Ekaterinburg to Moscow (1668 km)

Tuesday 2nd September

After breakfast, check out and walk across to the station. It's another bright, sunny day.  Find my train and seat/ berth. 

Right Train

Right Compartment:
"Rations" in the cardboard boxes on the table

The train looks a bit smarter and newer than the previous ones but there are no pop up seats in the corridor. The attendants wear smart grey uniforms and a neck scarf with the Russian Railways "pid" logo. Our "rations" are on the table in a little cardboard box. A roll, some spread, two pancakes, two biscuits, yoghurt, a teabag and some water; less generous than the previous train.  The doors between the carriages are electrically operated by a green button but the basic layout is much the same. As on the other trains, the gap between the carriages is not heated and even now there is a cold blast of air coming in from the big gaps around the overlapping plates which form the walkway. Nightmares of the electric door not opening in the middle of a Siberian winter night and a deep frozen corpse  being found in the morning.

The train leaves on schedule at 1012 Ekaterinburg time, 0812 Moscow time. I adjust my watch accordingly.  Less than 20 minutes later,  we are back into forest, thick, solid forest with no open grassland visible. 

I am sharing the compartment with a young Russian couple. They make themselves some drinks in elegant metal or metal and glass mugs, similar to those I have seem all the other Russians on the previous trains using. They make my blue plastic Wal-Mart mug look very tacky. After taking their breakfast, the couple get into their berths and go to sleep.

Old Railway Viaduct has been Abandoned

Lonely Farmhouse

Lake in the Woods

Another Lonely Farmhouse

Later in the morning, we enter a more open and hillier landscape of mixed forest and meadows and more stereotypical Russian villages and others that look very "Soviet". By early afternoon we pass huge cultivated fields and large areas of grassland with little bushes, which I suspect was once cultivated and has now been abandoned. Looking out of the window is strangely addictive despite the fact that the scenery doesn't change much. By now the weather is beautiful. Almost continuous blue sky with just the occasional white cloud.

Throwing out the Rubbish

Hawkers Selling Food at the Station

At about 6 pm I go to dining car for dinner. It has a quite extensive menu and I ordered the beef tongue and a Karesky Goose beer. I dined in solitary splendour, not another person eating. The food was quite good and the bill came to 550 roubles.

Karetsky Goose

 Back in the compartment I continued with Dr Zhivago but I find it quite heavy going. Maybe we have shorter attention spans, or are less patient than our parent's generation.  It certainly describes the horror of Russia in the aftermath of the revolution and I can understand why it was banned for so long. Like Solzhenitsyn, but in a less direct manner, Pasternak expresses the view that the revolution was fundamentally flawed and doomed to failure from the beginning in its aspiration to build a better life for ordinary people. Hope the Russians of today can continue to build better lives for themselves. Feeling quite tired tonight so retire to my berth about 9pm.

Wake up about 5.30, still dark,  and soon we arrive at Vekovka station where many hawkers are selling glassware. It seems a strange thing to buy on a train journey. Later I check on Google and find that there is a local glass factory and people have posted photos of the hawkers. It seems to be a major railway hub but I can't see any built up area. Its getting light as we leave and enter more forest! Next stop is Moscow. Have breakfast of muesli bars and coffee. Slowly the forest gives way to the outskirts of Moscow and we arrive at Moscow Kazan Station on schedule at 0923. 

End of the Line

Kazan Station, Moscow

Last time I was in Moscow was 30 years ago when it was the capital  of the USSR. But the Moscow Metro hasn't changed much and I buy a ticket at the machined for 40 roubles. Later I find it is cheaper to buy a ticket valid for five trips from the ticket office> Thanks to the internet, I downloaded the Metro map so I know I can get to the hotel with just one change. Come out at the VDNKh station, one of the deepest, on the Metro and have a long escalator ride to the surface. Muscovites seem even more religious about standing on the right on the escalators than Londoners. Once out in the open air,  no problem finding the hotel; the Cosmos is massive and looks exactly the same as it did when I stayed here 30 years ago.  Check in and get a room on the 21st floor overlooking the VDNKh  park.

http://www.russian-moscow.com/vdnkh-park-in-moscow/

Cosmos Hotel Moscow.
The statue is of General de Gaulle and was erected in 2005

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