Across Russia Leg 3 -- Yekaterinburg to Irkutsk

Leg 3 across Russia had us on the Minsk-Irkutsk.

This leg was 51 hours!  And moving from +2 Moscow time to +5 Moscow time

At our first long stop, D pulled out the frisbee and we quickly made friends with two kids who happened to be in our car.

Grisha, 6, and his sister Anya, 9, soon became regular visitors to our kupe.

The Trans-Siberian tracks are marked by kilometer markers.  Here the train is 2235 km from Moscow.

Every once in a while, a surprise.  Pulling into a station there were many flatbed rail cars with old military vehicles.

And tanks!

And looking west into a beautiful sunset

Crossing the Ob River just west of Novosibirsk (New Siberia).

Novosibirsk is the largest city and capital of Western Siberia

Lots of coal being moved in this part of the world.

The trees of European Russia gave way to the open expanses Siberia.

From left, Anya, Grisha, Oksana (14), D and Lova (8)

Lova with our two kupe partners.  In the dark shirt, Vladimir, was going home to Irkutsk.  He spoke no English, but by the time we ended our journey, he smiled with us and enjoyed our company.  In the white t-shirt was Andrei.  Probably in his mid-twenties, he joined us in Omsk and 24-hours later disembarked in Krasnoyarsk.  Andrei was on his way to the arctic to work in the oil fields.  We must thank them both for being good sports about having the kids invade our kupe.

More scenes from the train.

Siberia is very marshy, this is the beginning of the Siberian steppes.

The cabin attendant (one of two for our car as they took shifts) is in charge of keeping enough hot water in the samovar, selling coffee and tea, handing out linens to new train riders and keeping the train tidy. 

The cabin attendants also lock the doors of the toilet about 10 minutes before and after a stop.  For those of you who know my small bladder, it became an issue on occasion.  Here, I found the key!

Saying goodbye to Grisha!