I am led to believe that Yekaterinburg is one of the great railway stations of Siberia. I’m winding my watch on an hour a day after two hours forward yesterday, so 15.00 Moscow time, and it’s dark.. I’m at 18.00 local, which means I can now visit the restaurant carriage (aka “Robin’s Nest”) for a cold Zhiguli beer. They are playing some mildly irritatingly middle of the road rock music. We have stopped only three times today, just once in daylight. Most of the stops are for 22 minutes, I assume that this is to facilitate a locomotive change, to […]
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There are only two hot beverage certainties on a Trans-Siberian train. Firstly, the coffee in the restaurant carriage will always be seriously bad. Secondly, that there will always be a limitless amount of boiling water available in the samovar at the end of your carriage. I have experimented with filter coffee and coffee bags. You can have a reasonable cup of coffee that way, as long as you take care not to scold the coffee and to get the dilution ratio right. But this trip I’m keen to have a proper “Class A” coffee fix in the morning, so I […]
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It would have been pretty hard not to have woken up at Balezino this morning. 05.27 Moscow time, still dark outside and the first chance of the day to smash the accumulated ice off the underside of the train. In case you are not familiar with this, in Siberia at every stop every carriage has to be whacked repeatedly with a huge metal bar. There are some manly men resident in the train who do things like this, but it seems anyone with a big object is welcome to join in. I tried to stay in bed, but the combination […]
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My first post from onboard train number 2 – The Rossiya. I just really wanted to share a few thoughts on my new home. My experience of Trans-Sib travel up until now has all been aboard the Chinese train 004. Full of character, but pretty clapped out and with an aroma and atmosphere all of its own. So here I am today on a Russian Trans-Sib train for the first time. It’s quite different! First in case you are reading this to plan for a trip, let me mention a couple of train things. Generally the lower the number of […]
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After my first good night of rest on a train for this trip I arrived into Moscow at lunchtime today. Much to my disappointment it’s still quite warm here – just below freezing, but no snow lying in the city. It’s due to freeze good and proper on Friday, but it is just damp with a wintery wind today. I met up with Alexey (my resident interpretor, guide and fixer in Moscow) in the afternoon and we did some cosmonaut stuff. He reminds me that a couple of years ago we went out to a nearby airforce base in December […]
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I’m on the D10 now. It leaves Warsaw at 16.08, arriving into Moscow Belorussky station at 12.15 the following day. I’m having some immediate communication problems with my new guard. It hasn’t been an been an ideal introduction to base our relationship on. First of all he seemed not to know where my compartment was – there are only 12 in the carriage, but I had to wonder if I was going to be sleeping in the toilet for a moment. It’s probably as my ticket is a Russian one, and it makes no sense to me either. Once I […]
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I have had a short but enjoyable stay in Warsaw as I prepare to hop on the train to Moscow. I have been staying at the Marriott, an enormous property just a stone’s throw from the central station. One reason that I’m here is that I’m a big fan of the 80’s TV black comedy “A Very Peculiar Practice”. The last ever (feature length) episode “A Very Polish Practice” was partly filmed in the hotel. I’m big fan of Dr Bob Buzzard, played by David Troughton – who, in case you had not realised, is the son of the late […]
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Getting some real sleep on a night train might be likened to your first ever proper engagement in combat – you need the experience to be able to function properly and make the best of things. But until you have this experience, settling down to a good night’s sleep can be rather challenging. The EN447 “Jan Kiepura” is a good train (note – seemingly now also being called the “Berlin – Warsaw Express”). It bashes through Germany in the middle of the night with the minimum of fuss and tooting. I have reviewed the journey on this blog before if […]
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I wish the title of this post referred to the amazing speed and effortless agility of the German ICE train. I really do, but it doesn’t. Instead it refers to that fun 1976 train caper film with Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. Have you seen it? Specifically the bit about being chucked off your train and then trying to catch it up and overtake it. More of this later. I’m actually really pleased to have been hit by a minor train based crisis today. I needed something to rebase my reactions to a relatively minor travel problem in the grand […]
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If I’m honest with you I’m not a massive fan of Amsterdam, but I’m sure that you will already have your own view of the city, so I won’t put you off by saying this. It’s been a wet and miserable day and the climate doesn’t do much for those contemplating some sightseeing. That said, I doubt many visitors to Amsterdam see that much daylight anyway. The streets seem busy with damp and bemused tourists, tramps, pimps, brewers, baristas and drug dealers all going purposefully about their business. In passing there is a very high profile campaign at the moment warning visitors about the […]
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