Train -Yekateringburg to Moscow

First class on the Ural

Vadim collected us from the Ural Hotel and got us to the station in good time. This train was the Ural – a train dedicated to the Yekaterinburg to Moscow route. The first class carriages are very good, with a similar layout to the Rossiya. Our ride would be about 26 hours - we leave Yekateringberg at about 9:30 am and we arrive at about 9:30 (with a 2 hour time difference).

We were presented with a package that seemed to include yogurt, tea, sugar, ketchup and some sort of package bar, along with a bottle of water. We have no idea if this is part of the ticket price or some sort of chargeable extra. To compound our confusion, a lady arrived and asked us what we wanted for lunch (soup or salad, chicken, beef or whatever). We suppose that we will find out what it all means in good time. We know that some Russian tickets are “with services”, meaning that they include meals, but ours doesn’t seem any different to any of our other tickets.

The Ural takes a more southerly route to Moscow than the Trans-Sib, via Kazan, which seems to be about 200 km shorter. The route is bordered by thick, tall forest (birch and pine).

As it turned out, the lunch was pretty good (salad and chicken), which we supported with a Jacobs Creek chardonnay – the Yekaterinburg wine shop had a good selection of wines (except Russian, of course), but we are “over” melange and have reverted to known quality.

The terrain outside the window showed more habitation and some rolling grassy areas (even some cultivation). There has clearly been plenty of rain around as everything looks fairly wet.

Kazan station in the rain

Late in the afternoon, we had a snack of duck pate on bread, with a Jacobs Creek red; which turned into a filling meal. By early evening, we finally came to the 999 km marker – we were down to three digits from the four digits we started with days ago (about 9200 km at Vladivostok). So we broke out the Grey Goose and had two small glasses of vodka to celebrate. This was the last of the “goose”, which has faithfully made the journey all the way with us.

While we got a midday meal, there was no sign of an evening meal, so it's just as well we got into the duck and goose.

By late evening, we reached Kazan. It was dark and raining outside, but our objective was to see and celebrate the crossing of the Volga. We headed for the restaurant car, ordered a beer and hoped that we were right to expect the Volga after Kazan. In fact the railway parallels the Volga for about 20 km, but you only glimpse it in the darkness. The the track does a swift left turn and you cross the very wide expanse of river. It is certainly a big river and is considered the soul of Russia.