Experience November 2005

On board the world's most celebrated train

Brittany Henderson on the Venice Simplon Orient Express

November 2005

The Venice Simplon Orient Express in the Baneasa Station.

Well, I have arrived this morning and I am sitting here in the Athenee Palace Hilton waiting for the Venice Simplon Orient-Express group. I came about an hour early and I am sitting amid the crystal and the marble floors, the opulent glass and amazing architecture of the Athenee Palace thinking about what amazing interiors, art, and architecture must await me aboard the train. This is the opulent lifestyles of the rich and famous. But it is more than that; it is mystery and intrigue.

Nothing in Eastern Europe is without its own edge. In Southern California it is just rich, filthy rich, and we know it. Here it has an edge, a history. Like the car of passengers of the Orient Express that was saved in 1929 by Turkish villagers after it got stuck in a large snowdrift for ten days. It has that sense of danger about it. But also you know that you are going to be pampered. You know life is going to be sumptuous, but to what cost, to what extent? And whom will I meet aboard the train?

The edge is that history that is ever pervasive in Europe; it’s that feeling of ‘we fought wars on our own soil.’ It is the unmistakable mark that communism left on this planet. It is all of the above. The fact that the history of the twentieth century was played out on the stage of Europe, and the Orient Express was no exception. It was tied together with the history of Europe. It saw kings and it saw their fall. It ran in splendour and it sat and rusted in a warehouse. That is what gives it the mystery that makes it the Orient Express. It is not the luxury that is the most appealing aspect, but the mystery to it, the sense that it somehow played a part in the grand stage of the history of Europe.

The question on board the train is who is here and why did they come. The passenger list reads like the characters of a novel, and it is not hard to imagine putting a murder mystery on board this train. including amongst its 105 passengers on this trip were the fabulously wealthy, and there were those that wouldn’t even don a polo shirt for a dinner that requires a tux. Indeed with each compartment having a 24-hour steward service, (called by a bell, none the less) it is easy to feel like a 1920s dame with a gentleman accompanying you. That is what it is aboard the train: it is stepping back in time and travelling in Europe the way two generations before us did.
The only break with the time travel is when you disembark for the various stopover cities. One of which is Bucharest, where the guests stayed the night at the Athenee Palace Hilton. Their tour of Romania and the places that they saw were the interbellic Romania, from the time when King Mihai was on the throne – though most of the passengers I spoke with were far more interested in the communist days of Romania. Indeed, Ceausescu, in all of his madness left his indelible mark upon the country. And in honour of that, we entered the train today in Ceausescu’s personal station, Baneasa.

Inside the Bar Car, 3674, the piano sang its tune to our tales. The bartender, Giorgiu, tells me of the famous actor aboard on this particular trip. Robert Benzel, of Law and Order, Special Victims Unit, is on board with his companion. There is also another blond lady that apparently is someone famous, because all of the Japanese tourists have their picture taken with her. Then, there was the odd twenty-something couple from Spain that are part of the jetset. This trip for them is just a leg of a longer journey and they have to split their time between their yacht in St Lucia and the one moored off the coast of Spain. Amazingly, the passengers seem as curious about me as I am about them. Having a reporter along for any leg of the journey is usually not allowed, but the manager of all the Orient Express trains in Europe made an exception for me.

Cedric the Steward for the Spaniard's car.

There were two couples from California, and I couldn’t help myself with the expat connections – especially with the couple from Fresno, California, where I was born. They were on board to celebrate their fortieth wedding anniversary. The other couple was on board to celebrate their twentieth wedding anniversary. This train somehow seems to invoke the sense of romanticism and anniversaries. It is like boarding an old dame, one that was new in your grandmother’s age, and seeing your grandmother as a beautiful twenty year old again, courted by your grandfather. The Orient Express is like breathing vivid life into an old black and white photo.

The couple from Fresno, California, celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary.

The list of characters grows upon each meeting. There is no such thing as ordinary people, and aboard the Orient Express this is especially true. Each compartment contains a story, each drink in the bar and each dinner in the dining car the tales are shared just like a bottle of fine wine. The people not only meet, they watch, they conjure stories, and they leave more complicated than they came.

All of the details are attended to on the train. Each coaster is an imprinted work of art, each car is detailed by a separate artist, and though the train lacks the modern conveniences of showers and closets, it offers a trip through time to another place. Back to the time when the world was grateful to have a world war over, sumptuously enjoying their money, and designing new art for their times. The Roaring 20s was the golden era of the Orient Express, the time when the French artist Fix-Masseau designed all of the VSOE posters. Just like his famous Madonna poster of the VSOE, it was a time when the Madonna in the black dress puffed away on a long-stemmed ladies cigar.

The bar car has the feeling of a seductive lounge, only to be enhanced at night I am sure. If there was one regret that I had aboard the Orient Express, it was to not be able to attend a dinner in my finest black dress, alit in the soft glow of intrigue.