A whistle blasts as the ‘Orient Express’ slides out of Stockholm’s Central Station. Hugo, our aqua blue-uniformed steward pops a bottle of prosecco. ‘Farewell, fair city,’ he says, saluting the shrinking skyline. For all its easy-going, egalitarian image, Sweden’s capital is an imperial city of gracious facades and plume-helmeted cavalry guarding a royal residence bigger than Buckingham Palace. Stockholm, with its old district of Gamla Stan to the fore, was the start-point for this grand rail journey No wonder the world’s most illustrious train seems so at home here. My wife, Hennie, and I have flown in to join her on a jaunt to Copenhagen, the first leg of the train’s journey home to Venice.
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The Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express is best known for journeys to rail Italy
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However, this fabled train service also covers major cities in Scandinavia
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It is possible to take a train journey between Stockholm and Copenhagen
For us, it is a case of relishing the romantic opulence of 1920s-style rail travel, book-ended by another in each of two historic @placeholder capitals.
We stay in regal style at the harbour side @placeholder, where Orient Express sets up its check-in desk in a lobby which, alarmingly, is swirling with silk gowns and gents in white tie.