Expo / London to Istanbul
Making tracks
Nothing epitomised the golden age of travel like the Orient Express. But with the venerable service now existing only as an upscale tourist attraction, anyone wanting to savour its classic itinerary has to catch a hotchpotch of connecting trains. And while a series of utilitarian carriages is no substitute for the opulent wagons of yore, at least one thing about the trip remains constant: life on board continues to enchant.
Day 1: London–Paris
There is no excitement quite comparable with the first forward lurch of a long train journey. That thrill is amplified if it’s the beginning of one of the great proper train trips, and this is the greatest and most proper of all: the Orient Express, the sumptuous transcontinental route favoured by royalty, celebrity and fictional Belgian detectives.
Except that the Orient Express doesn’t exist any more – not really. There is still a train called the Orient Express but it’s a privately run tourist attraction that saunters between…
