The view outside our window this morning.
We left the hotel early. After gassing up, Dave and Boz, set out ahead of the group...
to test the long straights and twisties as we backtracked to Lake Baikal and up its eastern shoreline.
First, we had to get by cows, by now an everyday thing, several times each day (or more).
Our route took us back over the rail crossing where we had the long delay yesterday, but today as we approached, the last rail car went by, so the wait at the gate was short.
I thought our ride by the lake would be scenic, but for the most part, the road stayed up in the hills and trees blocked the view.
We did ride some good curves.
And traversed a bunch of construction.
As we turned eastward, away from Lake Baikal, we rode through an area that was contributing to the region's smokiness.
One of the highlights for today's ride was a monastery. We took a small road back towards the lake to find it.
After passing a small village with a church on the lake, according to directions Boz had received from Janis, we thought the monastery was a little further on. As we continued down the road, we came across these boats on the shoreline. Since this is a lake without tides, we are a little baffled as to how they get them in and out of the water.
Still no monastery, as we passed a tiny church, and then came to another small village at the last waypoint marked on the GPS.
We did find a WWII memorial...
and David thought this Ural motorcycle and sidecar was cool.
After some discussion with Boz, we decided to go back about 25 miles, to the village with the church that we had bypassed.
That's where the monastery was! We entered the grounds and took a look around. The inside of the 400 year old church had the traditional rows of icons at the front. However, it was so well maintained and freshly painted white inside, that it didn't feel very old. Pictures inside the church were not allowed.
The grounds of the monastery are right on the Lake.
Mission accomplished - now on to tonight's hotel. We had a choice on routes - Either continue on the smaller road which eventually reconnected with the highway, or go back the way we came. We chose the later because we needed fuel and had seen a gas station as we turned off earlier.
As we left the village, I took a few photos of the colorfully painted homes and fences. Many of the homes have elaborate painted window frames, and plain, unpainted weathered siding, and this village was more colorful than most. Winters in Siberia must be hard, as it is bleak during the few weeks of summer.
We saw a few more churches along the way, but this one caught our eye. It is in the parking lot of a truck stop.
And this is the smallest one we've seen so far.
Early afternoon we crossed over two bridges to enter the Ulan Ude. The first had prancing deer statues and the second was flanked by bronze panthers.
This lady greeted us with open arms, b
ut what we really came to see was...
...the giant Lenin head.
It's the biggest Lenin head in the world.
We estimated the head to be about two stories tall and the entire monument about 4 stories. Huge.
We left the Siberian Hotel to walk to dinner a short distance away. Smoke created a hazy sunset.
As we walked back through Lenin Square, we found a celebration in progress. Apparently these guys had just finished a rally from London to Mongolia called the Mongol Rally.
But they did it in cars. We wanted to tell them that we are traveling from Riga, Latvia to Hong Kong on motorcycles. What a time for a language barrier... As we were dressed in civilian clothes, not riding gear, so don't "look" the part.
Dinner was good, although we did get suprised by an appetizer of frozen horse liver wrapped in fat. Lesson learned - always ask before you put food into your mouth. Tomorrow we will ride into Mongolia, with a border crossing, and another world!
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