Trans Siberian Eclipse 2008 - 7 Day Tour Itinerary

MOSCOW /IRKUTSK / NOVOSIBIRSK

Moscow Red Square, Kremlin and Armory

The Kremlin is the center of Moscow and Russia itself. It is the place to which all Russian roads lead. An entire city of its own, the Kremlin holds numerous palaces, cathedrals (Assumption Cathedral), monuments and the Armoury. This opulent collection of treasures accumulated over centuries by the Russian State. The Armoury's collection fills 9 rooms and offers fantastic displays of wealth from the renowned Faberge' Easter eggs to jew encrusted crowns, thrones and even guilded carriages.

The sheer scale and impact of the Red Square complex is hard to comprehend. Like everything else in Russia, Red Square was designed to be big, impressive and strong. Surrounded by the rainbow colored onion-capped towers of St. Basil's Cathedral, massive red brickwork, the megalithic GUM department store and lest we forget Lenin's impressive granite tomb, standing at the foot of the Kremlin wall.

Irkutsk:

Irkutsk is lighthearted and sunny, filled with pastel-colored 18th century buildings and delicately sculptured old wooden houses where the political rebels lived n serene exile. Elaborate brick mansions were built at the turn of the century, and the dark black wooden cabins were adorned with a local "lace" sculpture that gives them a touch of the Italian Renaissance.

As a local writer once noted, - "To miss seeing Irkutsk is to miss Siberia."

The Decembrists Museum tells the tale of exiled nobles Trubetskoy and Volkonsky, some of nine former Princes, counts, and nobels exiled to Siberian labour camps who subsequently settled in Irkutsk after completing their sentances.

We also visit the Baikal Astrophysical Observatroy and the Mineralogical Museum of the Irkutsk State Technical University. It is famous not only in its region, but also far outside. It possesses a collection of precious and semi-precious stones, some of them are unique and invaluable. The university collaborates with a lot of museums worldwide and usually participates in different exhibitions, conferences and congresses. Moreover, some of the items are offered for buying.

Lake Baikal:
This 3.15-million-ha Lake Baikal is the oldest (25 million years) and deepest (1,700 m) lake in the world. It contains 20% of the world's total unfrozen freshwater reserve. Known as the 'Galapagos of Russia', its age and isolation have produced one of the world's richest and most unusual freshwater faunas, which is of exceptional value to evolutionary science. A UNESCO World Heritage site, the Committee inscribed Lake Baikal as the most outstanding example of a freshwater ecosystem on the basis of 4 natrual criteria. It is the home of a large number, more than 1200, of endemic species. The most famous of which is the Baikal freshwater seal, called nerpa.

The Lake Baikal Museum is currently converting part of its building into a large aquarium that will soon show the nerpa to the public.

Trans Siberian Railway:

Relax as the train takes you through some of the most beautiful and untamed regions of Southern Siberia. We stop briefly at scenic Tayshet and Krasnoyarsk.

One of the older towns in Siberia, Krasnoyarsk was founded in 1628 as a trading post along the Yenisei River. It grew rapidly when gold was discovered in the region, and eventually became a major river port and industrial center. Outside the ciy is the Stolby Reserve, an attractive preserve notable for the odd, columnar cliffs that rise from the river's edge inside its area. After one passes over the Yenesei, another of the Trans-Siberian's most significant border crossings takes place--one leaves the steppe and plunges into the taiga, the great forest that extends over most of the area.