Von Shanghai nach Hamburg

After about 13700 km, we arrived in Hamburg today. The longest bus journey of our lives is done. We are looking forward to being home.

In the morning, we were able to see more of Gdansk during a short city tour. The 2 hours were far from enough. We definitely have to come back here. Gdansk was heavily destroyed...

Es war wieder eine langer Fahrtag (fast 12h), notwendigerweise über viele Landstraßen, nach Danzig. Nun sind wir im 7. Land unserer halben Weltreise angekommen. Ankunft erst...

Unfortunately, we rushed through the Baltics. This is a pity because the landscapes and cities are very beautiful. We only had one day for Lithuania and Vilnius. A brief stop at...

In the morning, we explored Riga with the help of a local and extremely nice guide. Riga is very attractive, but different from Tallinn. Riga is world famous for its Art Nouveau...

It's a pity that we only had a short amount of time to visit Tallinn today. We could only manage a minimum in 2 hours. The positive impression from yesterday was confirmed:...

The EU has us back. In Narva, we crossed the border between Russia and Estonia. The border crossing was done in record time (1h 45 min). We owe this mainly to our bus driver...

High culture must be in St. Petersburg. A visit to the Hermitage was on the agenda. The magnificent halls, the incredible amount of artwork, the many rooms like a maze, the vast...

St. Petersburg has so much to offer. The highlights are spread out. Even after the first day of sightseeing, we can still hardly grasp the city. We tried to visit some of the...

On the way from Waldai to St. Petersburg (about 300km), we made a detour to Veliky Novgorod. This city is one of the oldest in Russia and had its heyday in the Middle Ages. The...

For a day, the journey from Moscow to St. Petersburg is too long. Therefore, we stop halfway (about 400 km) in Waldai. The vibrations in the bus were slightly negative today -...

A must in Moscow: taking the metro. First, you go down pretty deep on the escalator and once you're down, you'll find palatial train stations. Then a visit to "Wladi" in the...

With a stopover in Vladimir, we went to Moscow yesterday. In terms of distance, it's not far (about 400km), but the traffic situation in Moscow was announced as unpredictable....

Today's task was to explore Nizhny Novgorod (formerly called Gorky before the revolution, named after the Russian poet). The city was also a so-called closed city. Due to the...

Actually it wasn't that far (380km), but due to the many construction sites, the drive to Nizhny Novgorod took quite a while. We had a longer lunch break in Cheboksary. This...

This is how Kazan is referred to, and it's true. Here, cultures come together - seemingly peacefully. Orthodox churches and mosques shape the cityscape. As the local guide...

Germany experienced its debacle against South Korea at the 2018 FIFA World Cup here. But that didn't stop us from heading to Kazan with our heads held high. The journey (580 km)...

We sat on the bus all day (11 hours). This time, we didn't notice the re-crossing of the continental border. In any case, we are back in "good old Europe". The journey through...

We are still in Asia, but 40 km to the west, Europe begins. We visited the demarcation line (60th meridian) between Asia and Europe today. Tomorrow, we will finally enter the...

Continued to the Ural Mountains (about 350 km). Originally, we imagined the Ural Mountains to be more mountainous, but our route was mostly hilly at best. Yekaterinburg is the...

Tjumen likes to be compared to Dubai in Siberia. According to the Russian folklore, people here swim in oil and money. Tjumen is the oil and gas center of Russia, all well-known...

The beautiful Orthodox cathedral.

Today we spent 9 hours on the bus. The trip is livened up by various lectures from the experts on board (local landscape guide, former Russian journalist for politics, etc.)....

Every time I think of Novosibirsk, the line from the Westernhagen song "Her name was Natascha. She came from Novosibirsk. We drank vodka in bottles ...." comes to mind. Our bus...

Just 250km from the last destination is the capital of Siberia, Novosibirsk. The further west you go, the better the infrastructure becomes. We were partly driving on good...

This is just the appetizer, usually potato salad, cheese, and vegetables.

The landmark of Krasnoyarsk.

Our Helene was born in Krasnoyarsk, but no one knows her here. The journey here was quite long (540km), but on a good road quite fast. The landscape became more and more varied...

The river Uda at the destination still has plenty of water.

We continued our short trip (1.5 hours) to Irkutsk, the next larger city here. Irkutsk has a lot of history to offer, as many, many years ago unwanted people from Russia or...