Sunday, 30 August 2026

 

Start: Hotel Yekaterinburg (RU) 13:40

Arrival: Hotel Yekaterinburg (RU) 17:30

 

Total: 5 km walking

 

 

 

After a good buffet breakfast, I first updated this blog with yesterday's non-events, then we headed out to explore the capital of the Urals. The forecast predicted a maximum of 10°C. As we also wanted to see the inside of an Orthodox Church, that meant layering: long skirt, pants, pullover, jacket and scarf. Ready for a polar expedition, we headed towards the subway station. On the way, we filmed a short video of the local circus and the area around our hotel, which hosts the geological branch of the University of the Urals.

 

Inside the metro station, we tried to figure out how to pay for tickets at the machine. Sonia asked another passenger, and he promptly bought us a ticket and didn't want to accept any money for it. How extraordinarily kind!

 

 

The metro was packed and we were happy to get out at the second stop, which was the Dynamo Stadium. Through a large park with a pervading autumnal smell of over-ripe apples, across a huge parking lot and a large square - all of them quite devoid of people or cars - and we were standing in front of our first destination: the Church on the Blood, built on the spot of the former Ipatiev House, the place where the family of tsar Nicolas II had been shot in 1918.

 

 

Below the church is a, well, another church with an attached museum on the Romanov family. We entered. People kissing the royal pictures, praying, devoutly making the sign of the cross. We seemed to be the only "real" tourists inside. We crossed the chapel and entered the next hall.

 

Walls filled with the story of the family's plight and hundreds of pictures and paintings. To me, it was all a bit much. As always when I find myself in a place of extreme devotion, no matter the denomination, I feel sort of like an intruder.

 

 

We made our way up to the second floor. The stairway was beautifully painted with scenes from the last tsar's family life. Then we entered the church proper, which was truly breathtaking. Candles everywhere, votive niches, lower storey, upper storey balcony and way way up there, the grand cupola, all masterfully painted with the Romanovs below, saints above, then Christ, angels and God father. I'm not a Christian, but the soaring hall deeply moved me and inspired a wonderful connection to the ineffable. I understand now why I did not have the same feeling in the Qol Sharif Mosque in Kazan: it was the fact that I was standing on the balcony and looked at the interior from already half-way up. Places of worship should make you gaze up into the soaring height, the infinite sky, to greatness beyond. At least that's how it is for me. The mysterium, the holy, is best experienced with the head tilted back, eyes toward the Sun, the Moon, the stars.

 

 

For all its grandeur, the intense worship of the tsar and his family felt strange to me. I'm too much of a mystic to understand a personality cult. So we gave the church back to its worshippers and stepped out into the air. The clouds had parted, the air was still crisp and cool, but the wind had calmed and the sun was warm on the skin. I tilted my head back, closed my eyes and enjoyed its rays. Wonderful.

 

Meanwhile, my ever down-to-earth sister had figured out the quickest path to the Plotinka, the dam across the Iset River. On the way, we saw one of many little "dom muzei", house museums depicting the life of the artists who had lived in them. We had wanted to visit the house of the "writer of the Urals", Dimitry Mamin-Sibiryak, but unfortunately it was closed on Sundays. No matter, just strolling around was even better for getting a feel for the city.

 

 

And what a city Yekaterinburg is! Yes, I could live here for a while, I love its cold Northern elegance, its endless sprawling boulevards, its bustling shopping streets and especially the quiet grandeur of the skyline above Iset Pond. I hope the video does it justice.

 

It's not easy to cross the wide boulevards of this city. Overpasses are non-existent, underpasses rarer that I would have liked and pedestrian crossings far apart. If you find one, better be quick. 19 seconds to cross a street of stately Russian proportions. I'll say it with Yandex: Go! Maybe I should get into the habit of using their handy e-scooters.

 

 

We walked almost the whole length of the promenade around Iset Pond, then over the Plotinka, then back looking for an underpass that proved to be closed for repairs, back towards Ploshad 1905-goda, 19 seconds to cross the boulevard and we finally made it onto the supposedly beautiful Ulitza Vaynera. I say "supposedly" because this pedestrian street is currently under reconstruction and, although fully accessible, it's quite loud, crowded, dusty, with deep holes in the pavement where the bricks have not yet been laid back down (what would a German bureaucrat say to this: Strassenschäden!! The street would be wholly closed off to protect the poor citizens from any possible harm). As it were, the Yekaterinburgers were quite mature and capable of hopping over any missing pavement. We hopped as well, and right into a cosy little coffee house bakery. I needed to sit down. Preferably with an iced coffee and cake.

 

 

After a rest, I was ready to brave Vayner Street once again. The lower part of it proved free of any construction sites and we had fun looking around. After a while, the wind was getting too stiff for my liking and we sought shelter in a huge shopping mall, the Grinwich. From there, back to the hotel, rest, food, sleep. Enough for one day.

 

As we took a few more pictures but I'm too lazy to write gazillions of paragraphs for them, here their captions in order of appearance:

1. Sevastianov House - a beautiful historic mansion that now serves as presidential residence. Often, summits are hosted here.

2. "No swimming allowed in the pond" - local youth takes this to mean that floating on a tire is naturally permitted.

3. Interesting statues in Ulitza Vaynera invite the child-like visitor to climb onto them.

4. Britannia pub. Many cafés and shops in this area had either a Chinese or feline theme. But of course I would snap a pic of a bona fide British pub instead.

5. Sonia in front of a fountain. Nice picture.

6. Yes, that way to Grinwich shopping mall. And that's all for the beautiful capital of the Urals.