After 24 grueling hours on a train, we were salivating over the prospect of a shower and a clean set of clothes. We arrived in Yekaterinburg, the site of Tsar Nicholas II's last stand, just after midnight.Online accommodation booking in Russia is in its infancy. Perhaps more accurately, English online booking is in its infancy. In any case, the choice of hotel is sometimes straight-forward.
The limited choice of hotels in Yekaterinburg led us to booking at the Bolshoy. I would strongly recommend staying anywhere but this hotel. We dragged ourselves up the stairs only to discover a shoebox of a room sans toilet and shower. Although there was a solitary communal toilet to service the entire floor, there was no shower.
After much gnashing of teeth, directed at the hotel's reception, I concluded that the tsar was not murdered here after all; he died of shock on arrival at this hotel in Yekaterinburg.
One word: Hell.
