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Published: December 16th 2012
Met again by a non English speaking taxi driver -notice a pattern emerging !- and whisked through the underground walkway and then the car park to his car.This is Russias 4th largest city and a real culture shock with modern high rise buildings and lots of neon flashing lights.Nevertheless we are heading ever closer to Moscow,only 2 hours time difference now.
Our hotel was called the Guru Hotel and was a bit unusual.The rooms were in a building housing a dance studio and it wasn't obvious from the outside that this was even a hotel as there were no signs. even the taxi driver wasnt sure, and insisted on waiting til we went in.We checked in and went straight to bed as it was nearly midnight.
Breakfast next morning was a small buffet in a room with velvet walls which looked a bit like a disco.We got some information on buses from the receptionist as it was too far to walk into the city and very hot.Steph managed to negotiate us into the centre of town on a bus (with help from the people on the bus - S) and then a short walk. We went to The Church
Of The Blood which was built in 2003 on the site of the execution of the Romanov family.The Bolsheviks murdered Tsar Nicholas II and his family on July 16th 1918 in the basement of a house.The building housed a museum until Boris Yeltsin,who was born in the city, ordered it's demolition in 1977. The familiy are now venerated as saints.We visited the church on July 15th so preparations were being made for the anniversary of the tragedy the next day.Platforms were being built and there were lots of ladies polishing everywhere.It was so hot that after looking around the church and the small wooden chapel honouring the Romanov family's great-aunt next door, we sought some relief with an ice cream in the air conditioned cinema opposite.
We walked through a small park next to the River Iset and went to find a metro station.En-route we found a small market and a group dressed in national costume who sang and danced.Yekaterinburg has a metro system,opened on April 26th 1991.It only has one line comprising 7 stations so we went on it for one stop.Next we went to see the war memorial which honours soldiers lost in Russias Afghan war.As you
can see from the pictures it is very different from the others we had come across in Russia thus far. We enjoyed cooling down in the nearby fountain.
Time for dinner and we managed to find the fire service themed restaurant.It has a fire engine shell as a bar,fire hydrant stools and lots of other memorabilia.While eating the heavens opened and there was a huge thunderstorm.Luckily this petered out as we walked to the viewing platform.This was hard to find as its entrance is not clearly marked but basically you get access to the roof for an almost 360 degree view of the city. Fortunately the thunderstorm stayed away!
Next morning we visited the impressive building complex next door to the hotel but couldn't establish what they were for - probably some sort of monastery. We took a bus into the city and found an internet cafe housed,as they often are,in the post office.We found the Lenin statue and the pedestrinised street which led us down to Pauls Bakery which provided us with a nice cup of tea and cake as well as some pizza for our next overnight journey on the train.Next stop Nizhny Novgorod....
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