This is a shorter version of the rolling epic aboard the Golden Eagle Express; the Trans-Siberian. It travels all the way from Moscow to Lake Baikal (or in reverse). we pass through the mesmerizing, seemingly infinite Siberian forest, the taiga, paying leisurely visits to Kazan, whose Kremlin is a UNESCO World Heritage site, to Yekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk during Soviet times), founded in 1723 by Peter the Great as a gateway for his expansion into the wilds of Siberia (we’ll visit the church which marks the poignant spot where Russia’s last czar, Nicholas II and his family were murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918). We continue to the Soviets’ Siberian capital Novosibirsk and visit its opera house, the country’s largest, and on to architecturally and historically fascinating Irkutsk, Siberia’s major city in czarist times, and to Lake Baikal, the world’s oldest, deepest, most voluminous (it holds an astounding 17 per cent of the world’s fresh water), and most interesting (it’s home to more than 100,000 freshwater seals, called nerpa. In the middle of a continent!). Many of us, and just about every Russian, also consider Lake Baikal the planet’s most intriguing and massively beautiful lake.

Day 1: arrive in Moscow, meet local guide and transfer to five-star hotel • Day 2: morning Moscow tour, board Golden Eagle in afternoon, head eastward to the Pacific • Day 3: city tour of Kazan • Day 4: cross into Asia, tour Yekaterinburg • Day 5: Novosibirsk • Day 6: onward towards Baikal • Day 7: arrive in Irkutsk • Day 8: by rail to Lake Baikal, with stop for lunch on the lake’s shores and later, visit to charming village of Listvyanka • Day 9: flights homeward.

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