We made it! And the Russian Pacific fleet is in to greet us! (Sorry 40+ years of the Cold War has made me nervous of taking pictures. Vladivostok was a closed city to 1990 no foreigners allowed) what a lively city this is. Much larger to. Found the hotel and treated ourselves to room service (steak!) only disconcerting thing is the abseil kit in case of fire. We are 8 stories up! And there is only one!
So the rails do stretch from our local station, Yatton, to the Sea of Japan-we have done it! And what was it like; better than we thought! Joanne had visions of having to barge through corridors full of Russian squadies to get to the toilet and I thought the train may be a bit dirty. Nothing could have been further from the truth train was spotless with only people with reservations aboard. Only disappointment was the Restaurant car which was poor and presided over by a big Russian lady whose only word seemed to be "nyet" But we managed ok in our compartment and managed to rustle something up for breakfast, lunch and tea each day. Even some supper and a bottle beer. It bought out the " hunter gatherer" in us. We were able to please ourselves when we went to bed and usually had a nap for an hour during the day. It wasn't boring. We had books and a magazine plus puzzle books and there was always something going on. The time difference as we went along had a big impact which I didn't foresee. Only yesterday morning did we start counting off the hours but the Taiga started to change from the endless birch to mixed trees then we saw the sea and boredom was banished as we ran in for the last couple of hours along an estuary off the Sea of Japan:we had crossed the biggest continent!
Vladivostok is huge. I sort of imagined it to be a sort of end of the line naval port but it seems very prosperous. It's also busy and cosmopolitan. Very different to Moscow. East meets West. A bit like Hong Kong to Beijing. 7 hours time difference to Moscow and 6 hour plane ride away so they do their own thing.
Taxi to airport which is about 12 miles out of town. A rail link has just opened which we were unaware of or we may of used that-never mind the taxi drive was interesting through Vladivostock. So we are now at the airport and the blog may go quiet for a couple of days. The taxi driver thought we were German (with my fair hair I always have this problem) When he realised we were English he said "ah your English. We like English" Made my day.
So the rails do stretch from our local station, Yatton, to the Sea of Japan-we have done it! And what was it like; better than we thought! Joanne had visions of having to barge through corridors full of Russian squadies to get to the toilet and I thought the train may be a bit dirty. Nothing could have been further from the truth train was spotless with only people with reservations aboard. Only disappointment was the Restaurant car which was poor and presided over by a big Russian lady whose only word seemed to be "nyet" But we managed ok in our compartment and managed to rustle something up for breakfast, lunch and tea each day. Even some supper and a bottle beer. It bought out the " hunter gatherer" in us. We were able to please ourselves when we went to bed and usually had a nap for an hour during the day. It wasn't boring. We had books and a magazine plus puzzle books and there was always something going on. The time difference as we went along had a big impact which I didn't foresee. Only yesterday morning did we start counting off the hours but the Taiga started to change from the endless birch to mixed trees then we saw the sea and boredom was banished as we ran in for the last couple of hours along an estuary off the Sea of Japan:we had crossed the biggest continent!
Vladivostok is huge. I sort of imagined it to be a sort of end of the line naval port but it seems very prosperous. It's also busy and cosmopolitan. Very different to Moscow. East meets West. A bit like Hong Kong to Beijing. 7 hours time difference to Moscow and 6 hour plane ride away so they do their own thing.
Taxi to airport which is about 12 miles out of town. A rail link has just opened which we were unaware of or we may of used that-never mind the taxi drive was interesting through Vladivostock. So we are now at the airport and the blog may go quiet for a couple of days. The taxi driver thought we were German (with my fair hair I always have this problem) When he realised we were English he said "ah your English. We like English" Made my day.
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