16 June
Woo hoo! Another 24-hour train ride. However, rather than continuing on the Trans-Siberian we boarded the Trans-Ural. (Okay, I added the ‘Trans’ because I like the symmetry – Trans-Mongolian, Trans-Siberian, Ural – just plain Ural doesn’t work for me.) This is the nicest train we’ve ridden thus far and by far.
Though the compartment is no larger, it has a roomier feel than the others (for a reason I’ll discover later). The first improvement is in luggage storage. Rather than having to lift the bench to stow their larger baggage in a bin, John and Anne can simply slide it under the seat. The lower bunk bed is folded against the wall in a way that creates a slightly plusher seating arrangement. Each compartment has an electric outlet so there’s no need to scramble for one of the three plugs (shared by up to thirty-six people) available in the corridor of the older trains and to sit at least in sight of your device while you charge it. For a fourth improvement, the cabin has a call button for the provodnika even if it’s difficult for me to imagine why someone would need to use it.
At either end of the corridor there’s an electronic display that shows your ‘wagon’ number, the time and temperature, and most importantly whether the toilet is in use. Speaking of the toilet, the best improvement of all is that the toilet is similar to those you find on airplanes and other more modern forms of transport. This means it’s only locked when it’s in use. Oh, why couldn’t we have had this luxury on the 48-hour train.
I’m guessing you can sense that boredom already has overtaken me. I hope I haven’t bored you, too, because I realize I just wrote over 250 words about the train! If I have, take solace in this: It’s going to get worse for me. I need to recharge my camera battery so I’ll miss at least one train station and can’t even pretend to look at the scenery hoping an interesting shot will arise.
The truth is there were some small changes in the landscapes and perspectives in the early part of the trip through the Urals. We even saw what appears to be some large scale agriculture as opposed to the small family plots that dot most of Siberia farther to the east (still not much sign of any livestock, though)
and some bodies of water with fishermen
but after just a few hours the landscapes became numbingly familiar even if the proportion of spruce trees to silver birch may (and I stress may) have changed. I still have a sneaking suspicion we are back on that model train. (Those of you who have looked at all the pictures in this folder will find these two photos familiar.)
During the afternoon, Groud broke out her well-worn map of Moscow to help us plan our time there. We’ll arrive early Monday morning and after checking into the hotel – or at least checking our luggage there – we will have the day free. Tuesday morning we’ll visit Lenin’s Mausoleum followed by a half day guided tour of the Kremlin. Then, for the remainder of the day we are again free to do as we please. There are no further group activities scheduled prior to meeting in the hotel for our evening departure to Saint Petersburg.
When I wrote about our time in UB, I mentioned the initial appearance of “the cold” in Ana. Well, it seems to be slowly working its way through the group. John and Rose are symptomatic today. I have my little knee injury so as of today with just under a week left four of the eight of us – Ann, Erin, Lu, and Groud – are totally unscathed. I can only hope everyone’s seen the worst of it.
You might also remember that at some point earlier in the trip, I mentioned that the song “The Gambler” was trolling though my mind with unsettling frequency. Well, it seems that sometime during the evening boredom overtook others as well. Lu unleashed her inner dog and was playfully growling at her cabin mates.
This unsettled Erin enough that she scurried out of her cabin and into ours bearing a deck of cards. She taught John, Ann and me to play hearts. We managed six hands but didn’t finish the game (and I was winning, dammit!) before we all went to sleep. Or tried to. When I opened the bed, I learned why the cabins felt more spacious. The aisle between the seats was indeed wider but the cabin itself was not. Thus, the bed must be narrower. And it was. I suffered through my most restless night of the trip and eventually gave up and I’m using the time to update this journal.
Our train and our fellowship of travelers will arrive in Moscow in ninety minutes. You, dear reader, will have to wait until tomorrow.