Travel Briefs

Visitors to Königsleiten, Austria, in the Wald-Königsleiten hiking area, can ride the cable car to the top station on the Gerlospass and walk back down to town, via Larmachalm, on the Jodel (Yodel) Trail (www.jodelweg.at).

At each of eight stations, a tape can be played that teaches a bit more yodeling technique. Practicing, you can hear your echo. At one station, you can play cowbells, and another has a huge alpine horn to blow. 

The Gerlospass, 4,900 feet above sea level, links the Zillertal and Salzachtal valleys. Hiking the trail is free, but the cable car (phone 06564...

Topography of Terror (Dokumentationszentrum NS-Zwangsarbeit, Britzer Straße 5, 12439 Berlin, Germany; phone 030 6390288 0), a three-story exhibition and documentation center focusing on the atrocities of World War II, opened on May 7.

Exhibits attempt to show the impact of forced labor on Germany and throughout Europe. The site, that of the former Gestapo and SS headquarters in Berlin, also includes one of the last well-preserved forced-labor camps. Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Free entry.

The 126-year run of the Orient Express* ended on Dec. 13, 2009. 

When the service was inaugurated in 1883 by entrepreneur Georges Nagelmacher, it ran twice a week from Paris to Varna, Bulgaria, where a ferry took passengers on to Istanbul. Later, the rail line was extended to Istanbul. 

In its first decades, the train became the stuff of story and legend. “Dracula” used it as a setting, as did Ian Fleming in the James Bond novel “To Russia With Love.” Agatha Christie was inspired to write “Murder on the Orient Express” after learning the train had been stuck in the snow for...