Stories and tips from around the world.
It was an early start – the earliest one of the trip. As our flight was at 06:05 we needed to be on the road by 03:00. The hotel did however provide a packed lunch for us to take with us for breakfast, though it was still quite an early one. As is usual for Russian airports we had to have our bags x-rayed on entering the airport, and then after clearing passport control having hand luggage scanned …
The final full day in Russia - we'd be seeing the waxy-like body of Lenin, and other sights surrounding death.
Back in Moscow, was an accident about to ruin the remainder of the trip?
Arriving back in Irkutsk, we now had the rest of the day to explore - with nothing much really to see.
An entire day spent on the Trans-Siberian Express
Boarding the Trans-Siberian Express, we began our overnight journey to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia.
Today we saw the wooden buildings of the 'Taltsy Museum of Wooden Architecture and Ethnography' in the pouring rain, and visited Listvyanka and Lake Bailkal.
It was colder in Siberia, but this was our boarding point for the Trans-Siberian Railway - of course we'd need to explore here a bit first.
Awaking as we arrived in Moscow, it was then a day of sightseeing before needing to fly to Siberia.
Today we visited Peterhof, a palace nicknamed as the Russian Versailles. The day then ended with taking the train to Moscow.
Yesterday we'd seen the Winter Palace, and today we were going out into the countryside to see the Summer Palace, one which looked to be inspired by French architecture.
Today the organised part of our tour began with the Winter Palace. The afternoon would then be self-guided, seeing the other sights in St. Petersburg such as the Peter and Paul Fortress.
We started off this trip as we meant to go on - cramming it with sightseeing as we saw some of the sights of Saint Petersburg whilst going out looking for somewhere to eat.
