Feb. 18 – Google’s amazing new video map allows users to browse the entire Trans-Siberian Railway. One can loiter on the platform at Yaroslavsky station before accelerating into Moscow’s suburbs, gliding across the Volga, racing through the Lower Urals, and speeding across the Barguzin Mountains before pulling up in Vladivostok a few minutes later.
The humble steed is the amazing new map-cum-video guide unveiled by Google Russia and Russian Railways. The project sews together a series of videos shot from the window of a Trans-Siberian carriage as it spans the 5,752-mile length of the world’s most famous long-distance railway. Various images and bite-sized history lessons pop up along the way, and, from time to time, the window seat footage is complemented by city video tours courtesy of the perky Yelena Abitayeva. Even the soundtrack is considered – with optional Russian radio, balalaika music, Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace read in Russian, or simply the rumbling of the train wheels.
The route goes across two continents, 12 regions and 87 cities. The joint project of Google and Russian Railways lets you take a trip along the famous route and see Lake Baikal, the Khekhtsirsky range, the Barguzin Mountains, the Yenisei River and many other picturesque places of Russia without leaving your house. During the trip, you can enjoy classic Russian literature, brilliant images and fascinating stories about the most attractive sites on the route.
