Trans Siberian Part Three - Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar

One time zone change (strangely back an hour)

34 hours 29 minutes (including 8 hours at the Russian - Mongolian border)

The trains seem to be getting worse the further east we go.

Irkutsk

Listvyanka and Lake Baikal

We get off the train in Irkutsk and are whisked away to the village of Listvyanka which is on the shore of Lake Baikal

We are staying in a beautiful wooden hotel in a valley which leads down to the lake

A little hillside chappel next to the lake

Russia's version of a beach resort

Locals selling clothes to tourists and smoking fish from the lake

We has a little trip out on the middle boat.

The water was really clear

Views of the village from out boat

I had omal from the lake for dinner, I didn't realise it would be served raw but it was delicious

Lake Baikal

The Trans Siberian Railway - Part Two

Yekaterinburg to Irkutsk

Three nights - 56 hours 20 minutes - two time zones

Waiting for the platform to be announced at Yekaterinburg Station

Train number 80

At every stop a man went along hitting the wheels with a long hammer

We left at 10.20pm local time. It was still light an hour later.

This train was not quite as modern as the first one. When you flushed the toilet you could see right onto the tracks.

In no danger of dehydrating while looking out go the window.

Some of the views from the train. Mainly birch tree forests

Dinner on the Trans Sib

Stops at Omsk and Barabinsk

Dried fish for sale on the platform at Barabinsk

We were in second class so had a four bed cabin. Luckily for most go the trip we were on our own. Third and fourth class consisted of open carriages with 50 or 70 beds.

The Americans on our tour decided they needed clean windows at the stop at Omsk

Yekaterinburg

The birth of the city happened in 1723 when the River was damned and the fortress built.

Lenin street and the Lenin Statue

Central Yekaterinburg

The Europe - Asia border near Yekaterinburg

Gania Yama -The new monastery built on the abandoned mine where the Romanovs bodies were destroyed

Memorials to the Romanov Family; The last Tsar Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, their four daughters and one Son who were murdered on 16th July 1918

All female visitors to the monestry had to cover their hair and wear a skirt.

The Church of the Blood

Built on the sight of the house where the Romanovs were killed. The basement where the murders took place has been reconstructed after the house was deasroyed in 1977 and The Church of the Blood was built on top.

The Trans Siberian Railway - Part One

Moscow to Yekaterinburg

One night - 25 hours 19 minutes - two time zones

Train number 16

Waiting to board

Our very messy cabin. We were on a brand new train, it was not what I wasexpecting at all. We even had a TV in out room.

We shared a four bed cabin with a lovely Russian woman and her 5 year old son Artem. They were going to Yekaterinburg for the summer holidays to visit the grandparents. She thought we were crazy being on this train as part of a holiday and couldn't believe we were going all the way to Beijing.

We stopped here for 25 mins so we stretched out legs down the platform

I don't read Russian but I am fairly sure this sign is telling me not to climb out of the window.

The train schedule and the length of the stops

Our train is on the right

Yekaterinburg Station

The Kremlin

The Kremlin from the outside, The Kremlin walls, Kutafya Tower and The Trinity Tower

View form outside the Kremlin of The Great Kremlin Palace and Cathedral square behind

The Cathedrals inside the Kremlin

The Great Kremlin Palace, The Palace of Congress and The Arsenal

The Tsar Bell and Tsar Cannon

The Senate

It would seem that being a guard in the The Kremlin is an exhausting job