#AtoZChallenge – E is for Ekaterinburg

For my fifth day of the A to Z blogging challenge, I’m playing a little more of a tour guide to introduce you to another scenic area of Russia featured in Dust to Blood: Ekaterinburg. This is a large, metropolitan city in central Russia in the foothills of the Ural mountains, home at the time of the book (and now) to 1.3 million residents.

It’s an industrial city with deep ties to Russia’s history. This is where Tsar Nicholas II and his family were murdered in the culmination of the Bolshevik revolution at  the Ipatiev house in 1918. I had a college friend who visited this city, but wasn’t terribly impressed: It struck her as more industrial and bearing a heavy communist stamp than would be considered a more traditional tourist destination. But there are things other than the historic Ipatiev house to see there too, for those interested in ice caves, mineral springs, and ski-able mountains.