Day 46: 689 Kms Omsk – Kurgan XPD beyond Asia- Trans Siberian 2019 Coimbatore to St Petersburg

Very good Break of Buttermilk crepes, Bread, fruit, kefir and even cheesecake, this morning at the hotel.

We left at 8 am and headed out to the Assumption Cathedral. This is my third time in Russia and having seen so much of Orthodox architecture, it never gets boring.Particularly the case when it comes to the Assumption Cathedral of Omsk, whose gold-and-turquoise domes look resplendent under the blue skies.

People say all roads lead to Moscow in Russia, on account of the city's status as the national capital and its importance throughout history.

If geography were the deciding factor, however, the Siberian city of Omsk would be the point where all Russia's roads converge—it's located literally in the heart of the country, approximately as far from Vladivostok as it is from the Belarusian border.

Having limited time, we only managed to see the Cathedral which is the focal attraction of Omsk.

Chilly morning but more so because of the wind chill factor. Temperatures are at 6-10 Celsius at nights. Days have been Sunny in the mornings and rainy in the evenings.

So far we have passed through 5 time zones only in Russia. The world is divided into 24 time zones, and Russia covers 11 of them. This is by far the most time zones in any country (not counting overseas territories).

When the east of Russia is in the middle of the working day, the western regions are still fast asleep.

For us shifting time zones had been gradual, so we are getting easily accustomed to an hour being gained every time the zone changes.

This morning we took the E30 which is an A-Class European route from the port of Cork in the Republic of Ireland in the west to the city of Omsk here in Russia... Near the border of Kazakhstan in the east the E30 joins the M5 which is also known as the Ural Highway runs through Kazakhstan for a bit.

Lunch is always an hour’s stop at a roadside cafe. 

After lunch when I was on the wheel, the road went from being fabulous to real bad. Tarmac roads but riddled with potholes and bumps. I realized that the landscape around was very swampy, and that’s the reason the roads are bad as well. I read up now and learnt that roads are hard to maintain when the terrain is swampy and tend to sink often.

My google maps satellite showed a large number of swamps and looked very alien-like. The roads slowed us down considerably and we reached Kurgan at 6.30 pm. Hotel is small but nice.