A soft-sleeper from Beijing brought us to Xi’an, a Shaanxi city which has expanded past its ancient walls with the same flurry of activity and industry that we saw in the north. Once the capital-city of the region, Xian is now most famous for the discovery of the Terracotta Warriors nearby.

And …

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We pulled into Beijingzhan with much relief — after nearly a week on a train, it was great to be able to walk and stretch and feel solid, steady ground beneath our sandalled feet. We walked out of the train — looooong platforms — and out into the heat and noise and crowds. In moments our …

Yesterday we boarded a night-train in Warsaw, bound for Moscow. It was a small cabin, but we had it to ourselves — the carriage attendant took one look at our backpacks (and generally shabby appearance) and pointed out this was “first class” — the benefit of buying our …

Just a quick note to let everyone know we made it to Moscow — a 23 hour train ride from Warsaw, but I think about 22 of those hours were taken up by passport checks, with another hour to change the wheels to the Russian gauge.

Nobody here speaks english, so I better figure out some “survival …