{"text":[[{"start":6.1,"text":"Eighteen thousand pounds — for three people to travel from Venice to London."}],[{"start":11.25,"text":"For £18,000 you could buy a perfectly respectable second-hand Porsche. Or take the family skiing. Twice. And still have enough left over for lessons they will ignore. "}],[{"start":22.85,"text":"Or you could spend 36 hours on a train."}],[{"start":26.25,"text":"Not just any train, admittedly. The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express is the train. Rolling theatre. Polished brass, gleaming marquetry, liveried stewards who somehow materialise the instant your champagne glass starts looking a little dry, and fellow passengers who have all decided black tie should once again be compulsory."}],[{"start":45.15,"text":"It is also £18,000 — did I mention that? And that’s money on which you’ve already paid tax."}],[{"start":51.9,"text":"And there isn’t even a shower in your cabin. The lavatory is down the corridor. Yes, we had a butler, but for this amount of money I’d rather have expected my own bathroom. But, then, you’d be coughing up even more for a suite."}],[{"start":64.4,"text":"Objectively, it’s ridiculous. Subjectively, it was magnificent."}],[{"start":69.5,"text":"Somewhere along the journey it dawned on me that we’ve made a dreadful mistake. We’ve turned travel into logistics. Travel used to be an event. Now it’s an obstacle."}],[{"start":80.6,"text":"For one recent trip, I remember spending weeks researching restaurants in Florence, before willingly wedging myself into seat 32B on an easyJet flight, where every available inch of comfort has been engineered out, in pursuit of another pound of efficiency. "}],[{"start":97.14999999999999,"text":"In a way, I admire it. But it isn’t travel. It’s transportation."}],[{"start":101.6,"text":"Nobody aboard the Orient Express is trying to get anywhere quickly. In fact, speed seems faintly vulgar. Instead, the train glides through five European countries at a pace that allows you to appreciate mountains, villages and vineyards rather than merely flying over them at 38,000ft negotiating ownership of the solitary armrest."}],[{"start":124.05,"text":"Back on the train, more champagne appears. Then another glass. Then wine with lunch. Then more wine with dinner. There are around 70 wines on the list, all included, so refusing another glass feels irresponsible. Before long I was calculating whether I could drink my way back to break-even."}],[{"start":143.4,"text":"Dinner isn’t squeezed between announcements about duty-free perfume. It meanders. Beginning with cocktails accompanied by a pianist, ending with trouser buttons under considerable pressure. Somewhere around the cheese course I realised nobody had looked at their phone for three hours. "}],[{"start":160.25,"text":"Luxury, I’ve concluded, isn’t marble bathrooms or gold taps. Luxury is having nowhere urgent to be."}],[{"start":167.4,"text":"And that doesn’t have to cost £18,000. All we need to do is give ourselves permission to slow down — and that’s becoming remarkably rare. But all it needs is a change in mindset."}],[{"start":180.95000000000002,"text":"Ironically, one of my favourite travel memories cost less than €100."}],[{"start":186.35000000000002,"text":"Years ago, driving through rural France, we stumbled across a tiny bed and breakfast in the village of Montsaugeon. Three bedrooms. No spa. No concierge. No infinity pool demanding to be photographed for Instagram."}],[{"start":201.60000000000002,"text":"Supper was simply whatever they had cooked that evening. There wasn’t a menu because there wasn’t a choice. Breakfast was even better: proper coffee, fresh bread, homemade preserves and eggs that had almost certainly left the chicken only hours before."}],[{"start":218.65000000000003,"text":"The village itself seemed suspiciously perfect. The local bar sold excellent rosé for €5 a bottle. Not “excellent for €5”. Just excellent. In Britain, €5 buys you a half of mass-produced lager, a packet of crisps and the feeling you’ve overpaid. Naturally, we bought a case."}],[{"start":237.25000000000003,"text":"As luck would have it, there was a music festival in the square. Someone was selling local honey. Nobody appeared to have anywhere particularly important to be."}],[{"start":247.05000000000004,"text":"It wasn’t luxurious. Yet it felt like luxury."}],[{"start":251.05000000000004,"text":"Those are the moments that linger long after you’ve forgotten flight numbers and hotel room keys. "}],[{"start":257.05000000000007,"text":"Instead we’ve become obsessed with destinations: another city, another country, another landmark photographed from precisely the same angle as the previous 3mn visitors."}],[{"start":267.95000000000005,"text":"Yet the richest travel experiences often happen in the gaps between the famous places. Villages you never intended to visit. Restaurants without websites. Conversations with strangers you’ll never meet again. Roads chosen simply because they looked interesting."}],[{"start":284.30000000000007,"text":"That’s what modern travel has quietly stolen from us. We’re so focused on arriving, unless we’ve paid through the nose, we assume there’s no fun to be had — and no dignity — in the journey. "}],[{"start":296.05000000000007,"text":"Should you spend thousands on a trip on the Orient Express? If you have the money, why not? Financially, it’s bonkers, of course. You could make an entirely persuasive case that any train costing the thick end of 20 grand ought to include a shower."}],[{"start":311.00000000000006,"text":"But sometimes you’re buying memories and stories that you’ll still be telling 20 years later. Paying for the increasingly rare luxury of having nowhere else to be."}],[{"start":321.3500000000001,"text":"There will always be a place for budget airlines. They have democratised travel in ways previous generations could scarcely have imagined."}],[{"start":329.2000000000001,"text":"But perhaps there should also be room for the occasional journey where the travel itself is the destination. Where dressing for dinner is part of the entertainment. Where nobody asks: “Are we there yet?”"}],[{"start":341.4000000000001,"text":"James Max is a broadcaster on TV and radio. The views expressed are personal. @thejamesmax"}],[{"start":354.2000000000001,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1783766772_9186.mp3"}