5. A Big Blue Time mAchine

The golden eagle offers guests a chance to visit beautifully preserved monuments to Russia’s rich and often turbulent past. in Kazan, passengers visit the towering Kul Sharif mosque, one of the largest mosques in the country, which was constructed in the 16th century as part of the unesco-recognised Kazan Kremlin. in irkutsk, guests enjoy a private operatic concert in the breathtaking mansion of count Sergei Volkonsky, now a museum to the failed Decembrist uprising of 1825. On the outskirts of ulan-ude, there’s a visit to a traditional village of the Old Believers, a religious sect that was exiled to the depths of Siberia in the 1600s for not following church reforms; while in novosibirsk, a century of rail history beckons from the city’s museum for Railway Technology, a fascinating outdoor exhibition of towering, Soviet-era steam locomotives.