We departed from Moscow's train station and headed East to Vladivostok. The journey is 5,620kilometers or 3,492 miles.
The plan is to take 14 nights and 15 days to complete the journey.
We took the Golden Eagle Luxury Train. During the journey when we stopped at various stations to spend time siteseeing, our 8 cars would pull off the track, and the rest of the passenger cars would hook on to the engine and pass us. 
We had a Restaurant Car, a Bar Car, 5 passenger sleeping cars, and a staff car. There were 38 people on our journey. The staff on the route is 35. 
We arrived on Friday, May 6th at Kazansky station for a welcome reception in the station's Imperial Waiting Room. 
We then boarded the Golden Eagle after a glass of champagne.
Our dinner was served on the Golden Eagle in the dining car.
BAR CAR...
BAR CAR...
We arrived at 8:00AM. Kazan is an attractive city situated on the Volga River. 
Kazan is the capital of the Tarstan Republic - the land of the Volga Tatars, a Turkic people commonly associated with Chinggis Khaan's hordes, although they prefer to identify themselves with the ancient state of Volga Bulgaria, which was devasted by the Mongols. 
The independent Kazan was created in 1438. It was ravaged in 1552 by Ivan the Terrible's troops and Tatar allies, and the collapse of Kazan caused such unease further east in the surviving khanate of Sibir (in Western Siberia) that Sibir nominally began paying tribute to Ivan. 
Kazan's collapse also cleared the way for Slavic Russian farmers to pour into the Ural Mountains region around Perm.
Make a wish by placing your hands on the leaning tower
Make a wish by placing your hands on the leaning towerThe city has a very multicultural atmosphere. 
Tatar autonomy is strong here. They have enjoyed vast oil reserves, and the post-Soviet cultural revival, manifested by the popularity of modern Muslim fashions and Tatar-langage literature, characterises its self-confidence.
Completed in 2005, which is named after the imam who died defending the city against the troops of Ivan the Terrible in 1552.
We crossed the Southern part of the Ural Mountains and approached the border between Europe and Asia.
The Church of the Blood and the Romanov's memorial. 
Russia's Last Tsar Nicholas II , and his family were murdered in this spot in the basement of a house that was formerly located on this site.
The Bolsheviks murdered the family on the night of July 16,1918.The executions took place in the basement of a local engineer's house, known as Dom Ipatuyeva. Nicholas and Alexandra had 5 children, 4 daughters and one son who was the youngest. Alexandra was the grandaughter of Queen Victoria.
During the 1970's a civil engineering graduate at the local university, Boris Yeltsin, began to make his political mark, rising to become regional Communist Party boss. He becam the Russian Federation's first president in June 1991. That year Yekaterinburg took back its original name. (known at Sverdlovsk for 70 years)
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