<P><B>The intriguing story of the Orient Express, spanning from 1883 to present-day services</B></P> <p>For more than a century the Orient Express has represented the epitome of luxurious and glamorous rail travel. It all began when George Pullman created his innovative sleeping and dining cars. For the first time long-distance travelers were able to enjoy gourmet food, sleep in comfortable beds, and wash in ceramic basins worthy of a four star hotel. Launched as a service between Paris and Vienna in 1883, by the inter-war years the legendary trains wound their way through the Alps to Budapest and Bucharest to Constantinople. These trains conjure up a lost era of romance, adventure, and style—the luxury train against which all luxury trains were measured. John Christopher tells the fascinating story of Pullman's trains, the creation of the Express d'Orient, its golden age of international travel, and its subsequent rebirth as the Venice-Simplon Orient Express.