When I celebrated my 70th birthday in December, the family clubbed together and gave me a trip on the Orient Express as a special present so yesterday, at the crack of dawn, Ann and I set of for London Victoria for our trip to York. It took us some time to decide which of the many trips the Orient Express does each year to choose which we thought we would enjoy most and settled on York as it’s some years since we’ve been there.
When we boarded the train we were given bilini’s followed by breakfast/brunch. We enjoyed our smoked salmon, scrambled egg, potato rosti with caviar, Danish Pastries etc and although the journey took over 5 hours we seemed to arrive in York very quickly. The train is absolute luxury and the carriages have all been restored to a very high standard. The staff are attentive to your every need; nothing is too much trouble.
We had a trip round the Minster and then explored the Shambles. We hoped to go to Betty’s for afternoon tea but the queue was so long we just bought some cakes to take home and found another cafe, not so busy, nearby. There are now two Betty’s in York and both were full to capacity. Thankfully, it wasn’t so hot yesterday but we gathered from our waiter that it had been almost unbearable on the train last week – the only air conditioning being the windows!
On the trip back to London we were served with iced champagne when we boarded the train and then followed a sumptuous five course gourmet dinner which was excellent with wine and port.. How the chefs manage to produce such wonderful food in the confined space of a tiny railway kitchen is beyond belief!. It was a wonderful experience which we both really enjoyed. We left the train at Finsbury Park and then it was back to reality as we went home via the tube and train. It was a great day and we are most grateful to everybody who made this possible
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