Trans Siberian Railway
Running off with the Romanovs in Ekaterinburg
Our short stay in Ekaterinburg exposed us to more contemporary Russian history (and its current repercussions), particularly the early communist years, than in any other place that we have visited so far. Ekaterinburg is a city of 1.5 million people and is located at the foot of the Ural Mountain Range, with a big impact […]
Read MoreThinking of the Sunday Roast
Well, we are still on the train 42 hours after leaving Irkutsk and we have another 6 hours before we leave the train at Ekaterinburg. Today is Sunday and I’m thinking of that traditional Sunday Roast, so I thought I would post an article about our food on the train (which I will get to […]
Read MoreBack on the Train
We finished our brief interlude in Irkutsk with an overnight stay at a chalet in the lakeside town of Listvyanka. Our home stay was in a rambling guest house – a bit like some of those at Marysville in Victoria. The village of Listvyanka was about an hour from Irkutsk. It is a holiday village […]
Read MoreIt’s a Long Way to Irkutsk
We have been in the Siberian city of Irkutsk for a day and two nights now. It’s time to take stock of our travel distance. The total distance from Vladivostok to Moscow is 9288 kms. Add on another 900 kms to St Petersburg and we’ll travel by train for around 10,100 kms. Our flight from […]
Read MoreFirst glimpse of Lake Baikal
Last night was our third on the train, and our last before stopping in Irkutsk. We passed through some beautiful broad river valleys last night, and woke this morning to find ourselves approaching Ulan Ude, the city where the Trans-Mongolian line splits off. Ulan Ude is a city of around 380,000, and the first major […]
Read MoreAcross the Plains of Siberia
We were awake at 7.30 am this morning and we were at this location: Current Location map This total trip from Vladivostok to Moscow is 9259 km and as I write this (20 hours after our commencement) we still have 8143 kms to travel. Our train has one very large and strong looking Russian electric […]
Read MoreProvodnitsa Paradise
The Provodnitsa on a Russian train is a carriage attendant. Ours is a woman of about 40 with short bleached blonde hair and of a rubinesque appearance. She looks after the carriage and its passengers very well. Her job is to clean the train twice each day – sweep floors, clean windows, hose out the […]
Read MoreOur First Night on the Trans Siberian
Our train left Vladivostok on time at 9:35 last night. We are on the number 2 train “Rossiya”, which is bound for Moscow, arriving in 7 days. We’re getting off at Irkutsk, 3 days away. From Vladivostok, the line runs north, skirting along the Chinese border, before swinging west at the city of Harbarovsk. We’ve […]
Read MoreOsaka & Kyoto photos
Here are some photos of Osaka and Kyoto that we didn’t have the time to upload the other day. Dotonbori – the giant crab is still waving its arms along this entertainment area Kyoto Station Building – about to celebrate its 10th birthday, but still looking impressive Kiyomizudera – in the Higashiyama area of Kyoto, […]
Read MoreGlad to be in Vlad
For our last night in Japan, we stayed with Akiyo and her family in Takarazuka, close to Osaka Airport. We were treated to “kaiten-zushi” (conveyer belt sushi) for dinner the night before we left, which was probably even more popular with Akiyo’s kids than it was with us. Our departure from Osaka on Thursday morning was […]
Read MoreOsaka Namba One & Classic Kyoto
[Joint post by Dad & Dave] We continued the theme of continuous food on Monday when we started by going out to breakfast, before visiting the farm property where David?s mother & father borrow a bit of space to lovingly maintain their vegetable patch. They grow pretty much the same things that we would grow […]
Read MoreHighlights of Nara
David has posted?a detailed post of our first days in Nara in our Siberian blog, but these are the highlights for me: Meeting David’s host family again and watching his mother happily cook more food than an army could eat for dinner (we have nicknamed her as the Takemoto Army cook), There is enough food at […]
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