Nostalgia    History brings with it a sense of nostalgia. We want to visit historic restorations, such as Williamsburg, or Versailles. We want to travel historic highways, such as Route 66 or the Oregon Trail. We want to sail historic sea lanes, such as the Transatlantic route, even if many historic liners may be long gone. We want to travel historic rail routes, such as the Transsiberian. We're even tempted to take several trains from Paris to Istanbul to imitate the Orient Express route. But wait. There are still Orient Express coaches in existence! And they're perfectly restored! And you can ride in them!

Imagine visiting grand residences like Fontainebleau near Paris, or Schönbrunn in Vienna, or Charlottenburg in Berlin, or Peterhof in Saint Petersburg, or the Biltmore Estate in NC, US. You enjoy seeing the grandeur and beauty, but before you leave, some official takes you aside. He asks in all seriousness if you'd like to buy a special ticket to come back that evening and hang around for the night in these totally authentic surroundings. You could have dinner in the grand dining room, then spend the night in the master bedroom. At this point, you have stars in your eyes, your feet are floating above the ground, and are ready to agree to anything. But he has two caveats. Bring dressy clothes. And, as the old travel expression goes, to pay for the ticket, "bring money". Well, that invitation is nonsense and won't happen.

But what if someone says you can get a ticket to have dinner and spend a night in some genuine, restored, luxurious, museum-quality, 1920s-1930s Orient Express coaches? And what if that doesn't just mean sitting somewhere on a siding in some station or in a museum, but actually en route to an original Orient Express destination somewhere across Europe? In this case, do believe that person, and do let those stars appear in your eyes as your feet rise above the ground to walk on air, because this IS doable.
However, the two caveats will still apply. Bring dressy clothes. And for the ticket, definitely bring money.

Cruise Ships, Cruise Trains    I have a feeling there are too many people that don't realize the enormity of the mid-20C shift in travel. For centuries, people took ships for a practical purpose, transport, that is, to get from A to B. The fact that they may have enjoyed the ride was a happy side result.

During the 19C, there are odd examples of people taking ships "just to go for a ride", because they enjoyed it. Finally, in 1900, the Hamburg-America Line completed construction of the first ship built exclusively for luxury cruising, the Prinzessin Victoria Luise, and during the first half of the 20C, even ships mainly built for transport became more luxurious for people who just wanted to particularly enjoy the ride.

Then in the mid-20C, the tail began to wag the dog. With air travel and car travel becoming more and more popular, ship transport declined in importance significantly, to the point where today, most people who take ships do it primarily because they enjoy the ride, and secondarily for transport—or even not at all for genuine transport. You've heard of people who will use a week's vacation to travel transatlantic just for the experience, the fly right back, essentially nullifying any transport that had been accomplished.

The same thing happened to passenger rail to a large extent. There still are long-distant trains across North America, Australia, Asia, and Europe, the regular Trans-Siberian being one of them. But so many have disappeared, that overnight cruise trains have taken their place, such as the trips in Ecuador, Peru, and others, including the VSOE, which people are taking for enjoying the ride and not for transport. However, I was sure when we took the VSOE we didn't backtrack but continued onward within Italy.

The OE Revival    Old transportation vehicles don't necessarily disappear. We had pictures of near century-old Rolls-Royce touring cars in 2021/2. I've talked about sailing on the still-in-service 1874 Juno canal boat in Sweden. And so it is with train cars. Museums buy them, collectors buy them, some are kept in storage. The Orient Express coaches from the First Golden Age around the turn of the 20C are mostly (not completely) gone, but there were plenty left around in one location or another from the Second Golden Age between the World Wars. And thanks to James Sherwood, a number of these were purchased, updated, and made into a pseudo-modern version of the Orient Express. In his own way, James Sherwood did for the revived, wannabe OE cruise train what Georges Nagelmackers had done for the original, genuine one. And odd as it may seem, it all came about via a company called Sea Containers Ltd. I'll tell the story, but it's like peeling away the layers of an onion.

James Sherwood was an American-born, British-based businessman, who earned an economics degree from Yale and learned about shipping first in the US Navy then working for United States Lines. In 1965 he founded Sea Containers Ltd as a supplier of leased cargo containers. Over forty years he expanded Sea Containers into numerous shipping companies, as well as expanding the company into luxury hotels and railway trains. In this respect, Sea Containers is an ancestor of the OE cruise train. We'll get back to that. Jumping ahead, the company went bankrupt in 2006 and he resigned from it and from each of the companies it owned, except that he did remain as Director of the hotel/rail company (see below).

Let's now put ships aside and get down to the next layer of the onion, hotels and trains. Sea Containers had built up a considerable hotel and leisure business alongside its core maritime activities, starting with the Cipriani Hotel in Venice. The ultra-luxury Cipriani is not as ancient as I'd imagined. It was founded in 1958 and achieved instant success. In 1976, Sea Containers bought it, which is when it established its hotel and leisure division. The hotel subsequently expanded into the adjacent Palazzo Vendramin, a 15C palace facing the lagoon and Saint Mark's Square (connected by a hotel launch), so now it did have an ancient heritage.

https://www.travelbyfingertip.com/Italy/Travel-IT/hotel-cipriani-map.jpg

We've been looking recently at some maps of Venice, and will see more soon. But this map specifically points out the Cipriani, at the very eastern tip of La Giudecca, so you can judge the five-minute launch distance to the Piazza San Marco. (I've never visited the Cipriani. The closest I've been, by vaporetto, is the park area in the center of La Giudecca.)

Now with this first hotel under his belt, the plot thickens. Wagons-Lits, in decline, was selling its rolling stock, and so, in 1977, a year after buying the Cipriani, James Sherwood, a rail enthusiast, bless his heart, went to an auction in Monte Carlo and bought two battered first-class sleepers that had been part of the Orient Express in its second Golden Age. One report says it then took him five years and $3 million to round up 23 more, but another report says he spent $16 million purchasing 35 sleeping cars, dining cars, and Pullman coaches. These rail cars had had Lalique glass reliefs, mahogany paneling, rosewood marquetry and more. He restored most and cannibalized the rest for parts.

Sherwood realized that the emotional pull of the Orient Express name was ongoing, and his plan was this. Keeping the newly acquired Cipriani as the prime destination, Sherwood decided to operate a pseudo-version of the old Simplon Orient Express as a contemporary cruise train connecting Sea Containers' home based in London, via Paris, to Venice, where the Cipriani was, in the hope that wealthy travelers would take the train to the hotel. Note that this was the very same SOE route via the Simplon Tunnel that we explored earlier. Sherwood subsequently acquired a series of 1920s and 1930s Pullman cars for the British part of the operation. On the Cipriani Venice map you can judge a possible route down the Canal Grande from the rail station to the Cipriani. In this regard, the Cipriani is another ancestor therefore of the OE cruise train. The first cruise train left Victoria Station London for Stazione Santa Lucia in Venice on 25 May 1982. It was called—and still is—the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, or VSOE. The name is logical—check where they hyphens go. It was intended to follow the route of the SOE thru the Simplon tunnel, but then go, not to Istanbul, but just as far as Venice. So if you believe its name, the VSOE is the "Venice [only, abbreviated version of the] Simplon-Orient-Express".

Tho early on, this hotel/rail operation was still part of Sea Containers, it was named Orient-Express Hotels Ltd, which indicates that from the beginning, the stark emphasis was on luxury hotels, and rail services were always mere adjuncts to the hotel business. Yet it's odd that, tho rail was secondary, the hotel company was named based on the train.

James Sherwood continued as a Director of Orient Express Hotels Ltd until retiring in 2011. Last year, on 6 July 2020, I was startled to read his obituary in the New York Times. He had died at age 86, seven weeks earlier on 18 May 2020. I don't know the reason for the delay in the announcement.

Belmond    So where do we stand now in this tangled corporate history? The shipping company is out of the picture, the Cipriani is no longer the only luxury hotel involved, Sherwood is gone. When we rode the VSOE in 2002, the hotel company was still under that rail-sounding name, Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. That was perhaps the simplest corporate structure it ever had, because then layers of the onion started reappearing. In 2014, the hotel company was renamed Belmond, and its holding company became Belmond Ltd. But trains are still secondary to the hotels, a fact that irritates me. Yet confusingly, the VSOE brand includes the British Pullmans, even tho they never historically had any connection with Wagons-Lits. That's only part of the historical fudging that Belmond does with its trains, and we'll discuss more later.

LVMH    And then Belmond, with its hotels and trains, got further lost down the corporate rabbit hole, so we have to start another thread to understand that. In 1971, the champagne producer Moët & Chandon (founded in 1743) and the cognac producer Hennessy (founded in 1765) merged to form Moët Hennessy.

We talked about Louis Vuitton in Paris in 2018/10, the fashion house founded as a high-quality luggage maker in 1858. In 1987, Louis Vuitton merged with Moët Hennesy to become Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH). Then in 2019 LVMH bought Belmond, as a purchase, not as a merger, so the Belmond name didn't even get added to the acronym LVMH. In 2021, with a valuation of $400 billion, LVMH became the most valuable company in Europe.

LVMH (to my mind, an oversized, bloated corporation just catering to the beau monde, but I'm sure they don't think there's anything wrong about that) controls about 60 subsidiaries that each manage some 75 (!) prestigious brands. Not every famous upscale brand is included by far (thank goodness), but so many have been swallowed up. And as many New Yorkers have already heard, LVMH just completed the purchase of Tiffany & Co in January 2021.

The subsidiaries are grouped into six branches:
Wines & Spirits (Dom Pérignon, Veuve Cliquot), Fashion & Leather (Christian Dior, Givenchy), Perfumes & Cosmetics (Guerlain), Watches & Jewelry (Bulgari, TAG Heuer, Tiffany), Retailing (Paris department stores La Samaritaine, Le Bon Marché), Other Activities (Belmond [Hotels]). I think it's indicative of importance in this grouping that Belmond is listed under "other"--and just as a hotel company, with no reference to Belmond trains. (Doesn't anyone there care?)

So if you ask who owns the VSOE, after peeling once again many layers of the LVMH onion, you come to "other", then to Belmond Hotels, which, as we know, seems to consider hotels its main business, with trains as a sideline.

My Type of Hotel    I love the modest and cozy places, such as the Hôtel Aéro in Paris (2018/5); Clockmaker's Inn in Nova Scotia (2014/20); Hotel Rumi Punku in Cusco (2017/13).
I'm happy with mid-range chains, such as Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel in Baltimore (2017/2), the Westin in Pittsburgh (2019/7) or the Ibis Styles hotel (an Accor hotel) at Charles de Gaulle Airport (2018/11). But with rare exception, I'm uncomfortable in lush surroundings, which is what Belmond promotes. Going to a luxury hotel just for the cushy luxe of it is not for me.

Belmond Properties    In 2015, Belmond owned, spread over 22 countries, 36 deluxe hotels, 7 cruise trains, 2 river cruises, and 8 restaurants. In any listing of Belmond properties, one is overwhelmed first of all by all their deluxe hotels. In Europe there are 13, mostly in Italy, with the Cipriani leading. North America has 6, South America 8, Asia 5, Africa 4. (Australian privately owned luxury hotels seem to still be safe, and Antarctica needn't worry, either.) I've never stayed in a single one of the Belmond hotels, tho there are two minor caveats, both in Peru where Belmond has a large hotel-and-train footprint. In 2017/11, in Cusco, where I was comfortably ensconced in my cozy Hotel Rumi Punku ("Stone Door", named after its Inca portal), I did walk down the street to take a peek at, on a historic square and also located in historic buildings, both the Belmond Palacio Nazarenas and Belmond Hotel Monasterio. And when I went to Machu Pikchu (also written "Picchu"), included in the train tour was a stop for tea time at the Belmond Sanctuary Lodge. Beyond those two caveats, I never was involved with the hotel side of Belmond. However, of Belmond's 8 restaurants around the world, I have dined several times in New York's 21 Club (2011/15), which Belmond gobbled up in 1995.

That gets us down to Belmond's transportation properties. You'd expect just trains, but actually there are two boating experiences. The "Belmond Road to Mandalay" is the name of a ship Belmond has that cruises up and down the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar (Burma). "Belmond Afloat in France" includes travel of seven canal and river barges. I've never been involved with either of these—as you know, my choice for a French canal boat trip was the Luciole in 2018 on the Canal du Nivernais (2018/10-11).

So now we're finally down to cruise trains run by Belmond, with which I'm most familiar, since I've been on five out of the seven. We'll start with the two I have NOT traveled on, both sleeper trains.
In Scotland there's the Belmond Royal Scotsman, which runs on 2, 3, 4, 5, or 7-night journeys around the Scottish Highlands and once a year runs for seven nights around all of Great Britain.
In Ireland & Northern Ireland there was the Belmond Grand Hibernian, relatively new, and killed by Covid. I understand Belmond is planning to relocate the train elsewhere in Europe.
That leaves the seven Belmond trains I've ridden. Two are day trains only, the Belmond Hiram Bingham from Cusco to Machu Pikchu in Peru (2017/12) and the Belmond British Pullman (2020/5), three times out of London, once as part of the 2002 VSOE trip and twice to Southampton docks (2002-2003). The overnight trains I've taken were the Belmond Andean Explorer from Cusco to Puno on Lake Titicaca in Peru (2017/14), the Eastern and Oriental Express from Singapore to Bangkok (2010/16), and the VSOE, which we'll describe in this posting.

Pleasure versus Informed Pleasure    I think I can describe the principal gripe I have with Belmond while still greatly enjoying the VSOE. I, and many other travelers, like to know what's going on. If you go to a historic site, let's say Versailles, some people just take their enjoyment in seeing the palace and gardens. Others want to know a lot more about it—which kings? Who designed the gardens? Who paid for the restoration? (Rockefeller) What's the Treaty of Versailles all about? To my way of thinking, those who really do enjoy the visit, then rush off to do some shopping I call tourists, and I do mean that pejoratively. They treat the experience as a vacation event. So be it, and I'm sure they enjoy themselves. Those who've checked out in advance what they would be seeing (seeing something you already know about increases the pleasure) and those who follow up on what they've learned, I call travelers.

Most of the historic places one can visit are either government-run, or run by private, not-for-profit organizations. They will cater both to the tourist vacationers, but also to the history-minded travelers, who want to know more. Belmond, on the other hand is a profit-driven corporation. The trains it runs, such as the VSOE, are historic gems. The trip on the VSOE is absolutely fabulous, and Belmond does a good job for vacationing "tourists". However, it falls short informing travelers about what they want to know while enjoying the trip. Belmond does not lie. But it does not always tell the whole truth, and it often misleads, letting people make inaccurate assumptions on their own. It's like Disneyland not telling you that Sleeping Beauty's Castle might not be exactly what it looks like—they want to make people purchasing a ticket happy and not "confuse" them with precise facts. Apparently Belmond thinks that, if you're taking the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, and expect you'll go thru the Simplon Tunnel, why disabuse a paying customer of that assumption? If they've heard that the train leaves Calais, why tell them they're being brought to the wrong Calais? If they're happy—and they really are—why confuse them with historically accurate details? It's like treating people like children, presenting a very paternalistic attitude, but that's what we've got here.

When I describe our fabulous VSOE ride in a moment, I'll tell both what I thought (as did assuredly many if not most of the other passengers ) was the case at the time, as opposed to what I either learned en route (very little) or since the trip—now, two decades later—a great deal. It can be said that today's wonderful VSOE reflects on the Orient Express only in spirit, but not in historical accuracy. But it was a fabulous, thoroughly enjoyable overnight trip. And of course: With all your faults, I love you still.

Today's Routes    Where today's routes are is easily answered as long as your remember: spirit, not historical accuracy. In fact, there are hardly any actual set routes. Since the train is just used for "fun" rides all around the Continent, many cities are visited that never had anything to do with any Orient Express, or at best, might have had a Kurswagen visiting them. Cities that have been visited in the past are Rome, Florence, Cracow, Lucerne, Cologne, Dresden, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Berlin. One semi-route is that two or three times a year, a train runs from Venice to Prague or Vienna and Budapest, then returns to Paris and London. But that's really nothing more than a variation on the return trip from London/Paris to Venice, isn't it?

Which leaves us with THE route of note, the route Sherwood established to connect his Sea Containers offices in London to the Cipriani Hotel in Venice, that very VSOE London-Venice connection presumably by the SOE route thru the Simplon Tunnel (but don't believe it). This is the bread-and-butter route of the train, and is what leaves most frequently, roughly weekly from March to November, that is, when some other odd excursion isn't disrupting its pattern.

Possible Model    Back in the day, we've talked mostly about the Paris-Constantinople connection, but I've found a historic poster touting a genuine shorter version of that. This is an elegant 1906 Art Nouveau poster (click) for trips out of London and Paris ending at Venise/Venice. Striking is the name—it's not the Orient Express, nor the Simplon Orient Express. It's just the Simplon Express! The schedule shown on the left from London to Venice is amazingly similar to the one of the modern VSOE cruise train. It's odd that the schedule lists afternoon stops as "soir", which is otherwise evening (D=départ; A=arrivée). The return times are on the right.
I find it interesting that they specifically point out that it's 20h to Milan, the only stop after Paris, and not to Venice.
It stopped twice in Paris, first at the Gare du Nord, then at a place called PLM, which I had to look up. PLM was a former railroad, the Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée. I don't know what the reference is to a Paris PLM stop. This train was not a daily. Note at the bottom: ALLER = going, leaving M W Sa; RETOUR = return, leaving T Th Su.
I know nothing else about the "Simplon Express", but this does seem to be a model for the bread-and-butter route of the modern VSOE train. It's a shame they don't really follow that model.

SNCF/ACCOR    SNCF, the French National Railway, has owned the name "Orient Express" since 1977, and Belmond's VSOE operates under a license from SNCF. But SNCF is going a step further. In Paris in 2018/11, when I stopped for a final night at an Ibis Styles hotel at Charles de Gaulle Airport, I said that that was one of many brands owned by Accor Hotels, and added: Accor Hotels of France is the largest hotel group in the world that you've probably never heard of, though you know some of its brands. Actually, aside from the US chains, it really IS the largest hotel group in the world . . . Well, in 2017 another partnership was struck to manage the OE brand that has nothing to do with Belmond. Two French groups, the SNCF and Accor Hotels, teamed up together for a new endeavor to develop the OE brand. This would include (1) the development of a new collection of prestigious hotels under the Orient Express banner; (2) operating seven vintage carriages they own for private journeys and events (Belmond doesn't have them all!); and (3) the creation of the Orient Express Endowment Fund, to preserve, promote and share the historic train’s heritage. I do not know how far along this endeavor has come. Furthermore, way back in 2014, SNCF announced it was to relaunch its own Orient Express train from Paris to Istanbul, but no further details were included in a statement to the media.

Remember, in 2020/8 we discussed that weekly contemporary Moscow-Paris Express, in a way recreating Wagons-Lits's old Nord-Express, so a Paris-Istanbul Express, with no changes of train, would be fabulous. But I don't think that's come along in the intervening years.

2002 to N Italy & S France    We were on a roll. As explained (after the fact) in the very first posting, 2000/1, our First Travel Cycle lasted over three decades while we were still studying, then working. Then came our Second Travel Cycle covering the decade of the 1990s, where retirements, Beverly's illness, and moving changed our living style and we were limited to domestic travel. But the new millennium started our Third Travel Cycle and it was back to Europe, and later, beyond. In 2000 we returned to our first choice, Germany, and traveled extensively there, and in 2001 it was the return to the British Isles. Now it was 2002 and we were ready to go further afield and wanted to revisit Northern Italy and Southern France, which I plotted out very carefully and where knew exactly what we'd be doing.

We had earlier sailed transatlantic five times (one-way) and only rarely had flown. But with Beverly now being in a wheelchair, I felt ship travel was the only way to begin this new cycle. In 2000 we traveled on the Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2), for the first time, and returned on the Deutschland. In 2001, 2002, and 2003, we were the QE2 round trip. In 2004 it was the Queen Mary 2 (QM2) round trip, Beverly's last.

So for the 2002 five-week trip, our third in this new Third Travel Cycle, we knew we'd come and go on the QE2 at Southampton, connecting to London. We knew we wanted to drive (best with a wheelchair) around Northern Italy and Southern France, then returning by train to Southampton. We knew we always used specialized train (or boat) trips as real transportation, and so we had to connect London and Venice. What a perfect opportunity to look into the VSOE!

But scheduling! The QE2 did a round trip maybe twice a month. The VSOE was also on a tight schedule. We'd just revisited the UK the previous year and didn't want to spend a lot of time in London again, but were eager to get on to Italy. Our time was flexible, but could I schedule the rail 'n' sail parts at the start of this trip properly?

Nervously reviewing the two schedules, I found it turned out to be a piece o' cake. In 2002/2, I wrote: When I found out that the train, which leaves London only every other Thursday, would line up with our arrival, I was delighted. We could mesh the schedules, which couldn't have been better. The ship would arrive one day, we'd overnight in London, and the train would leave the next morning. I even found a hotel right in Victoria Station.

We know the ride is pricey and will speak to that later. I never made a note of what I paid for the two of us, so I don't have that data. But I'd totally forgotten something that I only came across recently in the travel diary. The trip was on sale! Pay one fare, and the second person goes for half-fare. That comes to 150% of a double fare for the two of us, meaning we were paying only 75% of the total fare, for a 25% discount. How could we have lucked into that?

In 2002, from 20-25 June, we crossed from NYC to Southampton on the (click) QE2 (Photo by 663highland). In 2002/2 I wrote: [B]efore we left NY, I rented the 1974 film to resee, with Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Sean Connery, Dame Wendy Hiller, Rachel Roberts, and a half-dozen other major names.Tho I'd read Murder on the Orient Express years earlier on a Christie reading binge, I took my copy with me and remember sitting on the open deck rereading the mystery with Atlantic breezes wafting. I knew the story took place on the other side of Europe, with the train going in the opposite direction, and that this would be a modern incarnation of the train. But who really cared?

London    On 26 June we docked in Southampton and made our way to Southampton Central for the train to London for our one night there. We'll once again use the picture of Victoria Station we showed as part of Agatha Christie's first trip in 1928 (2021/3).

https://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/sites/rtm/files/styles/banner/public/2021-02/9c39307a54a0453db388af28eddf10c2.jpg?itok=uzSZOd_b

We can now talk more about Victoria Station, since this time it isn't Agatha Christie's visit there we're discussing but our own. The area seems to be a hodge-podge, but it works quite well. This sky view looks southwest, and hovers above Victoria Street (curved, and right off the bottom of the picture), after which the station is named (not after the queen directly), even tho the buildings are set back from it on Terminus Place, the location of a bus station.

Before we leave this aerial view, note these three structures lined up cheek-by-jowl: the white building on the left, the red-brick building in the center, and the rectangular building on the right, which is a hotel originally called the Grosvenor Hotel and whose larger façade is on Buckingham Palace Road on the right.

The reason the building line is an architectural hodge-podge is that Victoria Station was built piecemeal, and was originally two stations, one for the London Chatham and Dover RW (LC&D) and one for the London Brighton and South Coast RW (LB&SC). Altho this map is from 1888, it's helpful for understanding Victoria Station. The LC&D tracks were on the left, and its building (1862) had the white façade (Photo by Richard Rogerson). The LB&SC tracks were on the right, and its building (1860) had the red-brick façade (Photo by Ewan Munro). And the Grosvenor Hotel (see previous picture), under its original name, is on the far right. It opened in 1861 with 300 rooms. In 1923 the Southern Railway was formed, and the two parts of the station were united, with the red-brick façade becoming the main entrance. The wall between the stations was opened up and all the tracks were renumbered sequentially, and in the opposite direction, which can be seen on this current map we'd used talking about Agatha in 2021/3:

https://www.londonreconnections.com/wp-content/uploads/Victoria-Station.png

Knowing this history, I now understand why the tracks on the left are longer than the ones on the right. Keep this map for our departure in the morning—it's SO nice to have a hotel right at the station; I now understand much better why the Victorians built them so often that way. But for now, let's all walk to the right, where a little blue bed shows the entrance to the hotel's lower level, in that big, gray blank rectangle.

We've only seen partial pictures of the hotel at its short end, but this is its larger façade on Buckingham Palace Road (Photo by Stephen Richards). It's really a quite handsome building. I knew it was venerable, but only now learn it dates from 1861. However, names change. When we stayed there, it was called the Thistle Victoria. I now learn that the company that owned it apparently ran it under its Thistle Hotel brand. The same company owns it, but runs it under another of its brands, so I've read that now it's the Amba Hotel Grosvenor. I liked the Scottish-sounding Thistle name, but am glad it's now back to its original Grosvenor name.

We rolled into the lower level of the hotel and took the lift up one level to the lobby to check in. I'd booked a standard room, but when people would see the wheelchair, nice things tended to happen. Sure enough, they gave us what I used to call at the time a "wheelchair upgrade" to a very large suite at the Thistle. I have very pleasant memories of that stay. The suite was dark, with heavy draperies and Victorian upholstery. The ceiling went way up to THERE. It was huge suite, but my clearest memories are these. I put Beverly to bed, then went to the large wooden desk at the far end, keeping only the desk light on because she was sleeping. These first years of the Third Cycle were the first years of traveling with a laptop, and I remember continuing getting used to sending emails home, usually describing the trip. Those and other emails were eventually consolidated after the fact and, reedited, became the early postings of this website three years later, in 2005, the actual start of the website, despite having listings starting in 2000. Thus this website is a child of our Third Travel Cycle.

VSOE    The next morning, 27 June, was the date of our VSOE trip, which ended promptly the following day. It was so convenient just going to the lower level of the hotel then rolling the wheelchair into Victoria Station (see map). This view (Photo by Antanana) would be looking straight down the tracks (click) and that would be the hotel structure we just left on the right. We then have a directional sign (Photo by Matthias Nonnenmacher) showing us we've reached the center of the station. Platforms 15-19 are where we just were, close to the hotel, and Platforms 9-14 are straight ahead. We need to continue to the left to Platforms 1-8. (Check with the map, but there's been a slight change in the numbering--the map shows the groupings to be 1-7, 8-13, 14-19. No matter.)

http://www.warwickallen.com/799/images/OE/100_2100fw.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wPxTeDj0klc/UIqsKP7tNZI/AAAAAAAABsM/awScIuK0H9o/s1600/IMG_4490.JPG

We reach the far side of the station, up against the far wall, where the check-in for our special train is located. I have a very clear memory of what it was like then. The train was on Track 1, which is easy to remember, since Track 1 so much shorter for some reason. Built right into the wall of the building, as the above two pictures show, was the check-in office where you also left your bag for delivery later to your train compartment. Notice the office is very clearly named "Venice Simplon Orient-Express" and makes no mention of the British Pullmans. How was I to know the train sitting there on Track 1 wasn't the VSOE (located in Calais), but a British Pullman train? Actually, I never heard the name "British Pullman" until quite recently, when I wrote about it, and so I had no way of knowing that five weeks hence, on the way back to the QE2, the special train going right to Southampton Docks would be the same British Pullman train (and repeated in 2003). Now I know that Belmond (then still called Orient-Express Hotels Ltd) owned and still owns both the British Pullmans and the VSOE—they're sister trains. This is only the beginning of misleading information the company allows passengers to assume, rather than trying to explain what's going on for historic accuracy.

But that was in 2002, and apparently a thing or two has changed.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4c/f4/dd/4cf4dd210e61ee4e6048d1cdd694fcf2.jpg

http://www.eastbank.org.uk/images/VSOE/OE0131.jpg

Now Mark Smith (Seat 61) mentions that the train leaves from Track 2, which, as our map indicates, is still on that far wall, and the first picture above corroborates that change. In addition, the second picture shows a different, free-standing check-in lounge. But still, some things never change. Both new locations still say VSOE and not British Pullman. So if you're as uninformed as I was at the time, you'd still not know what was going on.

Standing on Track 1 next to the train, I had stars in my eyes and was walking on air. I still feel the thrill. But I'll freely admit how uninformed I was. I didn't know, until we reached the coast, that there were two separate trains involved. I didn't know where on the coast we'd be going, and assumed Dover, since that's more famous. I had a vague idea that, if they didn't have a train ferry, they'd somehow put us on a passenger ferry to Calais, and had no idea it would be on buses thru the Channel Tunnel (which I'd already been thru on the Eurostar). I did not know the schedule beyond this departure time of 10:00 that first day. I did not know the route we'd be taking to Venice and naïvely assumed we'd go thru the Simplon Tunnel because Simplon is in the name SOE. I suppose my euphoria trumped my common sense in not finding out more until I actually experienced it—or until now.

But then, despite the genuine, restored trains involved, the whole idea was whack-a-doodle. The actual OE and SOE left from Paris. Those leaving from London apparently had to scramble and get their own train tickets to the coast, and their own ferry ticket to Calais where they'd meet Wagons-Lits (of course, WL might have had a supplementary service that took care of that). But unless the passengers took some luxury train out of London, nothing of significance would happen until Calais, and even that was only a Kurswagen to Paris, the "Calais Coach". And originally, Paris was the genuine starting point. With VSOE, London is clearly the starting point, with Calais and Paris as mere way stations. I don't know how many joined us in Paris, but my guess is, not many.

https://adventuresallaround.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/IMG_9896.jpg

But let's put all that lack of knowledge and ur-gross naïveté aside. We're waiting here on Track 1 to start our trip. Above is the British Pullman "Gwen" car actually filmed at Victoria in the typical brown-and-cream livery, so, it being 10:00, let's board and be seated for the three-course brunch with Champagne that's being served as we enjoy the trip across southern England to the Channel coast.

Since we discussed the British Pullmans in 2020/5, there's little to add now. From online lists I've reviewed, VSOE seems to own 19 cars/carriages, but seven of them are "awaiting restoration (AW)", which leaves eleven that are operational, most of which were former Brighton Belle Pullman coaches of the former Southern Railway. The cars are listed by groupings of manufacture years. In the 1923-1931 group, two are AW, but their operational ones are Minerva from 1927 (pictured later in Folkestone), the oldest in the present fleet, plus Lucille, Ibis, Zena, Ione, and Car 83. From the 1932 grouping 5 are AW, but operational are Audrey, Vera, and Gwen (pictured above). From the 1951 group, all three they own are operational, Perseus, Phoenix, and Cygnus.

I have pictures of three of the cars actually standing at Victoria Station, ready to depart and for brunch to be served. One was Gwen (1932), above. Another is Vera (1932) (Photo by Phil Scott), and I can date this picture to 2003, the year after the VSOE trip, but the same as the second year we took the British Pullman to Southampton. This one is Zena (1928) (Photo by Roger Carvell), but I guarantee you, we did not have a bagpiper! But I have no idea about which car we were in, as I was so uninformed at the time that I didn't know they were named.

https://www.seat61.com/images/Orient-Express-pullman-ibis.jpg

As we're having our brunch, I won't repeat what we've talked about regarding car interiors, but will show this, which we may or may not have seen before. It's the Ibis (1925), whose decoration is described as "Greek dancing girls marquetry". In 2002/2 I wrote: Both these and the continental trains have beautiful hardwood interiors, with marquetry and wood inlay. All the fittings above are polished brass, the lamps are Art Deco, and . . . the glass lampshades were Lalique. All glasses are crystal. The British Pullman consisted of some dozen dining cars. Every chair was a plush high-backed moveable dining room chair. A three-course lunch was served with champagne and wine. There were few double seats, but we were shown to one like at the back, where we could sit side-by-side and I could help Beverly with her meal. I do remember our waiter, who we got along extremely well with--he gave us his business card. Of the three times we rode the British Pullmans, he waited on us at least twice, if not all three. Fond memories of a nice, helpful person.

Schedule    We still have a ways to the coast, so let's talk about the schedule. From my point of view, there was none. We were given no breakdown of stops or times, but the Champagne helped one not to care. I did glean the below schedule from the Belmond/VSOE website in early 2020, covering 2020/21. (As to Covid-19, VSOE departures were suspended in 2020, but plan to resume in 2021.)

There was no handout of this or any schedule at the time. They say there are no clocks in Las Vegas casinos so gamblers aren't distracted by reality. However, I do remember clearly that we did leave Victoria at 10:00. I'll use this a guide for the intermediate stops, since I never noted them at the time. However, I know we arrived in Venice earlier than shown, at just a few minutes after 17:00.

Coastal Arrival    I had assumed the port we were headed for was Dover, the most famous of the Channel ports, but after the meal, an announcement was made, probably the one and only public service announcement of the entire trip. It was announced that we'd be stopping in Folkestone West, and wouldn't be going as far as the original station. Then they explained how we'd be getting onto buses to cross the Channel to Calais and to the main train via the Eurotunnel.
I'm now confounded to realize that I was so underinformed that this was my first inkling that there were two separate trains, that we wouldn't be using the traditional ferry, but the tunnel, and that we wouldn't be crossing at Dover. A great deal of this lack of information was mea culpa, since I'd expected to be informed on what was going on from Belmond. But we went with the flow. I clearly remember making two assumptions at the time. One was the mistaken assumption that Folkestone West was a suburb of Folkestone out in the boondocks somewhere and not in town. But the other assumption was correct. The original station was downhill from where we were, so why bother with that, when we could get on the buses here, up higher? I've only recently learned a lot more about Folkestone.

http://www.rodge.force9.co.uk/images/map.jpg

Meanwhile, use this as a guide. We'd used this older map (click) of rail lines in southeast England when discussing Southampton in 2020/5, and, tho ownership of lines now varies, it is a satisfactory guide. First find London Victoria, and you'll see that there are still remnants of two separate lines serving it before Victoria Station itself unified them.
There are two "Kent Coast" lines in green. First, follow the light green line to Dover Priory station, then to Dover Western Docks, and keep that connection in mind for later reference.
But how we got to Folkestone I never knew at the time, and the champagne made me care not so much. But now, two decades later, some very lucky research allowed the answer to fall into my lap. Start at Victoria again on the light green line, and you'll soon pass Bromley's South Station. Right after that is a crossing of the dark green line, but now I know this is the site of Bickley Junction (not named), where we turn right onto the dark green route and next pass Orpington. Two main stations we now pass are Tonbridge and Ashford, and then comes—voilà--Folkestone West. I finally know how we got there.

We note that the line to Folkestone Harbour is disused. We also see Folkestone Central. However in reality, I now know Folkestone West is really in town, right there in Folkestone. It's now obvious to me that two decades after the fact, it's time for me to find out what the Folkestone story is—tied in with Dover's (at Dover Priory and Dover Western Docks)--and just what it was we did there.

Dover    My suspicion that there was a difference in height did turn out to be a major factor in the story, which becomes clearer if we start with Dover, with its iconic White Cliffs of Dover (Map by NormanEinstein). The limestone cliffs are just chalk, and run away from both sides of the town. They're a remnant of the connection between the British Isles and the Continent, now washed away, a fascinating story that we'll discuss in a later posting. But keep the cliffs in mind, since they're typical of the differences in height in towns along the seaside, a factor in which station in Folkestone we stopped at.

This is a typical view of the White Cliffs (click) from out in the Channel (Photo by Immanuel Giel), and this is a detail of the chalky limestone (Photo by FreddyKrueger) showing the layering as generations of prehistoric sea creatures settled on the sea bottom when this was all underwater, leaving layers of calcium carbonate, forming the sedimentary limestone.

The Dover Strait (Map by Sophiebraem11) is what we'll be crossing momentarily on this trip, and is where the land masses were once connected. Notice both Dover and Folkestone, facing Calais and Boulogne (Dunkerque/Dunkirk is also well-known). Easily spotted is Cap Gris-Nez (literally, Cape Graynose), whose cliffs are made of sandstone, plus clay and chalk. They are mainly gray in color, hence the name. These cliffs are the closest point of France to England, just 34 km (21 mi) from the White Cliffs of Dover, and on a clear day, the White Cliffs can be seen across the Channel (Photo by Rolf Süssbrich).

Not shown or named on the last map, but lying about halfway between Cap Gris-Nez and Calais, is Cap Blanc-Nez (literally, Cape Whitenose). Despite being called a cape, it doesn't protrude into the sea like a cape usually would but is a high point along the beach where a chalk ridge has been cut away as in Dover. Thus the chalk cliff of Cap Blanc-Nez is strikingly similar to the White Cliffs of Dover (Photo by L E X commons). Talk, talk, talk, about chalk, chalk, chalk.

Back to Dover. With those massive cliffs, how did Dover form as a seaside port? I figured it must have been some river that cut thru to the sea, and I was right. I've just learned what a chalk stream is, a river that rises from springs in landscapes with chalk bedrock, such as Dover. Since chalk is porous and permeable, water percolates easily through the ground to the water table. The water in such a stream is generally very clear. And so we have the River Dour (Map by DavidAnstiss), a chalk stream in Kent that flows from the villages of Temple Ewell and River. It's tiny, only about 6.4 km (4 mi) long, and originally had a wide estuary where Dover is today, tho today it flows into Dover Harbour through a culvert.

This tiny river forming a break in the cliffs attracted Stone Age and Iron Age settlers and traders, and the estuary was a natural harbor for them. The town was vital during the Roman period, and they connected it to Canterbury and beyond via the famous Roman road called Watling Street. The first recorded version of its name, indicating its importance as a port, is when the Romans called it Portus Dubris. The name derives from an old Celtic word for water, reflected in dwfr in Middle Welsh, and in dŵr in Modern Welsh. (In Welsh, W is a vowel, as in "rule"; the circumflex indicates the vowel is long.) Pronounce the two Welsh forms and you'll see that the same element is present in Dover's French name Douvresand the name of the river, Dour (rhymes with tour).

We indicated earlier on the rail map the route from Victoria to Dover. In 2007, that year when I went to the Victoria Palace Theatre, I took a number of trips on a rail pass out of London, and one day trip was to Canterbury and Dover. 2007/11 tells how I stopped in Canterbury and had the thrill of walking on Watling Street, then came to Dover to see the cliffs from the land side. (This was between the 2006 and 2008 QM2 Channel sailings).

https://www.planetware.com/i/map/ENG/dover-map.jpg

Follow on the above Dover map. I wrote: [C]oming from [Dover Priory] station on the west side of town you immediately see the huge castle impressively perched on the hills on the east side. It’s then a short walk to the park on the harbor. It was sunny, but the Channel was fogged in, so you couldn’t see out to the water or over to France. But all you needed to do was look below the castle on its water side and there they were—the White Cliffs of Dover. They never fail to impress. On the map, that's probably the Dour running down the center to the harbor, and Priory Station, Dover Castle, and cliffs are indicated, the latter by comb-like lines.

https://www.dovermarinahotel.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/WhiteCliffs-e1577981846394.jpg

Above is the view north from town to the castle and cliffs, and next is the view south from town toward Folkestone, including the famous Shakespeare Cliff (Photo by Colin Smith). Finally we have a southerly ensemble view (Photo by Remi Jouan/Captain Haddock). That could even be Folkestone in the hazy distance.

Folkestone    The center of Folkestone (FOHK.sten) also lies in a narrow valley between two cliffs, but in contrast to Dover, much of Folkestone is up on an escarpment, with the port and seafront below. There has also been a settlement in this location since the Middle Stone Age. It was not until the late 7C that the spelling Folcanstanappears. There is general agreement that the name means "Folca's stone", the stone possibly marking the meeting place of the local administrative area, and might have little or nothing to do with the word "folk". It was not until the mid 19C that the spelling of "Folkestone" was unfortunately fixed as such, allowing for numerous modern misspellings and mispronunciations due to the two "silent" E's. The "silent" L is apparently less of a problem.

Folkestone is located where the southern edge of the North Downs escarpment meets the sea. In contrast to Dover's white cliffs, the cliffs at Folkestone are composed of green sandstone and clay. This would seem to be remarkably similar to Cap Blanc-Nez being white like Dover, but Cap Gris-Nez, also further south like Folkestone, being composed of different rock with a darker color. A small stream, Pent Brook, cuts through the cliffs at this point, and provided the original haven for fishermen and cross-channel boats. The town is built on both sides of the original valley, with neighborhoods called West Cliff and East Cliff. The Pent Stream now runs through a culvert until it reaches the inner harbour.

https://visitbytrain.info/maps/folkestone.gif

Decent online maps of Folkestone are hard to come by, so we'll have to make use of more than one town map. On the right is the Inner Harbour of Folkestone Harbour, down at sea level. Note the disused railroad bridge that we'll get to shortly. The Pent Stream forms a small valley that leads to the harbor, so most of what we're seeing is the West Cliff neighborhood. About a 13-minute walk from the Folkestone Central station (not Folkestone West) is the Leas Lift (Photo by Charlotte-Crofton), a listed Victorian water-lift funicular that carries passengers between the promenade and seafront. Dating from 1885 and since restored, the lift operates using water and gravity (an electric motor returns used water to the top for reuse) and is controlled from a small cabin at the top of the cliff. We show this to illustrate the stark 28 m (92 ft) difference between the town up on the escarpment and the seafront. The slope of the funicular is 79%. Given these conditions, so different from Dover, how would YOU build a rail line down to the port?

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/f/folkestone_warren/route_map.gif

Rail Reaches Channelside Kent    As it turns out—somewhat to my surprise—the first railway to reach the Kent coast was not to the more famous Dover, but to Folkestone first. The South Eastern Railway's main line, coming from Ashford, just as we just did (see above map dated 1914) reached Folkestone in 1843 and a temporary station was built (see map) while the construction of the line to Dover continued. Given the local cliffs, you see that four tunnels were necessary, including one thru Shakespeare Cliff. Apparently the line went quite easily right to Dover's port, arriving the next year, in 1844. Once the line was opened to Dover, Folkestone began to prosper.

To avoid confusion, we might as well say right at the start that Folkestone has had up to four rail stations, most with a flurry of different names.
1) Folkestone Junction on the map started out as the first and only station when the railway arrived in 1843, called simply Folkestone. When the rail spur to the harbor was built, it was renamed F. Junction. As it lost service to the Harbour Station it was called, somewhat quaintly, F. Old. In the 1962 renaming of stations, it became F. East.
2) Folkestone Harbour opened in 1849 and retained that logical name during the entire time of its existence.
3) Shorncliffe Army Camp is a large military camp founded in 1794 near what was then the village of Cheriton, now part of Folkestone. Shorncliffe Camp station opened in 1863 to serve it. In the 1962 renaming of stations, it was renamed F. West. And as luck would have it, the English terminal of the Eurotunnel is also in the Cheriton neighborhood, explaining why it's easiest for VSOE trains to use F. West. I now understand the logic. What goes around, comes around.
4) Folkestone Central opened in 1884. It was first called Cheriton Arch (as a link between the two others?) but was renamed after nearby Radnor Park in 1886. It finally became F. Central in 1895.

Those are the stations and names, but the sequence of development, especially involving the port, is this. The main line, including that single first station, "Folkestone", was built on the escarpment high above the shore. From that point it had a dual purpose; handling substantial boat train traffic traveling to the Continent and also serving the town from its east side. I have to assume that something like horse-carriages were used down to the harbor for those first six years.

The railway then acquired the harbor area for redevelopment, since they wanted to develop Folkestone as a rival to Dover for ships to France. But the difference in height between parts of the town made it impractical to route the main rail line thru it. Folkestone West is at 49m (161 ft) and, more importantly, Folkestone Junction is at 50m (164 ft), while the Folkestone harbor area is way down at 7m (23 ft). To solve this difference in height, a branch line was proposed, which can be seen on the above 1914 map. But here we have a more detailed map, also dated 1914. Note how the branch line is on a siding adjacent to the main line and not directly on it. This was a safety issue to avoid a runaway train from plunging down the steep slope and into the Channel. Thus, trains coming from the west were required to reverse to descend to the harbor, as were trains coming up from the harbor that wanted to join the main line. The line to the harbor descends on a steep incline of 1 in 30 (3 1/3 %) for a distance of 1.21 km (0.75 mi). Furthermore, in bad weather (rain, ice, leaves on tracks), supplementary engines were on hand to assist the train's engine as the train went down or up the steep incline.

You see on the detail map that the line had to cross the harbor, dividing it in two, to get to the station, and then continue further to the actual pier. That required the building, in 1843, of the Folkestone Harbour Viaduct over 14 arches long (Photo by Oast House Archive), seen here from the Inner Harbour. Below is a detail. A swing bridge was added in 1847.

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Harbour Station opened in 1849 for passenger traffic along with the Harbour Branch and was part of one of the first fully-scheduled rail-to-sail-to-rail international services. In those first years it was by far the most popular cross-Channel route, altho in the late 1860s, the Dover/Calais route superseded it.

Now the above name changes will begin to make more sense. For six years, 1843-1849, Folkestone Station served both town and harbor, but then the harbor station took away ALL the boat-train traffic and a lot of town traffic, so it was first renamed F. Old and then F. Junction. More traffic was taken away when Shorncliffe Camp was opened in 1863. F. Central opened in 1884, at first under the two other names.

Then in 1962, Shorncliffe Camp was renamed F. West and F. Junction became F. East, now handling mostly freight. But it closed to passengers completely three years later, in 1965, and the buildings were demolished. In 1994, the opening of the Channel Tunnel led to the majority of ferry operators moving to other ports, and F. Harbour station closed to ordinary rail traffic in 2001, along with the F. Harbour Branch. A local group, the Remembrance Line Association, tried to retain the F. Harbour Branch as a heritage railway operation, with a shuttle service up and down the branch, or even a revived passenger ferry to Boulogne. But the Department for Transport closed the branch in 2014. Nevertheless, in 2017, the viaduct was opened as a pedestrian route, and the station has been restored to its look at 1900.

Thus, four stations are now down to two, and F. Central is the main Folkestone station, with F. West supplementing it, as evidenced by our VSOE arrival there in 2002. Which brings us down to a conundrum. My research says that up to 2008, the VSOE still used the steep branch line to operate from F. Harbour Station, with its last train traveling there on 13 November that year. Also in 2008, alterations were made on the north side of F. West to provide coach loading bays to connect with the Channel Tunnel. So what was going on in 2002 when we were there? What was Orient-Express Hotels Ltd (now Belmond) doing with us if normally its train went down to the harbor? Were we guinea pigs for the change? I don't recall any special landing bays for loading the buses. It does explain why, since they made few to no announcements, that they did tell us we weren't going to the "original station" but to F. West, which confused me at the time. It's just another example of how such an outstanding trip should be mismanaged by its tight-lipped organizers who don't wish to inform its riders, or at least those who would like to be informed. (Mumble, grumble.)

This is one of two side platforms of Folkestone West in 2007 (Photo by Hassocks5489) and again in 2009, with a British Pullman train in the station, showing car Minerva, as mentioned, the oldest car in the fleet (Photo by Basher Eyre).

The Channel Crossing    So back to the bus transfer to cross the Channel, not by ferry, but via the Eurotunnel/Channel Tunnel/Chunnel. I've taken the Eurostar high-speed train thru the tunnel, but this, in a bus riding piggyback on a shuttle train, was great fun as well. If only Belmond had announced in advance this was how we'd cross, we could have looked forward to it with anticipation.

Eurostar    Eurostar started operations in 1994 with the opening of the Eurotunnel. At the time, it just connected London via Lille (rhymes with "eel") to either Paris or Brussels, but has since expanded. I knew we rode Eurostar several times, but only now did I figure out just when. If it opened in 1994 and we started European travel again in 2000, it had to be in those first years of the Aughties when we sailed transatlantic so much. I count the trips as follows.
Being back in Europe after a decade in 2000, we were eager to start by going back to Germany, where we'd lived and studied for a year, so on arrival in Southampton, we took it from London to Brussels, where we made a connection to a Thalys (TA.lis) train that went via Cologne to Frankfurt airport to get a car to tour Germany. Thalys is another high-speed rail operator. Now I understand that Eurostar has merged with Thalys and plans on further expanding its system by 2030 to the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. This is the current Eurostar network (Map by Rcsprinter123). You see how from London there are stops to Lille, where the division takes place either to Paris or Brussels. Extensions south of Paris are just seasonal, but of importance is the Brussels-Antwerp-Rotterdam-Amsterdam extension that's been completed as part of the merger with Thalys.
In 2001 we stayed in the British Isles, but in 2002, at the end of the trip we're looking at right now that started with the VSOE to Italy and France, we returned to Paris and took it back to London.
2003 was the year that, after Southampton, we took a train to Poole and crossed the Channel via ferries to the Channel Isles then to France on our way to southern Italy and Sicily. At the end, we again took the Eurostar from Paris to London on the way home via Southampton.
2004, Beverly's last trip, was quite unique. After Southampton, we made our way to Gatwick Airport to fly to Prague, one of our extremely rare flights within Europe. After revisiting Vienna and Budapest by car, we went by train to Amsterdam visit the Benelux, by another car, and after Brugge/Bruges, I returned that final rental car at Lille Europe station and we took the Eurostar to London from there.
So with this new tally, I find we both took the Eurostar four times in those years via the Eurotunnel. But as part of the VSOE trip, we took Le Shuttle, meaning we've been thru the Eurotunnel five times. I must admit that, until I just did this tally out of the travel diaries, I didn't strike me that in 2002, we did a round trip thru the Tunnel, eastward by Le Shuttle, and five weeks later, westward by Eurostar.

I found online an older Eurostar schedule, from 2008. It showed 20 weekday round-trip trains between London and Paris. Some were fully express, but most made one single stop: 7 stopped in Ebbsfleet, 3 in Ashford, 3 in Calais, one in Lille. There were 10 trains from London to Brussels, 7 of which stopped in Ebbsfleet. However, do not be shocked to learn that now, in the Coronavirus era, in the period June-July 2021 there are only three London/Paris round trips daily and only one daily round trip between London and Brussels, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam. Also, Ebbsfleet and Ashford stations are temporarily closed.

The Eurotunnel is for trains exclusively, either the Eurostar or freight trains. Fire regulations for the tunnel do not permit the passage of vintage train cars, which explains our transfer to buses in Folkestone. (I can hardly imagine Belmond explaining that neither the British Pullman nor the VSOE can use the tunnel because all the beautiful woodwork on them pose a fire hazard in the tunnel, so of course, they were again tight-lipped on the subject.)
Since the tunnel is only for trains, road vehicles have to piggy-back on special shuttle trains, one type for passengers, another for trucks/lorries. Therefore, the stations we've seen for Eurostar have nothing to do with the shuttles, which have their own separate terminals on each side. The Eurotunnel Folkestone Terminal, also known as the Victor Hugo Terminal, is in Cheriton in NW Folkestone. The Eurotunnel Calais Terminal, also known as the Charles Dickens Terminal, is in Coquelles, immediately SW of Calais. Again, these two terminals are road-vehicle related only, and I'm sure you noticed the reversed literary names. Here's a simple sketch (Map by User:Edgepedia) showing the two terminals for vehicles as red dots connected thru the Eurotunnel. But here's a broader view of the Eurostar connections on this "tripartite" map:

https://www.seat61.com/images/london-to-paris-eurostar-map-large.jpg

The tripartite nature of the routes centering in Lille, in gold, is obvious. But let me point out some details. Sometimes high-speed train routes have dedicated stations. We said the London/Paris Eurostar would stop thrice daily in Calais, but it's not what you think. Note that the Eurostar stop is in the suburb of Calais-Fréthun, as opposed to the downtown station of Calais-Ville. When it stopped in Lille once a day, it was at the new station called Lille-Europe, as opposed to the regular station, now renamed Lille-Flandres. (I have a clear memory of returning the rental car at Lille-Europe in 2004 and looking down the hill at Lille-Flandres, a ten-minute walk away.) In Paris, let me remind for later reference of the difference between the Gare de l'Est, serving the east, and the Gare to Lyon, serving the southeast. Finally, note where we took the Thalys out of Brussels in 2000 and went (red line) via Liège and Aachen, thence to Cologne and Frankfurt airport.

https://folkestone-hythelibdems.org.uk/en/image/61CNnG/1073/600/folkestone-and-sandgate-wards.png

Le Shuttle    As we leave Folkestone on the bus, this map will show where I now understand we went. Note both the actual Shorncliffe [Military] Camp, and the several wards of the Cheriton neighborhood where the terminal is. Folkestone West is not named, but is the purple dot left of center on the rail line. The bus got us up to that purple roundabout (traffic circle) over the M20 highway (in blue), and followed the road around to the north side of the Channel Tunnel Terminal for boarding, clearly shown on this map.

We said there are two types of shuttles. Let's first take a look at the shuttle for trucks/lorries, which uses open flatcars (Photo by Getlink). But the one that takes cars and buses is fully enclosed, and is actually called Le Shuttle (Photo by Kenyh Cevarom). "Shuttle" is recognized in French as coming from English, hence the trade-off in naming this service le shuttle. The regular French word is navette.

With Le Shuttle, I found it's totally different than with the Autotrain, mainly because these trains are completely articulated, which is why we discussed that topic in that previous posting. First, you drive your own car (or the bus driver drove our bus) onto the back of a long, articulated train, either on the lower level or up an internal ramp to the upper level (Photo by Ministère des Affaires Étrangères Français).

http://www.rachauffeurs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Eurotunnel1.jpg

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Because the train is articulated, you almost can't tell where one coach/carriage ends and the next begins--it's like having one very long single car, and you drive as far as you can. At the other end, the train is unloaded from the front, so it is RORO.

https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/inspirewp/live/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2019/05/GettyImages-607394596.jpg

Driving up to the front is very much like having a piece of highway on wheels. You drive onto the "highway", then park. The "highway" moves thru the tunnel and when it stops, you drive off. Articulation is a wonder here.

The train is unloaded and loaded again in just over half an hour. The complete journey takes at least 1h30 between the motorways, with the crossing itself taking 35 minutes. Because of the nature of what they do, the coaches/carriages used for the shuttle have a larger loading gauge (height and width) than either British or French railways. As a result, they cannot travel outside the tunnel and the two terminals onto the national railways. Also, given the bulk involved, there is a locomotive at each end.

This YouTube video (2:38) runs at double speed and illustrates the experience. (It shows the opposite direction that we did, from France to England, but there's no difference.) At the start, note the rear locomotive, then note how this car climbs up to the upper deck and down again at the end. (Our bus stayed on the lower level.) In between, note how easy it is to drive from articulated car to articulated car.

https://onlinetraveltraining.com/Content/courseImages/Eurotunnel/zdjrwzyd.JPG

And it works just fine with a bus, too. As I've said, it's the only time I was on a bus that was itself on a train.

Calais    I recall it was maybe a 10-15 minutes bus ride from our exiting Le Shuttle to pulling up to the VSOE train in Calais. And most clearly, I remember it as an absolutely electrifying experience, one that tended to make me weak-kneed. It was a dramatic, theatrical image I'll never forget. There was no station or platform canopy visible, so it wasn't clear just where we were. It was also very important that we didn't walk up alongside the train. The drama of the moment was that we got out of the bus and found ourselves a very short distance away, with a view that was absolutely perpendicular to the center of the train, with nothing to block the view, and it was visible from way to the left to way to the right. While the British Pullmans had sported a beautiful brown-and-cream livery, here we could see the magnificent blue-and-cream livery of the Orient Express. As we took a few steps closer, we saw the white-gloved, uniformed staff waiting at each entry. But the very best part of it, the part that still sends chills down my spine, was seeing on top of each and every car, repeated again and again, the impossibly long, traditional name:

I have to give Belmond credit for arranging such a dramatic, theatrical arrival at the train. I have no pictures showing the view of the empty train seen perpendicularly, but this YouTube video shows the VSOE arriving in (not departing) Calais, with passengers. (I've cut it short so it runs from 1:04 to 2:04.)

https://www.thetravelmagazine.net/wp-content/uploads/Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express-1930s-staff-1068x768.jpg

https://www.abercrombiekent.co.uk/-/media/abercrombieandkent/images/blog/2017/destinations/europe/orient-express---aw/orient-express-exterior.jpg?la=en&hash=67566319D91E79B8219B7F1A973E35DC648C573B

The first link shows the white-gloved, uniformed staff of the VSOE. The second link shows a canopy (which was not in the area we were in) but does sport that livery, the company crest, and the full name of the company running the entire length of each car (click). It's so long that the final [-s Européens] didn't fit into the picture.

And now, almost two decades after the trip, I find Belmond brought us to the wrong Calais!

I should have known, I suppose, but I was walking on air because of the experience. But why did they tell us in Folkestone that we wouldn't be going to the "original" harbor, but rather to one in town, but not here? Now, with more historical study, we know that, when we talked about Christie's 1928 trip, we saw Life Magazine pictures of the Calais station in c 1950, showing how ferries would pull up to the dock with the train waiting there. And if it was an Orient Express connection, it would just be a Kurswagen, the "Calais Coach", and not an entire train. So which Calais were we in? Or more accurately, which Calais station?

I have two maps that explain it all (why didn't I print them out at the time so I'd know what was going on?). The first shows a wider area around Calais (Map Modified by Dr Blofeld). In the lower left just south of that huge roundabout (traffic circle), and also just outside the Calais city limits, is Coquelles with the Chunnel exit.
In the upper center is the rectangle of the Port of Calais, where the station called Calais Maritime used to greet ferry arrivals. During WWII Calais Maritime was destroyed, and was later replaced in 1956 with a simple building. But once the Eurotunnel was built, the ferries disappeared, and in 1995, Calais Maritime was closed, the platforms and canopies were removed, and the tracks were tarmacked over. At this point unused, the station was renovated in 2019 (well after our trip) and repurposed to greet ferry passengers arriving with their cars, since several car ferries now run between Calais and Dover 24/7. On the map, note how the A216 highway now connects with the (car) ferry port.

So where were we? Look center-left on the map at the Calais town station marked in blue, Calais-Ville. Giddy airhead that I was with all the electric excitement, walking on air with stars in my eyes, I never realized until now that we boarded the VSOE in town, at Calais-Ville. Let's now look at that at this more detailed map.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c3/2f/f7/c32ff7cb4e1530494e67fca6c80072e6.jpg

First look at the port again, and at the car ferry lines near what is now called the ferry terminal. But then below that, find again the tracks leading to the Gare Calais-Ville, which is a terminus. After two decades, I have now figured out how Belmond pulled off its wonderful theatrical presentation of the train. We see that the station faces east, and Google Maps and Google Street View show me that there are four short canopies behind it, over platforms. There were no canopies blocking our view, so the buses must have pulled up a short bit west of that, apparently on the more open north side. My estimate is that we must have been on that short street in white parallel to the tracks, and then turned in and pulled closer to the tracks, where the train would have been on the northernmost track. It remains a great memory, even if Belmond never said a word about our being in the "wrong Calais".

On Board    According to the above schedule, where we left London at 10:00 and were in Folkestone at 12:30, we were to leave Calais at 16:30, and so we boarded promptly, and found our compartment. And sure enough, our wheeled bag that we'd surrendered in Victoria Station had also crossed the Channel and was in our room, and off we were for our quick stop in Paris. Check the above Eurostar "tripartite" map. While the more traditional "boat train" route south to Paris was more coastal, via Boulogne and Amiens, the VSOE travels to Paris more inland via Arras (rhymes with "Harris"), as this route is fully electrified.

I have these sketches of a VSOE double compartment:

https://www.luxury-trains.co.uk/images/vsoe-double-cabin.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/55/ba/b5/55bab5729659b9db4bc95417bf7902af.jpg

The first one shows it made for nighttime, with the upper bed folded down from the wall, along with its ladder, and the sofa below made up into a lower bed. The shade is drawn above the table with its fresh flower, and the washing area in its quarter-round cabinet is at the left. The second sketch again shows the nighttime configuration on the right, but from a different angle. The daytime configuration with the couch and upper bed folded into the wall is at the original angle. Our compartment was laid out exactly like this.

https://www.luxurytrainclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/4947806353_2b83660074_z.jpg

https://independenttravelcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/by_Laurence-Norah-41.jpg

The first link shows a lower berth made up, while the upper berth (circular design) is still folded away. It folds down 90°. The second link, seen from the corridor, seems to show a single compartment, which I never knew existed until recently. But it's just like the double, tho perhaps narrower and without the upper bed. That quarter-round wash cabinet is perhaps the item that impressed me most because of its clever design, so I'll keep on pointing it out.

https://www.seat61.com/images/Orient-Express-comp.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/de/6d/d3/de6dd376cf18529b750baabbba0d7814.jpg

This compartment has a different configuration, since we're looking at the door to the corridor instead of at the window, but I show it because it illustrates the two-door, quarter-round wash cabinet perfectly. The second link shows it open, and how it looked in our compartment, next to the window. And once again, there's a fresh flower on the table. Toilets are down the corridor at each end of the sleeping car, as was the custom back in the day. In 2002/2, quoted above, I wrote about the beautiful hardwood interiors, with marquetry and wood inlay. All the fittings above are polished brass, the lamps are Art Deco, and . . . the glass lampshades were Lalique. This also applies to the dining cars, which we'll see in a moment.

Again, these were those years of annual transatlantic sailings, where suit-and-tie is expected at dinner and a tuxedo can't hurt, so it was then that I bought my tux and regularly traveled with it. Thus, as dinnertime approached, I dressed Beverly in one of the long gowns I had for her and put on my tux. I was wondering how we'd get the wheelchair to the dining car when the room attendant brought a special chair. It was a straight-backed chair whose two back legs had wheels. It was upholstered, and narrower than a usual chair to fit in the corridor, and Beverly sat in it and he wheeled her to the dining car as I followed.

https://i0.wp.com/quiltripping.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/DSC_0897-2.jpg?ssl=1

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8361/8402314241_02e75e0a8e_b.jpg

I never knew at the time there were three dining cars. We were airheads about this train and, like children, just went where we were led. I now find that: Three elegant dining carriages exude culinary sophistication, from Lalique glass inlays in Cote d’Azur to black lacquer panels in L’Oriental. The third one is the Étoile du Nord. Two illustrations are above. I do not know which dining car we were in for our four-course dinner.

After dinner, we got Beverly back to the compartment, and my memory says we stayed there for the rest of the evening. However, reviewing our travel diary, in 2002/2 I said something I'd totally forgotten until I read it again. Before we did spend the evening in our compartment, I did take a quick look at the bar car: I was never able to take Beverly up to the bar car, as it was too far, but I went to take a peek and it was beautiful, with couches on the side, the bar at the back, and a pianist playing a grand piano. So I did know that there was a (totally unhistoric, yet very attractive) bar car on the train. This is a view of the exterior of the bar car taken at another time at the Gare de l'Est in Paris (Photo by Tangopaso).

https://jonovernon-powell.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/27-6006-post/orient-express-piano-bar-co.jpg

And in the second link, we have the interior, where I just stayed a few moments. Of course, the real Orient Express even in its 1920s & 1930s heyday would never have had any such a thing. Tho luxurious, it was then just a regular train for travelers, not a tourist magnet. Belmond transformed a regular Wagons-Lits pullman car from 1931 into this bar car for today's tourists, and it even has a small boutique for souvenir sales. I don't mind this, but I do hope the original car was beyond normal repair, so that this conversion didn't damage anything historical. But that's just a hope, and I'm not reassured of it.

The Abominations    While I reluctantly accept the non-historic bar car as part of a train for modern touristic needs, I thoroughly disapprove of another innovation Belmond has introduced, which they call by the lofty name Grand Suites. They may be attractive, and you may like them, but they are so wrong that they thoroughly try my patience. Fortunately, they didn't exist yet in 2002.

In March 2018, Belmond took S1 sleeping car #3425 and retrofitted the entire car to only three passenger compartments which they named Paris, Istanbul, and Venice, so you can imagine the huge size of each one. They have either double or twin beds, a sitting room with a sofa, convertible to a third bed, and a private bathroom with shower and toilet. (!!!) Then, adding insult to injury, in March 2020 they took a second S1 sleeping car, #3309, and did the same, using the names Prague, Budapest, and Vienna. Again, I can only hope that the interiors that were destroyed to be retrofitted this way were in sad shape to begin with, but that's more hope than known fact, and I doubt it. I see it more as desecration of historic artifacts, with the mundane goal of making more money. If the grudgingly acceptable bar car never existed on the original Orient Express, one can be more than positive that these behemoths, a modern creation for the 21C tourist market, never did either.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.matadornetwork.com/blogs/1/2018/10/Sleeper-car-on-the-Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express-1200x720.jpg

https://www.elitetraveler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Grand-Suite-Prague-e1562231793587.jpg

The first link shows the slightly older Istanbul, in Turkish décor, and the second shows the Prague. Beautiful? Without a doubt, but out of place. They should be in some fancy hotel, or perhaps in the first-class area of an ocean liner, which has a lot more space than a train, rather than taking up 1/3 of a historic railroad carriage. Of course, the wealthy always used to have their private rail cars, and some still do, but those are private situations, not a public company offering a place to show off. And if a regular compartment is pricey for one night, you can imagine what one of these will set you back.

In 2018/12, discussing the "Palatability" of foods, and what foods might be considered "adventurous" to eat, I quoted something columnist Frank Bruni of the New York Times said to introduce the topic. I'd been looking for something similar about what Belmond has done to the VSOE cruise train and was looking for the mot juste, and on 15 May 2021 I found that another favorite columnist in the Times, Farhad Manjoo, use a phrase I liked. Manjoo said: I was reading about Jeff Bezos' new boat last week [and learned that, at $500 million, it's] no ordinary boat. It is a "superyacht"—a 417-foot [127 m], three-mast sailing vessel that could be one of the largest such yachts ever built, if not in length, then perhaps in moral recklessness (boldface mine).

So let's now move from "sail" to "rail" and apply Manjoo's delightful phrase of disapproval to the Grand Suites that Belmond has afflicted onto the otherwise historic cruise train. They are morally reckless. I feel that anyone who wastes thousands and thousands on one of these oversized monstrosities should afterwards be required to do penance by doing required community service in a soup kitchen or raking leaves in a public park. So should the Belmond board of directors.

Paris    While I didn't have a schedule with me at the time, subsequent research tells me that the time in Paris (Gare de l'Est), is 35 minutes, from 21:25 to 22:00. I really can't imagine, since this train is not really meant for transportation between places (tho Beverly and I were using it as such!!), but just for enjoying the experience, why someone would get on in Paris or get off in Verona (before Venice). At the time we took it, prices were the same for all connections, altho I've seen later pricing that is less for Paris and Verona. I think that if I'd been in Paris, I'd want to go out of my way to get to London in order to take the whole trip, short as it is. But that's me. I wish I knew how many—or few—got on in Paris, and if they still got dinner at that late hour. But here's the VSOE in the Gare de l'Est in Paris in May 2019—just read that long name! And here's some of the train staff on that platform (Both Photos by patrick janicek).

The Route    The day was winding down after the stop in Paris and our beds had been made. I had no route maps at the time, just starry eyes because of the excitement of this trip. Here once again is the OE Route Map we've been using showing (Map by MissMJ). I didn't know until recently anything about the Germany/Vienna route, or the Simplon/Italian route, and certainly not the Arlberg route thru Switzerland and Austria's Tyrol. I may have known we'd stop in Verona, but I'm not sure. The only one we never discussed on this map is the modern one in purple for the VSOE, London to Venice, that swings down to Lausanne, the Simplon, and Milan. Because, as I hinted at the beginning of this posting, it's a lie.

With the present knowledge we have, we would have become suspicious, when we were stopping at the Gare de l'Est leading east, and not the traditional Gare de Lyon, leading southeast to southern Switzerland and Lausanne, then thru the Simplon. I do believe it did run that way when Sherwood started it in 1982, but I now learn that promptly in 1984 the route was changed to our route in 2002, and presumably has stayed that way. So the VSOE, the Venice Simplon Orient-Express, belies its name and totally avoids the historic route thru the Simplon Tunnel. I know not why, but thanks again, Belmond.

So from here at the Gare de l'Est, where do we go? Traditionally, that went to the Germany & Vienna route, but that's not the case. Well how about the Arlberg route thru northern Switzerland and Austria's Arlberg pass? Warm, but not exactly, since that route continued on to Vienna. The route the VSOE took to Venice, and I believe still takes, is a mix-n-match route combining the Arlberg route with the end of the Italian route, with a special connection. Here it is:

https://www.mulberrytravel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/orient-express-london-to-venice-map.jpg

You see London and can judge where Calais is, then Paris. We then took the old Arlberg route apparently thru Zürich (which we slept thru) to Austria and over the Arlberg Pass, and thru Innsbruck (where I sleepily noted that station out the window at dawn). Then at Innsbruck we turned south and went over the Brenner Pass to Italy (which the SOE never did), to Verona, and then on the SOE route to Venice. If I had to give this route a name, I'd mention the two passes and would call it the
Arlberg-Brenner Route. Follow it more carefully below:

http://www.projectmapping.co.uk/Europe%20World/Resources/france-railway-map-lg.gif

We used this rail map of France before in 2021/3 when we followed Agatha's trip (click). Start again in London and go via Ashford to Folkestone (not shown) and the Eurotunnel to Calais. As already mentioned, we didn't use the old coastal boat-train route via Amiens, but went via Lille to Paris. Now follow the blue line southeast from the Gare de Lyon into southern Switzerland to Lausanne, Brig, and the Simplon (not shown) to Milano. Now forget it, as Belmond has. Instead follow the red route to northern Switzerland to Zürich.

https://www.seat61.com/images/arlberg-map.jpg

Pick up the route in Zürich on this map and continue east, where we're on Austria's Albergbahn. The Arlberg Railway is the main line between Switzerland and Austria. Opened in 1884, it's one of the highest-altitude standard gauge railways in Europe, reaching as high as 1,310 m (4,298 feet) above sea level. Since Buchs is a terminal station, the train pulls in and then has to back out, reversing direction. We of course slept thru this. It then cuts through northern Liechtenstein, entering Austria near Feldkirch, in Austria's westernmost Bundesland, Vorarlberg, whose name is described further in 2020/11. It then crosses the Arlberg Pass, and transits, in five minutes, the 10 km (6 mi)-long Arlberg Tunnel (Arlbergtunnel), the highest part on the line. After this, after the train descends towards Innsbruck. While the Albergbahn continues eastward, Belmond has the train turn south at Innsbruck station.

Once we turn south, we're on the Brennerbahn, or the Ferrovia del Brennero, as the Brenner Railway is known in Italian (Map by Pechristener). It's a major line connecting the Austrian and Italian railways from Innsbruck to Verona, which was built in the 1850s-1860s and includes numerous tunnels. After the Semmeringbahn, further east, the Brennerbahn was the second mountain railway built within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was also the first thru line to cross over the Alps. Currently, rail speeds in the Brenner region barely exceed 70 km/h (43 mph) due to the steepness of the existing tracks, which cross the Brenner Pass at an elevation of 1,371 m (4,498 ft) above sea level. On the map, you can see where the pass forms the border (in purple) between Austria and Italy. Also note Verona's Porta Nuova Station where we stopped (I have no idea how many got off there) and the route to Venezia/Venice, including the long causeway we've discussed leading to the Centro Storico / Historic Center (which many tourists quite mistakenly believe to be all of Venice; review that error in 2021/3). But wait. We're not in Venice yet. We still have our second partial day on the train to enjoy.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/eb/cf/15/ebcf15d68b765c07f261179cc64118e0.jpg

In 2002/2 I wrote: Breakfast was served in the room whenever you wanted it, with fresh flowers in a silver vase on the side; then lunch in the dining car, and later afternoon tea in your room. I noticed some wood kindling in storage. The steward said hot water is made the traditional way, and he has to stoke a water heater with the kindling to keep the water hot. I do think that's a nice historic touch.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c4/9f/82/c49f824171a25ed58f0e7fa21d7a560f.jpg

Here's that breakfast in the room and I do love that flower in the vase. Not all the pictures I've found show that flower on the serving tray that so impressed me, but there always was one. When we went to lunch in the dining car, it might have looked like this table (Photo by Epistola8), set for déjeuner/lunch. Click to read the menu. Meals were included, so the prices are for those who want to order something else à la carte (as tho the trip isn't pricey enough.)

The schedule says we stopped at Verona (Porta Nuova) between 15:00 and 16:00, and I'm not sure when afternoon tea was served, possibly after Verona, as below:

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c5/7f/b5/c57fb51e2b0344002cf26b6110b5e822--orient-express-train-tea-time.jpg

This was tea time, and yes, there was a flower. The schedule says the train arrives in Venice (Santa Lucia) at 18:25, but it's very clear in my mind that we actually arrived at about 17:10, so I cannot account for that discrepancy. But while we're having our tea on the way to Venice, let's talk money and rationale.

Pricing Today    I do not remember what our fare was two decades ago, nor did I write it down, but as I said earlier, the travel diary reminded me that we had a discount, pay for one person, second person half-price. Beyond that, as I've said, I find the Belmond website difficult to navigate. But I was finally able to eke out some VSOE information. They now use dynamic pricing with a vengeance, the strategy where businesses set flexible prices based on current market demands. On some dates you get whack-a-doodle, astronomic prices you wouldn't believe, particularly in the summer. Other dates have somewhat more down-to-earth prices. These are some of the more reasonable 2021 fares (but these numbers vary wildly depending on dates).
London or Paris to Verona or Venice is £2,650 (US$3,685), including meals of course. They sometimes have lower prices for Paris and Verona, but that seems to fluctuate. However, while the return trip from Venice to London (which I and others consider less desirable) has often cost the same, I now see that it's down to £2,379 (US$3,308), or 90% of the above amount. They do give a code to use for a 5% discount on any trip. They give prices for 2020/2021, since they are starting up again after the pandemic.
They want (hide your eyes if you're concerned about your blood pressure) £16,800 (US$23,358) for a Grand Suite for one night. (There was no reference to doing community service for moral recklessness.)

However, I could find no singles at all for August 2021 or even August 2022—they wanted £3,675 (US$5,110) for single occupancy of a double. Other than London/Venice, for 2022 they're doing zig-zag destinations to Geneva, Innsbruck, and Rome.
It's a great trip, for pleasure and for history, but Belmond is working it to hell, making it just an exercise in hedonism.

Mark Smith's Comments    I do like some other things Mark Smith says on his Seat 61 website, including its romantic nature: [T]his is one beautifully-restored and truly historic train, superbly run and an utter pleasure to travel on. If you can afford it, this is one train you shouldn't miss. . . . [It's] the most romantic and luxurious way from London or Paris to Venice. Its vintage carriages are a delight and the food & on-board service are truly world class. Unlike many expensive tourist experiences, this train really does live up to its five-stars and you won't be disappointed. . . . I admit I doubted that any 24-hour train journey could be worth that. I was forced to change my mind after a journey . . . in 2003. . . . And I got far more than I bargained for on that trip in 2003. Nicolette and I had been going out for just 6 months and we boarded the train with nothing planned or premeditated, but it weaved its special magic. [The] next day as the VSOE headed through the Brenner Pass . . . we . . . got engaged.

And I'm pleased that he agrees with me on which direction to take, and puts it so impressively: Either [direction] is great, but in my opinion the southbound has the edge. . . . [T]he British Pullman train is the hors d'oeuvre, the Continental Wagons-Lits train is the main course, and I feel the journey works best this way round. And the arrival in Venice over the causeway is a fitting climax.

Arrival in Venice    Yes, indeed, and look, we've finished our tea and are already in Mestre, about to cross the causeway into the Centro Storico di Venezia / Historic Center of Venice. as we see again on this map we first used on Agatha's trip in 2021/3.

http://www.johomaps.com/eu/italy/venice/cityrail_venezia_full.jpg

Here's also a repeat of the aerial photo of the causeway (Photo by Didier Descouens), where you can see (click) both trains and motor vehicles on it, the latter connecting to the Piazzale Roma vehicle area on the far right, but our train heading straight ahead for Santa Lucia Station. In the upper left corner you see the glass-blowing island of Murano and in the upper right on the horizon is the Lido. Closer in (click) is Saint Mark's Bell Tower (Campanile); to its left the Doge's Palace in white, and then the domes of Saint Mark's Basilica. To better place these, we'll repeat the map of the Centro Storico of Venice, but note that that's not the Lido at the bottom but La Giudecca island.

I've calculated that I traveled round trip on the causeway by train in my 1957 trip with my friend, and again round trip five years later with Beverly in 1962 at the time of our Italy trip during Easter break from our studies in Mainz. Thus, the VSOE trip just forty years later in 2002 was my fifth time on the causeway; when we left by car would be my sixth crossing of the lagoon and the only one not by train. In retrospect, I see a similarity to having crossed the Eurotunnel four times by train and once by motor vehicle.

http://onelight.com/hec/targets/Venice/Map2_VeniceOnLine.jpg

This VSOE story is tied to both London and Venice, and I want to complete the story talking about that city, not for sightseeing but the VSOE connection, and also how we managed with a wheelchair. It had been a daunting prospect, and I didn't know if we could manage. But while planning the trip, I found an online map of Venice showing in yellow which pedestrian lanes were negotiable by wheelchair without steps or other barriers. I just found this next map which shows just a part of the Centro Storico, not all of it, but gives a good idea. Yellow routes are passable, white ones are not, and our map covered the whole Centro Storico.

https://europeforvisitors.com/venice/images/map_red_venezia_inside.gif

So visiting would be OK, but there were two weak spots in my planning, arriving, and later leaving to get the car. At Victoria Station, I could manage pushing the chair with one hand and dragging the wheeled bag with the other, but that was only from the Thistle hotel to track 1, then VSOE had taken our bag and it had magically reappeared in our compartment in Calais. I knew when I arrived in Venice I'd have to do the same thing getting on the vaporetto (commuter boat) at the station, and getting off at the hotel, and was hoping I could manage. And then I got good news while still crossing the causeway. The attendant came to the room, asked for our bag, and said it would be delivered to our hotel. We must have given them the name of the hotel when at Victoria, and I would have assumed that was only in case of emergencies, not for luggage delivery. But our bag disappeared on the train, and magically reappeared in our room at our hotel. It was a great, pleasant relief. But couldn't they have made that clear before the trip to reduce my anxiety?

In sum I will repeat: it was an outstanding train ride, and totally thrilling, every moment, not just that electrifying moment on arrival in Calais. But Belmond could have been a lot more informative in advance—and also less paternalistic in their outlook. But once again, as for the VSOE cruise train: With all your faults, I love you still.

Vaporetto    For those who don't know Venice, I'm sure there's some giddy image of people riding in gondolas. T'ain't so. On three trips, I've seen gondolas, usually docked, waiting for tourists, but have never been inclined to take one. Venetians use them only on ceremonial occasions, such as for weddings and funerals. I've never been involved in either ceremony while there, nor am I a tourist. So why bother?

There are also pricey water taxis, which I've always avoided (exception below) because the vaporetti are SO easy to get around on. A vaporetto is a Venetian public waterbus. There are 19 scheduled lines within the Centro Storico, also reaching Murano, Burano, and the Lido. The Italian word for "steam" (or "vapor") is vapore so the name vaporetto describes it as a "steam[er]ette" or "little steamer", going back to their start in 1881, when they were actually run by steam.

We've seen this view before of the façade of Santa Lucia Station (Photo by Marc Ryckaert), where we commented on its modernist style, but now note (click) the vaporetto stop on the right marked in yellow "Ferrovia" (Railroad), and also the handicapped sticker on the vaporetto waiting there, as well as in green to the left. I suppose I really had little to be concerned about. And so we were on our way to our hotel, with the Rialto Bridge in the background (Photo by Jean-Pol GRANDMONT). But do note how common it is for a large mansion (palazzo), like the one on the left, to have a water entrance. It surely also has a street entrance in the back or on the sides.

https://maps-venice.com/img/0/venice-vaporetto-map.jpg

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The first link (click) shows the score or so of vaporetto routes. (If a station interrupts a color, that vaporetto will stop there.) The map is not to scale, but you can see the connections also to Murano and to the Lido, so we could easily use vaporetti during our stay. If you want a simpler map, the second one just shows route #1. On either one, from the Ferrovia stop follow down the Grand Canal past the Rialto to the stop after San Marco, San Zaccaria, near Saint Zachary's Church.

Venice Hotel    For years I've felt it's always a pleasurable—and wise--travel move to get things free, if possible, or at least reduced in price. That's another reason I was so pleased we got the discount on VSOE. When looking for a hotel in Venice, on my two previous trips, we stayed in nice enough places, reasonably well-located, and not overly expensive. But on this trip, we got very lucky. In my hotel points plan, I was able to not only get a hotel free on points, but was able to take advantage of the 5-for-4 plan, whereby you use points for four nights, and the fifth night is absolutely free, not even costing points. And in addition, we were able to book one of the nicest, oldest, best located, most historic hotels I've ever stayed at, and I really feel that, tho it has nothing to do with VSOE, that it continues the spirit of the VSOE part of the trip. For the five nights from June 28 to July 2 we stayed at the Hotel Danieli, which was formerly the Palazzo Dandolo, built in the late 1300s. The Dandolo family had been one of the oldest and most illustrious families in Venice; in 1822, the building was purchased by Giuseppe da Niel and used as a luxury hotel, which it remains to this day. (I always thought the name was based on the biblical name "Daniel" somehow, Daniele in Italian, but apparently it's based on his name, da Niel. Could it possibly mean "from Niel???") And don't misunderstand palazzo (pa.LAT.so). While the word can correspond to a palace, it most often is used to refer to an upscale mansion, certainly within Venice.

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The purpose of this map is to show accessibility on the yellow streets (in this case just limited to this neighborhood), but I'm not using it for that. I'm using it to show how lucky we were that "our" neighborhood was right in the center of things, as "downtown" as you can get. We see the Piazza San Marco, with its colonnades on three sides, and the Campanile (bell tower) at one end; the Basilica di San Marco in red. The Doge's Palace is the Palazzo Ducale (ok, this is one case where it IS a palace, but all the other palazzi on the map are mansions); the Prigioni are the former prisons, and between the two is the famous Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs). And on the right is the vaporetto stop for S. Zaccaria serving the Danieli, in the Palazzo Dandolo. In addition, you can see how wheelchair accessible this area is (so were many others) including our being able to enter the Basilica. To better see what it all actually looks like, use this aerial view (Photo by Jean-Pol GRANDMONT) from the Grand Canal (click): the Campanile and Square (partial); the white Doge's Palace with the Basilica's domes behind it; in the dark shadow between buildings, half of the Bridge of Sighs; the Prigioni. Then come three buildings. The red one in the center is the Palazzo Dandolo, the actual Hotel Danieli, while the white buildings immediately on either side are extensions of it, one labeled Danieli Excelsior and the other just Danieli. It also says Danieli on the Palazzo Dandolo itself—where we stayed—in yellow above the loggia (hard to see here).

It's vital to our story that you note the narrow canal on the right side of the Dandolo. I've recently learned it's called the Rio del Vin. Also appearing in our story is that white bridge over that canal, the Ponte del Vin. Right in front of the Dandolo you see the two-pronged vaporetto stop of S. Zaccaria. You also see water taxis and a vaporetto in the canal. And of course, this being as touristy an area as you can imagine, you do see gondolas for them.

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It proved so simple taking and then getting off the vaporetto with a wheelchair, here at S. Zaccaria, where you find yourself facing the hotel across the canalside promenade called the Riva degli Schiavoni (SKYA.vo.ni), a celebrated name in Venice.

We were just facing the vaporetto stop, and as we turn around, across the promenade we see the Danieli (Photo by Xtrasystole), where the name is now clearly visible above the loggia. Note how relatively modest the street entrance is, leading in straight from the street, and no canopy to protect from the sun. And while it looks like that's an alley to its right, remember, that's the Rio del Vin. I've noted some of the luminaries who've stayed here, and among them are, Goethe, Wagner, Charles Dickens, Lord Byron, Peggy Guggenheim, Leonard Bernstein, Benjamin Britten, Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, and Princess Di.

We wheeled inside and found a spectacular atrium lobby (click) where we checked in (Photo by Radu Costel). This shows the reception desk at the foot of the Grand Staircase. When they saw the wheelchair, we were given what I liked to call at the time a "wheelchair upgrade" to a suite. There's a lift beyond the desk that took us one flight up. In 2002/2 I wrote: Coming off the elevator we could see the regular rooms going down the hallway, but off the Gothic arches of the atrium was a very wide hallway, almost a[n internal] loggia, with our door being one of them coming off it. Our door is thick, heavy wood, maybe 2 by 3 meters/yards [in size]. At first I thought the ceiling might be 5 m (16 ft) high, but that's only to the cornice, and it goes beyond that. It must be 6 m (20 ft). One flight up, we were on the same level as that loggia in the front of the building, so you can judge from that the room height. However, our room was over a small narrow street to the left of the building, so we pretty much faced a wall.

A Wheelchair in Venice    Again, this is not a travelog of Venice, of what we visited, or re-visited. I mean to talk about how it was maneuvering a wheelchair. Mostly it went quite well, but there were three memorable incidents.

We had never been to the Venetian Ghetto, which is the place that the word "ghetto" originated and then became international, and I found where it was and we proceeded there. On the main Venice map, look north of the Rail Station and you'll find the enclosed Campo Ghetto Nuovo, or "New Ghetto Court". The history is this: it was the area of Venice where Jews were forced to live by the government of the Venetian Republic starting in 1516. In 1555 Venice had 160,208 inhabitants, including 923 Jews, who were mainly merchants. (Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice was written between 1596 and 1599.) In 1797 the French Army of Italy, commanded by the 28-year-old General Napoleon Bonaparte, occupied Venice and ended the ghetto's separation from the city. Today, the Ghetto is still a center of Jewish life. The Jewish community of Venice, includes about 450 people, and is culturally active, although only a few members live in the Ghetto because the area has become expensive. The Campo Ghetto Nuovo has a museum and several synagogs (Photo by Didier Descouens).

But our excursion played out this way. When we got to the area, the passageway thru a building from the street to the Campo was not passable for the wheelchair, so I had to leave Beverly sitting in the street while I very quickly ran into the Campo, and peeked into the museum and a synagog or two, then reported to her what I'd seen. I found that less than a satisfactory solution.

At another point, we were moving along a street and came to what our map said was a passable humpback bridge, but as I started pushing the wheelchair up it, it became too much, and I signaled to two young women, and they came and helped me reach the top and lower it down the other side. This was also unnerving.

The third thing happened one day when we were almost back at the hotel. Either I'd misread the map, or it was wrong, but, coming from the east on the Riva degli Schiavoni, as we reached the Ponte del Vin (Photo by Abxbay), with our hotel right beyond this last barrier, it was clearly (click to see) a bridge of steps up and then down. So I again left Beverly, zipped over the bridge to the hotel, and came back with two workers, who carried her and her chair over the bridge. This was much less of a bother. But these three incidents were the exception. We both fully enjoyed Venice again.

Departure    After five days, it was time to leave. I'd hoped we'd practiced enough on vaporetti with the wheelchair that I could then manage with the wheeled bag as well. There were water taxis some distance away, but they looked awkward to get into, and I wasn't interested. But when we were checking out, we were asked about transportation, and a solution was presented to us that was much too good to resist.

We saw how it's so common for the palazzi in Venice to have water entrances, and it had never occurred to me that the Palazzo Dandolo had one as well. We'd never used such a traditional boat access in Venice and because of the wheelchair we'd now be experiencing something totally new for us. You'll recall that the lobby was at street level, off the front entrance. The concierge took us down one level on the lift to the lower lobby, which was much closer to water level, and showed us the water entrance on the right side of the building. I'm so glad I've found two pictures that illustrate this final Venitian adventure of ours.

Study carefully the following view looking north in the Rio del Vin, to the right of the hotel (Photo by Tommie Hansen). We're looking from the Ponte del Vin that we had trouble crossing over. On the left is the hotel, connected by that bridge to its extension on the right. The water entrance is just as attractive in its way as the front entrance was, with shrubbery, and even a wrought-iron canopy over its marble arch. And the narrow dock is just above water level, making maneuvering into a boat very easy. I remember seeing something else, and am so pleased this picture shows it. Click to see, up the canal, several black boats on the right. Any guesses what that is? It's what would be on dry land a taxi stand! The concierge reached out, snapped his fingers, and the first boat came up to the dock.

I've searched for pictures of water taxis in Venice, and all I found were closed-in, sleek brown-and-white boats, which is not what we had. Then I finally found this view looking south in the Rio del Vin (Photo by Abxbay) towards the hotel's water entrance. This "taxi stand" seems to also include gondolas for the tourists, but the water taxi we had was more like a traghetto, black, open and simple—and was, in addition, a motorboat. We managed to lift Beverly, still sitting in the wheelchair, down into it, plus our bag, then me, and off we went, under the Ponte del Vin and into the Grand Canal. I'm trying to remember the route he took (see Venice map). I don't think we stayed on the Grand Canal, even to cut across midway. I think he took a back, non-romantic route. I have a feeling he took the broad Giudecca Canal, then turned right in that railroad area up the Canale Scomenzera almost to the rail station, then turned to the Piazzale Roma.

Getting out of the boat was a little trickier, since the stone embankment was at street level, with, as I recall, a couple of steps, so I unfolded the wheelchair and set it on the ground, then walked Beverly topside, then took the bag. It was SO strange to be in an area of buses and cars within Venice, but we just walked across the street and picked up the car we'd booked. I'll repeat this picture showing the drive out towards the causeway to complete our trip of northern Italy and southern France.

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The London/Venice VSOE trip was not stand-alone, involving back-tracking, but as always, we used it as real transport. From 3-19 July we drove onward in northern Italy and southern France, and having the blue handicapped tag in the windshield allowed us to drive in old-town areas otherwise just open to pedestrians. We went to Como & the Lake District, San Pellegrino, Milano, Rimini, San Marino, Assisi, Firenze, Carrara, Portofino, Siena, San Gimignano, Lucca, Pisa, Viareggio; in France: Nice, Monaco, Cannes, Antibes, Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, Les Baux-en-Provence, Aigues Mortes, Reims (Veuve Clicquot Champagne cellar), Paris; then London, Southampton. These weren't all hotel stops--most were day trips out of core cities where we stayed. Some cities were repeats, many were new. We returned the car in Avignon and took the TGV (high-speed train) north, and also the Eurotunnel once again. For details see 2002/2-3-4-5. From 20-25 July we took the QE2 back to NYC.