First full day on The Rossiya ( Day 6)

Woke up about 0600. The provinista has the samovar going so it's coffee to get ourselves going. We decided to try the restaurant car for breakfast. Not terribly successful, I suppose it's just our western taste is different. The porridge had a big slab of butter melted into it with made it pretty awful and the fried egg and bacon, while recognisable and edible was covered in fried onion which made the breakfast just taste of, well, onion. All of the staff in the restaurant are a bit severe, while polite, but I did get a smile from the waitress when I asked for milk for my coffee with my best phrase book Russian (eckerchoo mila cum perjalster) and even got a little joke back.
We discover the towels hidden under the seat backs. We didnt need to buy those expensive ones at St. Pancras!

So it was a slice of the luncheon meat role cut with my penknife bought in Weston Super Mare for lunch and a drink made from the Samovar.
At each little signal box along the way (every 10 miles or so) the signal man or woman stands to attention and holds out a batten or little flag as The Rossiya goes past to indicate all is well on the section of track they are responsible for. There must be hundreds if not thousands of these along the length of the Trans Siberian. I must try and get a photo. Another interesting way of operating is the level crossing barriers. In the UK there is a continuing problem with motorists jumping the barriers, in Russia, as well as the barrier, some vicious looking blocks lift out of the road which would take a motor vehicles wheels off should anyone try to cross the railway once the barrier is down.

This morning we started the climb into the Ural Mountains (more like hills really) at the summit of which we pass from Europe into Asia. A large obelisk marks the spot and we looked out for it but only managed to snap the base of it! Well travelled Sonia said "this is the most foreign place I have ever visited"

After this point we come to the town of Yetkaterinburg famous for two things 1)the last Tsar and his family were murdered there in 1918 And 2) the U2 affair of 1960 (an American spy plane was shot down nearby. The Americans thought the pilot, Gary Powers, had died and tried to claim he was not spying but had gone off course due to malfunctioning oxygen equipment. The Russia's played along with this at first but after a week Kruschov, then leader, announced that the pilot was not dead and had confessed to the spy mission and they had even managed to develop the film! ) there are museums to both these events in Yetkaterinburg.
As The Rossiya wound down the Asia side of the Urals we suddenly came to a grinding halt so suddenly it made everything slide off the table. Lots of anxious heads looking out. Our engineer got down on the track. A brake hose had blown between carriages, possibly hit by a branch or ballast on the track. The engineer had a new pipe down on the track and fitted and we were a way again within 10 minutes. Nothing must stop The Rossiya.
As well as missing the Obelisk at the start of Asia we also missed photographing the obelisk at the official start of Siberia which is at kilometre marker 2102 from Moscow.
The Russians do like their cucumber! Cucumber flavour crisps, cucumber and eggs in the restaurant car, cucumber nuggets for the children, we even had a cucumber seller come down the train at 0600 this morning!

So as darkness falls and we head out into the Taiga (wooded wilderness) we suddenly notice fire alongside the track. In a few moments it's like we are in a 1980s car commercial with flames shooting up at the side of the track. The Rossiya does not slow down. The flames disappear. We don't know if this was a deliberate burning or a Forrest fire. Now all we can see from our darkened compartment is stars against the blackness of the endless taiga.