Eastern adventure: Tom and his girlfriend Emma board the Orient Express


Trainspotters in Eastern Europe, I can now say with some certainty, look just the same as the ones back home. Overnight we had rattled and creaked into Poland from the Czech Republic in our beautiful old Art Deco Wagon-Lit carriages, passing through dark forests that seemed to go on for ever.

We had started our unusual Orient-Express journey in busy, touristy Venice, but there we were the next morning, a long way from the canals and gondolas, blinking at the contrast as we rolled slowly past Zywiec.

A rust-coloured train was waiting at a platform covered with weeds. Walls by the ticket office were covered with indecipherable graffiti. The sun beat down (Eastern Europe was in the midst of a heatwave). And then we saw them - the trainspotters.

A scraggly haired fellow with a giant belly and an old baseball cap was holding up a camera and taking snaps. Next to him, a skinny man wearing black socks and sandals was squinting through old spectacles, capturing the train with a video camera. Another with a sleeveless jacket with pockets was scribbling in a notebook.

They smiled and waved, and we smiled and waved back - sitting at our little breakfast table in our tiny compartment, eating croissants and rolls, with cups of fresh coffee at a table with purple flowers in a silver vase.

It was a bizarre scene. It was also typical of the friendly reception the Orient-Express received as we moved deeper into Eastern Europe.

Locals, tipped off to the arrival of our shiny, navy-blue carriages, were waiting at platforms all the way. We were almost cheered past in places, especially as we moved on from our stop in Krakow towards Dresden - the first time the Orient-Express has ventured into the city that suffered such heavy bombing in the Second World War.

From Dresden we were travelling onwards, via a mini-stop in Paris, to Calais and buses into the Channel Tunnel to Folkestone, where another Orient-Express train was waiting to transport us to Victoria Station. The journey consisted of one night on the train, two in Krakow (at a plush Sheraton), another night on the train, two in Dresden (in an even plusher Kempinski), one more on the train, before returning home. Quite an adventure: it made London-to-Venice or Paris-to-Istanbul seem passé - we were travelling into the Orient-Express unknown.

So, via the Dolomites and long tunnels when the lights flickered (and we thought of Agatha Christie), Austria and the Czech Republic, we reached Poland. Along the way we dined on foie gras, fillet of beef marinated in dill and juniper berries, and dark chocolate cake ‘with Italian lemon zests’.


Former bordello: Tom's Art Deco Wagon-Lit compartment


We were dressed formally - a tie and suit for me (some wore black tie), a smart dress for my girlfriend Emma - as we listened to a tinkling piano. There were three dining carriages (each restored to Art Deco glory) as well as six sleeping carriages, all beautifully maintained. Ours dated from 1929. The mahogany panelled rooms were designed by Rene Prou – considered a master in this area. A sign also said that the compartment had been ‘used as a brothel in Limoges 1940-45’.

Our compartment had a funny sink in a cabinet in a corner. There was a bench-seat converted into bunks by a steward while you had your evening meal. There was a mini-fan in a corner, helping with the heat. But it was still pretty hot.

An American woman commented wryly: ‘Staying here is cheaper than a divorce.’ There was also no shower room – ‘This is authentic,’ explained the train manager, Bruno Janssens. Regarding the heat, he added: ‘We’re thinking of bringing in air-conditioning.’

In Krakow, we stayed by the Vistula river overlooking the 14th Century Wawel Castle. Krakow is easy to walk around, with a pretty old town encircled by a park renowned as a lovers’ promenade. We climbed the hill to the castle and took in the strange shoebox-like tourist boats on the river below and bathers on the small beach opposite. We walked on, passing a shopping mall selling every brand under the sun (Eastern Europe has come a long way since 1989) and had a coffee in the huge central square, where stalls had T-shirts bearing the slogan: ‘CK: City of Krakow.’

Then we went to Auschwitz. You can’t help wondering whether it is appropriate, having travelled in our sybaritic train on the very same tracks used by Hitler’s Holocaust wagons. But it would be wrong to visit this part of Poland without spending some time at this monument to man’s inhumanity.

We passed under the chilling sign that says Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Makes You Free) and entered the harrowing rows of red-brick compounds, overlooked by watchtowers and surrounded by barbed wire.

We saw pictures of inmates sentenced to death. We took in a courtyard where executions were performed against a brick wall. We visited the terrifying gas chambers, where a sign said: ‘Please maintain silence here: remember their suffering and show respect for their memory.’ A display explained that more than a million people died in Auschwitz and neighbouring Birkenau.

It gave us a lot to think about when we returned to the Orient-Express that night.


Masterpiece: The Zwinger in Dresden has an amazing art collection


We journeyed on to Dresden, passing great factories and Soviet-era housing blocks in the outskirts of the former East German city. There was music and dancing at the station before we were whisked to the Kempinski, a former palace built for a mistress of Augustus the Strong, who ruled Saxony from 1670 to 1733.

The hotel was rebuilt after being bombed in February 1945, and is next to the Royal Palace. We were soon being shown round the grounds of the Zwinger, another palace with a fabulous collection of Augustus’s porcelain and a gallery full of works by Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt and Vermeer.

Augustus, we learned, spent a fortune gained from mining silver near Dresden on his beloved art. Stalin had taken much of it to Russia, but it was returned by Khrushchev, who felt the works belonged in the city.

We were shown the marvellous domed Church of Our Lady, also destroyed during the war but rebuilt five years ago. Our guide said: ‘This is a symbol. I was five years old when this was destroyed. Now it is back, it feels as though the city is living again.’

Later, we visited a Volkswagen factory and the botanical gardens. Then we rejoined our train for the slow ride back via Paris to Calais – passing Eastern European trainspotters again on the way.

As we did so, the words of our guide came back to me: ‘For many years, living here was like living in a prison. Now we are free to go where we like. Now we can welcome the Orient-Express.’

With the piano playing in the dining car, we chugged out of Dresden on our very different (and extremely memorable) journey.

Travel facts
Orient-Express (0845 077 2222, www.orient-express.com) offers a seven-day Venice/Krakow/Dresden/London journey from £4,850pp including a cabin suite on the train with full-board, two nights at the Sheraton Hotel in Krakow and two nights in the Taschenbergerpalais Kempinski Hotel in Dresden, a special dinner in Krakow and excursions. It can also arrange flights to Venice, two nights’ accommodation and transfers from £475.

source: dailymail