{"id":1851,"date":"2009-12-12T10:31:40","date_gmt":"2009-12-12T10:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/?p=1851"},"modified":"2009-12-12T10:31:40","modified_gmt":"2009-12-12T10:31:40","slug":"scratch_that_one_off_the_todo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/2009\/12\/12\/scratch_that_one_off_the_todo\/","title":{"rendered":"Scratch That One Off the To-Do List…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, this sucks: it seems the Orient Express, the famed Paris-to-Istanbul train that’s been the setting of so many fictional mysteries and thrillers, will cease operation<\/a> as of this Monday. Like so many other relics of a more elegant age, it’s been made obsolete by faster and more convenient alternatives. I don’t question its obsolescence — as I recently commented on someone else’s blog, who has two days to go anywhere on a train when you can catch a plane and be there in a few hours? — but as a history buff, a romantic, and someone who wishes he had the kind of leisure time that makes train travel practical, I mourn its passing.<\/p>\n

The Orient Express has long held a place on my “probably will never happen” goal list (as opposed to the list of goals that are within reason for a middle-aged guy of moderate income and limited vacation time). Like a lot of other people, I suppose, I was drawn to the glamour and promise of adventure that lived in the train’s very name. “Orient Express.” It’s wonderfully evocative, isn’t it? I realize, of course, that these qualities stem more from the pages of Agatha Christie than the vehicle itself, but then I understand Concorde wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, either, and I still wanted to take a flight aboard her. But now the irresistible forward march of progress has taken both options off the table. Ah, well… there’s still an African safari and a trip to Antarctica to consider. Assuming that global warming doesn’t destroy both continents before I manage to secure my fortunes and quit that pesky day job…<\/p>\n

Incidentally, and just to avoid confusion, there is another European train service called the Orient Express<\/a>. That one is a luxury (i.e., very<\/i> expensive) tourist experience aboard refurbished 1930s-vintage railcars running (mostly) between London and Venice. Think of it as a cruise-by-rail, I guess. That<\/i> Orient Express isn’t affected by this news; the train that’s shutting down is the original, historic Orient Express, the one on which Sean Connery “honeymooned” with Daniela Bianchi<\/a> in From Russia, With Love<\/i> (still my favorite of all the Bond movies).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, this sucks: it seems the Orient Express, the famed Paris-to-Istanbul train that’s been the setting of so many fictional mysteries and thrillers, will cease operation as of this Monday. Like so many other relics of a more elegant age, it’s been made obsolete by faster and more convenient alternatives. I don’t question its obsolescence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1851\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}