Day 13

Early morning breakfast (6:30) with the hordes.  Easy bus ride to train station. The Baikal excursion train was packed. We were in the Russian car. The other cars were full of Chinese. We got lucky.  There were four seats around a table, and a young gentleman across from Al was an electrical engineer from St. Petersburg. He not only spoke good English, but also had great stories to tell. One of his ancestors was a forestry specialist and in early 1900s he discovered a new plant species on Olhon island. He later emigrated to the US and became a professor of forestry at Berkeley. The train was uneventful from Irkutsk to Sludyanka. A Russian group from Angarst sitting at a table/seats across from us took out all kinds of food supplies as soon as the train started moving and they continued to eat until almost the final stop. They had enough food to feed at least 50 people. After Sludyanka, the train rode very slowly along the lake and made several stops. Most stops were short ~ 25 minutes and one was 50 minutes. We got off and had to fight hoards of Chinese taking selfies and pictures everywhere. At 1:30 pm they served us lunch at our table- soup, bread, chicken, potatoes, salad, dessert, and tea.  It was pretty good. Our destination was Port Baikal and a quick ferry to Listvyanka.  The choice was immediate ferry or one 45 minutes later. We opted for the later so we could explore port Baikal. What a mistake. There was nothing there but rusted out ship wrecks. Quick ferry to Listvyanka, then an hour bus to Irkutsk. We did dinner in the London Pub in our hotel and it was good.