BY JANET STEINBERG
With the remake of the 1934 mystery film Murder
on the Orient Express lighting up the nation’s movie screens for the
holiday season, I thought of what a newspaper editor might have said to an
8-year old girl named Virginia if she had written the following question,
instead of the one about Santa Claus:
Dear Editor: I am 8 years
old. Some of my little friends just saw a movie named Murder on the Orient Express and they say there is no
Orient Express. Papa says, ‘If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth; is there an Orient
Express?
Yes, Virginia,
there is an Orient Express. It exists as certainly as your family car,
the planes in the sky and the ships on the sea. As a matter fact, come
along with me and I will tell you about a journey back in time when I was a
passenger on the Venice Simplon-Orient Express (VSOE) for a luxurious overnight trip to
Venice.
Because I rode
the rails in pre-Chunnel days, there have been some slight itinerary changes
since my time on the train. However, the classic journey, wrapped in
timeless romance and epitomizing the golden age of rail travel, is still the
same.
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| THE JOURNEY BEGAN IN LONDON |
