Yekaterinburg continued.

Yekaterinburg was a delight, this is the real Russia, getting to see how people live and although the Ural Mountains are not high, they do have very cold winters.

We had free time after our tour, off we all set, had lunch together, then parted until we were to meet again for dinner and board our train to continue our journey.

For lunch we went to where Boris Yeltsinn enjoyed dumplings, the building was used by the KGB, in soviet times.

The dumplings were yummy.

Great statues

This is presidents Putin mansion in Yekaterinburg 

Church of the Spilled Blood, where Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, and their children were murdered by the Bolsheviks. July 17, 1918.

This church was built in 2003 and the Rominoffs were canonised to saints, this church is dedicated to this family.

No photos were allowed inside the church, which also holds a museum about this family.

Russia is gearing up for the World Cup.

Some great grass topiaries.

We walked the pedestrian street, great bronze sculptures.

We had a few hours exploring, walked back to hotel to meet group, have dinner, then to train station to 

Catch our train, which departs at 2150hrs. We are doing what the locals do, catch trams to and from destinations.

We will be on the train for two nights and 1 1/2 days. Travelling from Yekaterinburg with just 300kms distance we are officially in western Siberia.

Midnight stop in Novosibirsk for 1 hour. Novosibirsk is Russia's third largest city, after St Petersburgh and Moscow and is the capital of Siberia. Population is 1,473,700, was founded in 1893 as the future site of a trans-Siberian railway bridge crossing the River Orb.

We hack travelled 3,335 kms so far.

We had rain, snow and sunshine whilst on train.

One of our many stops, next destination, Irkutsk.