Anyone been to Ekatinburg?

[BrianW]

I was thinking of spending 5 days in St. Petersburg then 5 in Ekatinburg.

Anyone been there? Thank you.

[Misha]

I was thinking of spending 5 days in St. Petersburg then 5 in Ekatinburg.

Anyone been there? Thank you.

Yes, was there a few years ago. As noted, I like Ekaterinburg. The pace is a bit slower than Moscow, yet has all the amenities.

[mendeleyev]

Lot of history there. The Romanov's final days were there and they were murdered in the Ipatievsky house and buried in mine shafts outside of town. Boris Yeltsin the Communist party chief of that region was born in Yekaterinburg.

The Russian church built a cathedral right on the spot where the execution took place and a beautiful monastery outside of the city was built in the Romanov family honour.

Marshal Georgy Zhukov lived in Yekaterinburg when exiled by Stalin. Later Stalin would recall him to Moscow to lead the war effort against Germany. There are monuments to Zhukov and the local soldiers worth seeing while there.

That entire region is chemically polluted/contaminated beyond belief so is truly a place where bottled water is your friend. But it's beautiful, historic as well as a touch of modern, and the people are very genuinely Russian.

The Ural mountains are something you'll always remember.