killed. It really was quite a moving area to wander around and take in the many displays featuring photographs of Nicholas II and his family.
After Ganina Yama we visited the Asia / Europe monument - not the busiest of tourist attractions close to Yekaterinburg - before heading back into the city itself.
After this, our second full day in the city (and our third night at the Park Inn), it was time to head on again with our next destination being Novosibirsk just under a 1,000 miles further east. This time we would be travelling on Train 44, the 1203 departure Local Time (or 1003 Moscow Time) for a twenty hour trip in a second class compartment. On this leg of the journey we would also pass the half way point of our rail travel as we made our way steadily to Novosibirsk.
One of Heather's stipulations for this trip was that we had a compartment to ourselves when travelling so where there was no first class available we would book all the available beds in one compartment. This did mean however you could leave the upper berths made up for sleeping and keep the lower berths available for seating.
As a general rule of thumb the higher the train number the older the carriages will be on that service so we have done Train 16 already and that was quite nice, this is Train 44, we have Train 2 and Train 8 (twice) to come on future legs but also Train 362 to look forward to as well. That one should be quite interesting!
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