So I am thinking that Ekaterinburg is somewhere you would have heard about. It is "famous" as the place that the last Tsar of Russia and his family were shot in 1918 in the basement, and just out of town is the official demarcation (according to Russia) between Europe and Asia.

We arrived to another spectacular station, I think the biggest we have seen and to announcements in English that we could hear and understand (thanks football World Cup). We had left Siberia and were now in the Urals. Ekaterinburg sees itself as a European city, and to be honest it felt more European compared to some of the others (there was even a M&S), and possibly even more as we had come from Tobolsk.

We were in Ekaterinburg for 3 nights and booked a tour out to the Europe-Asia border and to the monastery which stands on the site where the Romanovs were first buried, They were moved two days later to their final resting place, which we would also visit.

We have also started to use Russian Uber (I know you were getting excited to hear about our skills with public transport) therefore we made it to the hotel, no issues.

First morning was a bit of a debacle regarding laundry. It took 3 attempts to find a laundrette, and we ended up in a weird basement of a random hotel attached to a sporting facility that did same day laundry, therefore first part of the day we lugged dirty laundry around Ekaterinburg. Standard.

The Church of the Blood is on the approximate site of the building where the Tsar and his family were murdered. We saw our first tour group in ages and as they were taking photo's, so did I. The basement however had a mass going on, therefore no photos there. Felt wrong.

Anyway, that done we wandered round trying to follow the tourist green line, which kept disappearing and seemed to have very few actual "sights". Giving up on that, we went up a a sky scraper to a viewing platform, and then went to find Lenin.

After finding Lenin, we bought new t-shirts, very exciting.

That night it was another burger and craft beer place. Nice it was too.

Next morning we started the tour by heading to the Europe-Asia border, a modern one closer to Ekaterinburg, and then the 19th Century one, which was more impressive. We have corny photos at both. We have been told that Ekaterinburg is a little bitter at being in Asia so moved the border closer to them so they are only just in Asia.

We also visited a mass grave from "the Terror" (1937/1938) which had c22k(?) bodies in and was discovered when they thought to build a ski lodge there. It is now a poignant memorial, which jointly notes the Jews, Muslims, Christians and Russian Orthodox victims who are buried there. Our guide mentioned that the Russian Orthodox Church weren't too keen on the mixed memorial, however it happened anyway. It felt like a really still place despite being beside the main highway and a bit hard to comprehend.

Our guide wasn't such a fan of the establishment that is the Orthodox Church, i.e. the business side of it, and the power it has to control policy and decisions. Apparently a lot of Oligarchs like to donate money to the church. This is what happened at the monastery/burial site.

So, the story goes that a rash decision was made to shoot the Romanovs and their retinue, it was unorganized and they panicked with the White Army at the gates. They therefore took the bodies to a mine site and threw them down a mine shaft, they then tried to burn and blow up the bodies. They were still worried that people would find the bodies (there was misinformation that they remained alive for a period after their death), therefore two days later the killers moved the bodies to another spot. It was this second place was where some of them were discovered in the 1991, but weren't exhumed until 1998 (after the fall of the Soviet Union) and finally in 2007 the remaining two children were found close by.

The first site with the monastery on it seemed a little like a theme park (it cost to get in), with sparkling new chapels (although one of them had a lovely porcelain sacistry screen), the second was in a boggy bit of forest next to a train line and gas pipe... not exactly a good place to build a theme park (just saying).

The second location was very still, and had a couple of crosses to mark the sites of the burials.

Wandering round that evening considering where to eat and looking for a supermarket, we happened upon a collection of military paraphernalia: tanks, things that weren't tanks (a self propelled gun, which looked like a big tank to me) and other armoured vehicles. These were in a grotty courtyard and had children playing all over them, it was amazing. Health and safety rules would no way allow that! So anyway Luke decided to climb up and have a look at a tank.

Ekaterinburg built the T34 tank (apparently it is a famous one), and because of this the factory won lots of Soviet medals... yes factories and cities won medals in Soviet times. These medals are still proudly displayed outside the factory.

On the way back to the hotel we took in the war memorial for more recent conflicts and once again there were children climbing on the statute, it was lovely actually.

Next day it was off to Perm, only a short trip of 7 hours.