It wasn't until sometime later, after I had booked this trip, that it dawned on me that I would be taking an "around the world*" trip. Around the world in 17 days! Wonderful! Reno/Sparks to Los Angeles, overnight and across the Pacific to Vladivostok, Russia, then by the Trans-Siberian Railway across the whole of Russia, to Moscow, and the final legs of the trip included flying to the U.S. and eventually to Reno/Sparks. What a great trip!
Previously, I have been in all 24 time zones around the globe, but I had never traveled completely around the world in one trip, either east to west or west to east. In that regard, this trip was a first for me, in more ways than one.
For whatever reason, certain areas of the world have fascinated me, and Siberia is one of them. I most likely developed this fascination because of the motion pictures I've seen, but also through books, magazines, television and so on. Whatever the cause, I've reach a point in my life where I had to make the journey and see for myself.
So it is that I came to book a trip with National Geographic and "cover the landscape", as they say, seeing Siberia by way of the Trans-Siberia Railway, traveling from east to west, Vladivostok to Moscow. The trip was 9289 km ( 5759 miles) and every day had something of interest for me.
It was an exciting journey and I hope my pictures and text provided here help tell my story. Come along with me and view Siberia as I saw it traveling the longest rail journey in the world. To begin viewing my pictures starting with the first day click here or click on any specific day in the following list.
For a detailed listing of daily diaries and photos click here.
Click on any picture to see an enlarged view. Use back to return.
* PS: I have been trying to plan an around the world trip, redeeming some of my American Airlines AAdantage frequent flyer miles. I have enough miles to "pay" for the airline portion of such a trip, but the difficulty is deciding on my itinerary and then finding flights on AA and/or its business partners to get me around the world.
My basic plan would be to devote an entire day to fly from Point A to Point B, stay three or four days and then repeat the fly/stay pattern about ten times until it got me back home. Americans assume they can fly anywhere on any day of the week. Well, that's not the case with some countries and international flights. So I have to find an airline that flies to where I want to go on the day I want to go, and also between AA and the business partner airline, that they have a frequent flyer seat available for the desired booking. No luck so far, but I'll keep trying. Watch this space, as they say.