Murder Writer on the Orient Express: Tottie's Travels

By Tottie Limejuice

Eccentric author Tottie Limejuice (Lesley Krier Tither), writer of travelogues and crime fiction, seldom ventures far from her home in Central France's Auvergne.

With a significant birthday coming up, she and best friend Jill decide to splash out on something special – riding the Venice Simplon-Orient Express train to Venice.

Why not pack a bag and come along for the ride? But make sure your luggage is more cooperative than Willy Wonky-wheels who accompanied our two intrepid travellers on their trip across four countries.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: L M Krier
• Release date: Nov 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215928639

Tottie Limejuice

Tottie Limejuice is the pen name of former journalist and freelance copywriter, Lesley Tither. Writing as Tottie Limejuice, she has authored the Sell the Pig Series of personal travel memoirs, as well as Tottie's Travels, a series of humorous mini travelogues. Lesley also writes crime fiction, the Ted Darling Crime Series,  as L M Krier and children’s fiction as L M Kay.

Book preview

To bestest of best friends

Sensible Aunt Jill

Tottie Limejuice is a pen-name of Lesley Krier Tither, a former journalist and freelance copywriter,  author of the Sell the Pig travel memoir series, the Ted Darling Crime Series (crime fiction, writing as L M Krier), children's fiction books (writing as L M Kay) and creator of DI Oscar Smith, ‘Looking for Lulu’, under the name Carl Granger

The author asserts the moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

All Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

© TOTTIE LIMEJUICE

––––––––

Cover photo: ‘A canal in Venice’

© L M KRIER TITHER

Table of Contents

––––––––

Part One Back to my roots

Chapter 1 Trains and boats but no planes  

Chapter 2 Just like buses    

Chapter 3 An unexpected bonus 

Chapter 4 Compare and contrast 

Chapter 5 The bells, the bells! 

Part Two The Venice Simplon-Orient Express

Chapter 6 All aboard

Chapter 7 Dinner is served

Chapter 8 An entire box of chocolate liqueurs

Part Three Back to the mountains

Chapter 9 I love to go a-wandering

Chapter 10 Ask the elephants

Part One 

Back to my roots

Chapter 1

Trains and boats but no planes

I have always loved train travel. Especially sleeper trains. Ever since, when I was ten, my parents took me and my brother Peter to visit our family in Luxembourg in 1963, on the occasion of the millennium celebrations.

We didn’t travel a lot as a family, largely because my brother was spectacularly travel sick whenever we did. In those days we all wrote up weekend diaries on a Monday morning at junior school. Mine, whilst describing trips out we might have made, always ended with the words ‘and Peter was sick’.

Flying was not yet commonplace in those days for the average family. Besides which, our father, despite, or perhaps because of having served in the Royal Air Force during the war, hated it, and that somehow rubbed off on my brother and me. So the decision was made that our big family adventure abroad would be made by train, and by boat across the English Channel.

The first leg of our journey involved a sleeper train from Stockport to London. Incredible to think of, in these days when the average rail journey time between the two places is under three hours. But back then, there was a sleeper service, which we all boarded, and it was drawn by a steam locomotive.

We had two compartments. My father and brother shared one, mother and I had the other. I thought it was great fun, and a huge adventure. Peter was sick.

I enjoyed it so much that I insisted, when we arrived in London to transfer to the boat train, on going to thank and to pat the locomotive for getting us there safely.

I had my first taste of air travel when, aged sixteen in the late 1960s, our school took us on an exchange trip to France. There was great excitement amongst the party about such an adventure and I had no real preconceptions about it. But as soon as the plane, a Trident, did that gathering up of its skirts ready for the mad dash down the runway, I decided it wasn’t for me.

Stop the world, I want to get off!

It didn’t help that, because of industrial action by ground crew in Paris, we were stacked in the air, waiting to land but unable to, for what seemed an interminable amount of time. Since then, I only ever fly when there is absolutely no viable alternative. These days, I use the excuse of trying to be more eco-aware. In truth it simply terrifies me and I hate it.

I don’t mind boats, and am lucky enough to have a strong stomach in rough weather. The family visit to Luxembourg included crossing the Channel on the ferry. I was fine. Peter was sick.

I’ve done Rotterdam to Hull, Harwich to the Hook of Holland, Liverpool to Belfast, Dover to Calais and Dover to Dunkirk, plus crossed the channel on both hovercraft and hydrofoil.

But trains are what I love best and are always my first choice. How pleased I was when