Day 11 - Monday, Sept 23 - Arrive in Irkutsk

Day 11 route (not very far and hard to see)

 We woke to the sun rising over the mountains on the south side of Lake Baikal and the sun reflected on the lake – very spectacular. It is another beautiful morning. We have been extremely fortunate to have clear days and no rain for over a week. We are now traveling through mountains covered with pine, Larch (Tamarack) and golden Aspen trees.

We pulled into Irkutsk around 9:30. Irkutsk was founded by the Cossacks in the 1660s as a trading city on the tea route. It is now the main city of Eastern Siberia with a population of 600,000. It is on the border of the Angara River as it makes it way to the Arctic Ocean.

We first had a walking tour of the city, visiting a number of the notable churches and monuments. One of the monuments at a church was to Alexei Chirikov who was the first European to set foot on Alaska. Vitus Bering, a Danish captain, is given credit for discovering Alaska but he never actually set foot there. When Alaska was sold to the US in 1867 for $7.2 million, Americans thought it was too much and the Russians thought it was too little, although the Russian government was ready to abandon it as the fur supply was almost depleted from overhunting.

Check used to purchase Alaska!

We visited the memorial to the soldiers killed and missing in the second world war. It is a privilege for high school students to stand on guard for 30 minutes at a time in respect. We were able to see the changing of the guard although it was a bit uneasy to see them “goose-stepping”.

War memorial with student guards

We then went to the Russian Orthodox Epiphany Cathedral which is completed covered inside with very colorful paintings that have been and are still being restored. The church was used as a storehouse during the Soviet era.

Epiphany Cathedral

From there we took the road towards Lake Baikal to have lunch at a traditional dacha. On the way there, Alexei told us an interesting story. In 1959, President Eisenhower suggested having a meeting with Premier Nikita Khrushchev on the shore of Lake Baikal. Eisenhower had spent time in Irkutsk earlier in his career. Khrushchev agreed. Unfortunately, there was no road from Irkutsk to Lake Baikal so the mayor of Irkutsk was told to build the road. They managed to finish the 40 mile road in only 4 months by quickly clearing the forest and putting down blacktop. Unfortunately, the U-2 spy plane piloted by Gary Powers was shot down in 1960 and Khrushchev called off the meeting. But the road is now a popular way to get to the lake!

The dacha we visited has two houses, a large vegetable garden, a goat, chickens and turkeys. The owners use their fresh grown vegetable for the meals prepared for guests like us. We had a delicious lunch of salad, borscht, meatballs, potatoes and blini for dessert. The owner showed us some of the traditional dolls that she makes (and were for sale).

Dacha owner with dolls

After lunch we went to the Decembrist Museum in Irkutsk. The Decembrists were a group of generals and leaders who after the defeat of Napolean in the 1812 war, attempted a coup by sending 2000 troops to the Czar’s palace to demand a Republic-style government. Sadly, the troops went but not the leaders. The Czars troops killed 800 of the coup soldiers who didn’t know what to do without their leaders. Subsequently, some of the coup leaders were executed and 120 were exhiled to Siberia to serve hard labor for 13 years. Many of these were nobles and intellectuals and some of the brave wives followed them, settling in Irkutsk and bringing with them the culture they left behind in St. Petersburg and Moscow. We visited the museum, a very large house (mansion), that has many artifacts from the families that lived there. At the end of the tour, we were treated to a concert of piano and opera music that would have been performed at the time.

Concert musicians

We are staying at the Courtyard Marriott in Irkutsk.

David and friend in front of hotel