The Wait

Just a couple of days to go now. Bags packed, documents checked and house cleaned. This is a biggie, even for us! Starting in Xian, China, we are heading for Amsterdam overland.
We normally travel on a 'day to day' plan. Read 'no particular plan'. Because of the areas we will travel through, particularly, Russia, we have been forced to work through travel agents. All due respect to these agents, but we will never do it this way again! The costs are inflated by up to 300%.
Having gone through all the planning and visa application processes, we feel confident that we could have done it all ourselves after all. Oh well just another 'learning experience.
The first leg of our journey in China will take us from Xian to Beijing via the G-Train. The Chinese version of the Japanese Shinkansen bullet train. From Beijing we catch the Trans-Mongolian train across China to Ulaanbattar in Mongolia. After a couple of days in a Mongolian Ger we hit the rails again into Russia. Irkutsk, Moscow, St Petersburg and Helsinki follow, all by train. Then on to the Baltic States, Warsaw and Krakow in Poland, Hamburg and finally, yep still by train... to Amsterdam.