On steel wheels

Netherlands - Moscow Doing acrobatics in your shaking train compartment... not my cup of tea, but my travel mate has no problems with it.
Moscow - Barnaul Traveling in style for three nights, in 1st class. Well cared for by our nice 'provodnitsas' (car attendants)
Barnaul - Novosibirsk No places on the train left... fortunately we could also take the bus on this relatively short daytime connection.
Novosibirsk - Irkutsk
Ulan-Ude - Ulanbataar So far we had avoided the direct Moscow - Beijing trains, because they were said to be filled with tourist groups. That turned out to be true when we entered Mongolia. More Europeans and Americans on this train than Mongolians... And of course the windows had better be clean.
Ulanbataar - Beijing Simply the most stunning train journey I've ever done.