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Our First Big Trip Almost Two Months Travelling No Return Tickets
Trans-Siberian Train Across Russia Vladivostok to Moscow And More 2016

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The Trans Siberian Train Assorted Produce Sellers At A Station More Sellers Moscow to St. Petersburg Express
Irkutsk Siberia Russia St. Nicholas Steamship Krasnoyarsk Siberia Russia All Saints Ekatarinburg  Tsar Nicholas Family Assassination Site Traditional Lunch ( Koptelevo) Near Ekatarinburg

Red Square Moscow Winter Palace St. Petersburg Minsk Belarus Sunday's Commemoration of Conflicts Warsaw
Little Insurrectionist (Child Fighters) Warsaw Uprising 1944 Warsaw Old City Wielizca Salt Mine Poland Wawel Royal Palace Grounds Krakow
Market Square Krakow Gnome Hunting Wroclaw Poland Ksiaz Castle (Hitler's Castle) Poland Dresden Castle Germany

  • 2016 September through October.  Beijing for 5 nights at our favourite R J Brown Hotel. This budget hotel highly recommended great position too.  Another look at the Forbidden City so much to see.  Also the Temple of Heaven.
  • 2016 September through October.  Fly from Beijing to Vladivostok and onto the Tran-Siberian Railway experience.  14 nights on and off the train stopping at cities along the way.  Second class sharing the 4 bed sleeper with us and two other people.  Mostly Russians on the train how hard can that be?  Great time great people sign language if nothing else no problem.  

  • First stop Irkutsk and a car ride to Lake Baikal.  The deepest inland lake in the world, most interesting was the museum and history.  

  • Another car ride back to Irkutsk.  Lots of great history and a line to follow the historic places to see here.  Back on the train for a couple of nights or so. 

  • Then arrive at Krasnoyarsk.  A few hours walk around with a great guide.  Interesting history as a weapons and industrial manufacturing city. Home of the steamship above that transported Tsar Nicholas and Vladamir Lenin as passengers.  Another day with our guide and driver.  Visiting the local snowfields resort and T-Bars etc. then onto an historic village with photo oportunities along the way and then a visit to one of two enormous dams with Hydro-Electric Power, fantastic.  

  • Back on the train for a few more nights and then Ekatarinburg.  City of the last Tsar and his family's assassination.  This included a visit to an historic village with a driver and guide and then a half day with a guide around the historic parts of Ekatarinburg including the church that was built on the site of the assassination.  

  • Back on the train for a few more nights and then Moscow.  Just so totally different to what we have seen so far.  We are here for four nights but not really enough.  A very good guide for the first day for about 3 hours or so.  A very good introduction to the sometimes mixed history of this city both ancient and not so ancient.  We spent the other days visiting as much as possible of the Kremlin and Red Square.  The GUM store here is now an upmarket shopping centre unlike the Soviet era. Lots more places to see and many historic sites and also did a river cruise on the Moskva River fantastic.  Beautiful city worth more visits.  

  • Now on the fast train to St. Petersburg.  This place is just something else either a palace or stately home on every corner.  Awe inspiring you might say.  Four nights again not enough.  First day escorted around by a very good guide shown some great historic places. The next day we visited the Hermitage (Winter Palace) Museum, just incredible one of the largest and most extensive museums in the world.  Needs a lot of time.  Next day a driver and the same guide to the Summer Palace (Peterhof Palace) a few klms. out of St. Petersburg.  Again quite an incredible experience seeing the wealth and history of this city and the survival of these places from the Soviet era.  The last day we had a boat trip through the canals and into Lake Ladoga.  Not to be missed as the views are so totally different from the water.  

  • On to another train to Minsk capital of Belarus.  We can't recommend this place. A bit like a timewarp of Soviet times.  Difficult in a big hotel to find someone who speaks enough English to help you find a train out.  If you don't speak Russian government business don't want to know you. Some interesting history but not worth going back to.  

  • Onto another train to Warsaw Poland.  Because of language difficulties in Minsk we ended up on a sleeper at 6.00am in top bunks with a young family and baby. Nowhere to sit. Luckily they were accommodating if half asleep.  No food no breakfast but arrived in the beautiful city of Warsaw Poland.  Just wonderful people and a great country to visit.  So much history in Warsaw old history and not so old.  Warsaw suffered devastating damage and lost a lot of its population during WW11.  A lot of Central Warsaw was flattened by the Nazis.  In the Old City there are lots of historic buildings and monuments.  Quite a number of these have been re-constructed from old drawings and sometimes plans.  You think you're looking at or visiting an historic site or building but they look like the originals because of the strength, knowledge and character of the Polish people.  Quite humbling.  

  • Onto another train this time to Krakow.  Unlike Warsaw being the capital Krakow is the cultural capital. Another beautiful city with wonderful people.  Everything is very cheap.  A visit to the Wieliczka Salt Mine is a must.  It was operated for a number of centuries and was one of the major incomes of Poland in those times.  An absolute masterpiece on numerous levels deep in the ground.  Statues and Frescoes all done in salt sometimes by the miners and sometimes professional artists.  Either book for the mini bus from your hotel or with the tourist information centre.  Also a visit to the Wawel Castle for centuries the residence of the Kings of Poland.  Definitely worth a look.  Schindler's factory is also a place to visit. Very confronting as it is mainly the story of the plight of the Jews during WW11.  We spent quite a few hours there and came out feeling very humbled.  

  • Onto another train this time to Wroclaw another beautiful city.  We spent some time walking around this city with again a lot of beautiful historic buildings.  Also the home of  the miniature dwarves or gnomes.  Originally created as a protest against the Soviet regime.  We think there may be around 300 or so of them throughout the city we found about 35.  All different subjects and all delightful.  If you're visiting Wroclaw do a search for Wroclaw Gnomes to find out more.  We also had a day trip with a small group and not very good driver to a famous wooden Lutheran church also one of Hitler's underground tunnels built with slave labour and also Hitler's Polish Castle Ksiaz built in the late 13th century I think.  Unfortunately our so called guide who was only a driver didn't give us enough time anywhere to supply more information.  

  • Onto a bus this time to Dresden Germany.  Not a lot of time here.  We spent only one day walking around Dresden Castle or Royal Palace.  Originally buildings date to around 1200 and then additional parts built on over the centuries.  It was the main seat of power for around 400 years.  Severely damaged during bombing in WW11 reconstruction started in 1991 and was mostly completed in 2013. Great place to visit.   

  • End of trip and a bus to Frankfurt Germany and then home to Australia.