Lunch in Venice Darling?:

To travel on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express is to step back in time to the heyday of the Orient Express, between 1907 and 1914, when it ran through Europe carrying the rich and famous, the aristocratic and powerful.

Even the inveterate traveller will experience a frisson-charged moment when they step on board the brown and cream liveried British Pullman at London's Victoria station. Nothing at all to do with Agatha Christies' Hercule Poirot and his investigation into the Death on the Orient Express! The book was originally called 'Murder in the Calais Coach' and, contrary to general belief, there was never a day Pullman attached to the main train. No, the thrill is in the knowledge that this is billed as one of the world's most romantic train journeys.

The First World War decimated rail travel in Europe yet varying forms of the Orient/Simplon-Orient continued in service until the 1960s but they lacked the glamour of the trains of the early part of the century.

In the 1970s, James Sherwood, President of the Sea Containers Group, had a dream to recreate the epoch of the Orient Express. He began buying up historic carriages, restaurant cars and Pullmans, had them restored and realized his dream in 1982 when his Venice Simplon-Orient-Express departed from London's Victoria Station bound for Venice. His dream cost him £11,000,000.

The journey time to Venice is 31 hours. I love train travel but this was something really special.

The sedate brown and cream British Pullman pulled slowly out of Victoria Station and I was wrapped in the comfort and style of a bygone age which only the rich had experienced. I felt pampered and this was only the start of the adventure. Lunch was mouth-watering: green asparagus and cured pork with orange-peel butter, fresh salmon pasta washed down with a chilled Chardonnay and a desert of small pastries. And the service was impeccable.

With the gentle rhythm of the train, and the green and pleasant bucolic scenery of Kent, fields of cows, glimpses of oast houses flashing by, this first leg of the journey was heavenly.

On arrival at Folkestone, passengers transfer to a luxury coach which takes 45 minutes to zap through Eurotunnel to Calais, where they then board the elegant, navy-blue Venice Simplon Orient Express with its beautifully restored Wagon Lits carriages from the 1920s and 1930s. It departs for Venice around 5 o'clock.

Blue-suited, white-gloved stewards are standing by the carriages to greet their 250 guests. You are not a passenger on the VSOE - you are a guest. A tip of the cap, a strong arm helps you aboard, your luggage is stowed in the rack above your seats in your compartment and you are off again.

As you settle back, afternoon tea arrives to refresh you and then you just relax until dinner.

The chandeliers dazzled, table lamps cast a romantic glow on crisp linen table cloths and sparkling crystal. Champagne corks popped; there was the buzz of conversation. The train stopped briefly in Paris but dinner was being served and no one was being distracted. The food was sublime. This time the main course was tarragon-flavoured roast beef, the most delicious I have ever tasted, followed by Italian cheeses and a dessert of hazelnut cake with hazelnut cream.

You associate the Orient Express with glamour and wealth and automatically think everyone will be incredibly Liz Hurley-glamorous and so the temptation is to invest in a really eye-catching designer number for dinner. It is not really necessary but, on the other hand, why not splash out? A few ladies dressed in the style of the Twenties Flappers in short, slinky evening dresses, and little cloche hats or hair-bands. Several men wore dinner suits with bow ties, but most of the women wore short, elegant dresses or tops and trousers.

After dinner, we had coffee in the bar car and people-watched, while the pianist tinkled the ivories on the baby grand piano.

Our cabin, which had been a seating area during the afternoon, was transformed to a sleeping compartment.

The cabins are small so it is important to travel light. Each one is beautifully decorated in mahogany panels inlaid with marquetry patterns, Art Deco floral and leaf designs and flower garlands. While you have a dainty wash-hand basin, hot and cold water, there is no toilet. These are situated at the end of the carriages. Things can get a little crowded, particularly in the morning, but it can be fun. A group of Japanese ladies in well-worn dressing gowns and old slippers, joined us in the queue, laughing and chatting. They were having a hilarious time.

Following a light breakfast, served in our cabin, there was the joy of having absolutely nothing to do except watch the scenery go by and chat for a whole day.

The train stopped at Innsbruck, in Austria, for half-an-hour and it was good to stretch the legs, fill the lungs with some fresh air and feast on the magnificent, snow-covered Alps. As we shivered in the cool mountain air - it was late October - we met the Japanese ladies again. This time, we could understand what they were saying: "Photographs please"

The two-hour journey through the Brenner Pass was the most stunning part of this stage of the trip.

The rugged green landscape of mountains, deep ravines and gushing waterfalls then gave way to the autumnal golden plains of northern Italy, highlighted by small villages, crumbling farmsteads and stacks of tall poplars.

A little later the Japanese ladies for tea and they brought exquisite little china cups and saucers and poured tea for us in a delightful ceremony which is still one of the most beautiful and treasured experiences of my travels.

We stopped in Verona for a short time and soon it was evening. Just before 6 o'clock the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express pulled into Venice. The journey was over and I felt tearful and bereft as I looked back at the beautiful shiny, blue train. It was little consolation that I was now in my favourite European city. The reality had lived up to the fantasy and that is rare.

Timeless luxury is perhaps what best sums up the VSOE. It still evokes romance, seduction, style and joie de vivre. If you love rail travel, appreciate good food, wine and top class service, why not take five days and travel on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express to Venice and then to Istanbul.

A journey on the VSOE is an intoxicating, vintage experience which, like a superb wine, is guaranteed to linger in the memory a long time.