Atlantik Yekaterinburg

... the house and its previous inhabitants alongside the history of the city, and did so in English as well as Russian which we've found quite rare. They also had a good temporary exhibition of Soviet children's fashion - they can't have had much to go on as people pretty much just wore stuff until it fell apart but it was pretty interesting all the same.<br><br>Saw the Romanov memorial - or 'Church of Blood' as it's nicely ...

... the teller who was in charge of Western Union had gone on a 4 hour break, or they just plain ignored us until the security guard shouted at us for having a camera and we eventually left. Finally, after taking the time to write down and translate into Russian exactly what we wanted, we arrived at a bank where the girl behind the counter read our bit of paper, looked up, smiled, and said, 'no problem, how much would you like to transfer?' Typical.<br><br>After recovering from the ...

... out as he listened to my good vibrations. It was great to share that Hawaiian sound to everyone. Normally I bring a guitar when I travel but this time I wanted to share something uniquely from the west. And it truly was. Everywhere I went people would do a double take and turn their heads when I played. Not that I&#8217;m a great ukulele player, but because it made such a beautiful rhythms.<br><br>So that was it. Two days on a ...

... I heard a woman sniffing as she walked through. The entire experience is extraordinarily moving if you stop and think about the family and the events. This is as close as you will ever be to the place where history changed. It is chilling to move through the basement of the church and think that this, THIS is essentially the place where they were executed. This is the place where their bodies were dragged out onto the street and ...

We finally found out about Russian Hospitality... We stayed with a lovely couple in Yaketernburg, Anne and Sasha :) They're wonderful hosts :D so helpful and friendly... Anne woke up every morning around 6.30, while we were sleeping, cooking breakfast for us!! And Sasha managed to organise us a tour to the Europe-Asian border at midnight, since he couldn't take us there during the day because he had to work!! We loved them so much...they were so ...

... moves house to the house next door it will be a Cathedral) and a newly built monastery on the site where the Romanovs were assasinated, a little way out of town. At the time we were there it was the commemoration of 90 years since the Romanovs died and there were thousands of pilgrims who had flocked to both places to pay their respects to the family who have now been ...

... oggi ho fatto una breve visita della citta': il sito dove e' stata sterminata la famiglia degli ultimi zar, i Romanov, dai bolscevichi nel 1918; qualche bella chiesa, non molto altro. Ho cercato di fare un'escursione al confine euro-asiatico, ma costa una fortuna: decisamente troppo per la classica trappola per turisti in cerca di qualche foto per poter dire di aver avuto un piede in Asia ed uno in Europa. Lo pseudo-confine l'ho gia' visto dal treno, e comunque ...

... is also very interesting from the inside. Along the Moscow River and via the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour we walked back to our hostel, where we had an enjoyable night chitchatting with the English guy Patrick and writing in our diaries. The second day in Moscow we - along with Patrick - went straight to the Lenin Mausoleum. We were expecting long queues, but we were in and out within half an hour. It was very interesting to see Lenin's corpse, which looked like a fashion doll ...

... a photo. We saw the church on the site where the Romanovs were killed, the local government building with all its statues on top and got thrown out of the train museum! We attempted to get a cheap meal at a place called Dacha (going on LP info) but found that it was a nice but not cheap restaurant and only had entrees! They must have thought us either odd or poor! We learnt not to trust the LP prices (unless prices can more than double in a year)!

... tarmac. With our damaged front suspension mounts we carefully avoid the worst potholes. Even worse is where some road repairs have been begun but not been finished. Sections of road have been carved away with no warning and sharp edged wheel sized holes appear on the driveline. Every inch of the 300 km requires max concentration. Very relieved to finally reach Yekaterinberg, we set off for ...