"As the train pulled out of Istanbul's Bakırköy Station in the general direction of Paris, our cabin steward Eduardo poured the first of what would be many glasses of Champagne over the next six days. Crystal flute in hand, I settled into one of the plush (and firmly anchored to the floor) upholstered seats across from my mom and raised my glass."
"Just a week earlier, I had called her with a last-minute ask: Could she fly from my hometown in Wisconsin to join me on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express? We'd booked her tickets moments later. As a travel writer, this wasn't the first (or the last) time I would reach out with a plus one for a soon-departing trip, but it was one of the most special occasions: over 40 years after she'd first read Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, she still carried a fantasy of traveling on the iconic train."
"The oldest sleeper carriage on the Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express, Sleeping Car 3309 was famously marooned in a snow drift sixty miles from Istanbul in 1929. The ten-day ordeal-in which no one lost their life-later offered dramatic inspiration for the plot of the bestselling novel. Today, Sleeping Car 3309 is home to three of the train's Grand Suites."
"The five-night journey departs from Istanbul and winds through Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Austria, with stops in Bucharest and Budapest before its final arrival in Paris. From lush velvet upholstery to intricate marquetry to gleaming brass fixtures, each sleeping carriage-including an exclusive carriage-long L'Observatoire designed by French artist and photographer JR that launche"
A train journey begins in Istanbul as a cabin steward pours Champagne and the travelers settle into plush, anchored seats. A last-minute invitation brings a mother from Wisconsin to join her daughter on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. The trip is especially meaningful because the mother has long wanted to experience the iconic train after reading Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express more than 40 years earlier. The journey uses Sleeping Car 3309, the same sleeper carriage tied to the novel’s inspiration. Sleeping Car 3309 was marooned in a snow drift near Istanbul in 1929, and the ordeal later influenced the plot. The five-night route travels through Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Austria, with stops in Bucharest and Budapest, before arriving in Paris, featuring luxurious interiors and a carriage-long L’Observatoire by JR.
#luxury-train-travel #venice-simplon-orient-express #agatha-christie #istanbul-to-paris-route #sleeping-car-3309
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