Intriguing,
delightful, beautiful, mysterious… all this can
be said of Russia, a vast land stretching from the
shores of the Baltic to the Sea of Japan and to within
sight of Alaska.
Long cloaked in mystery, Russia
is only now revealing its magnificent treasures to
outside eyes: from the monumental buildings of Moscow
to the magnificent Ural mountains, the endless Steppes
and the clear waters of Lake Baikal (the world’s
largest freshwater lake), this extraordinary country
never ceases to amaze. Steeped in history and with an
incredible legacy of art, music and literature, this is
the land of Catherine the Great, of Tchaikovsky,
Tolstoy and the Communist revolution. Today’s
Russia wears its history with pride, as shown by a
recent resurgence of interest in the pre-Soviet past.
More than twice the size of the
USA this, the world’s biggest country, boasts 11
of the world’s 24 time zones: when the sun rises
in Moscow it has already set in the lands bordering the
Bering Sea.
Across this great country
the Trans-Siberian Railway runs like a steel ribbon
connecting east and west. Opened in stages between
1891 and 1916, this extraordinary engineering
achievement is a vital national asset – and by
far the best way to experience the grandeur of
Russia’s rarely visited interior.
It is no surprise that
Churchill once described Russia as “a riddle
wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”. Join us
to unravel that riddle on the greatest railway journey
in the world… and on the most luxurious of
trains.
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