SEP 22, 19 .. VLADIVOSTOK .. THE END OF THE TRANS SIBERIAN RAILWAY

I am sure that Vladivostok is famous for many things. But the one thing that really strikes me is that Vladivostok is the far eastern terminus of the Trans Siberian Railway.

For all (and more) than you will ever want to know about the Trans Siberian Railway let's check out Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Siberian_Railway

Here we go with a few photos of the Vladivostok Railway Station which serves far more trains than the Trans Siberian Express.

The railway station is directly across the street from Lenin's Monument.

I took the first three photos below facing the railway station with Lenin's Monument behind me.

In Russian you have the Railway Station (top word) and  Vladivostok (bottom word in red). These words are in 'modern' Russian Cyrillic and I don't care much for it. 

Do all of you see the Russian Orthodox CHURCH OF THE INTERCESSION OF THE MOTHER OF GOD across from the railway station?

In case you missed it, below is a link to my Post showing photos I took of the church.

https://bobbacaps.blogspot.com/2019/09/sep-7-19-vladivostok-three-churches.html


A few exterior views of the railway station.

The time has come to take look at the interior of the railway station.

In the below photo I believe we are looking at Tsar Alexander III. 

All in all it is a rather small railway station when I compare it with others in Russian Siberia that I've been in and traveled through. Novosibirsk and Irkutsk are two that come to mind.

I really am pleased that I was able to visit the Vladivostok terminus of the Trans Siberian Express.

MAY 15, 19 .. OUR TRANS-SIBERIAN TRAIN RIDE TO CHITA (ЧИТА), RUSSIAN SIBERIA.

I can see it now coming down the tracks ..

We were standing on Loading Platform Number 3, here at the Irkutsk, Russian Siberia railway station when, down the tracks, I could see our train to Chita arriving.

Our coach.

You can not see Patti, but she is waving to us from behind the center, tinted-glass window below.

Our first class coach (wagon) was number 12. 

Our train is heading for Vladivostok ( Владивосток ), Russian Siberia.

Looking down the corridor outside of our cabin.

A look at our first class cabin.

As you can see, Patti and I were the only occupants in our cabin-for-two.

Lots of pillows and bedding along with towels for each of us.

With our ticket came a full dinner. You can see our menu in the below photo. We ordered dinner shortly after we were underway. We had a three hour time window for dinner. We opted to eat at 8pm. 

"Patti?"

"Yes Cap?"

"It is May the 14th and just look at the snow. You'd think that we are in Russian Siberia Patti!"

The snow continued to come down. 

We are now in the Lake Baikal area.

From time to time we would veer inland and away from Lake Baikal.

And we'd come back to Lake Baikal.

And then, Lake Baikal was past us.

Later in the afternoon, the sun came out to greet us.

Now for a few photos of the dining car. We spent a fair number of hours sitting in the dining car enjoying the views and the open and airy space.

And what did we enjoy in the dining car?

And then?

It was five o'clock in the morning and we were in Chita.

It was a fun, it was a great trip, and it was tiring at the same time.

Hugs from Patti and Smiles from Cap