A Time of Gifts: Geography (1)

I recently finished Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts chronicling the first part of his walk across Europe in the early 1930s. I greatly enjoyed the book and am saving the second volume, Between the Woods and the Water, to accompany me when I go on my own trek in a few months. But after putting it down I realized that, lacking a map and a good knowledge of European geography, the actual route of Fermor’s journey was somewhat vague in my mind. I wished I had still possessed the European atlas that came with my “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego – European version” computer game I had as a kid, which I kept until very recently before giving it away.

So I thought I would take it upon me to recover the tracks and in the meantime learn a little about Europe. Once I have collected the town names along his journey, I hope to somehow pinpoint them on Google Maps/Google Earth and make them available to others. There is something enjoyable about using such new technology to chart a journey that seems to have taken place in a different world, then end of some magical age. I wonder if Sir Leigh Fermor uses Google Maps or Wikipedia…

Below, numbers in parentheses refer to pages in the 2005 nyrb edition. I will expand this as I have time: so far I am through chapter 2.

Please let me know if you spot a mistake. (Also, if anyone can suggest how I might actually put these points onto a map, please leave a comment or email me. Otherwise I will just figure it out the hard way.)

A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor

Chapter 1 – The Low Countries
[England] London (22) – [Holland] – The Hook of Holland (25) – Rotterdam (26) – Dordrecht (29) – Stiedrecht (30) – Gorinchem (30) – Tiel (32) – Nijmegen (35) – Dutch frontier (36)

Chapter 2 – Up the Rhine
[Germany] Goch (38) – Kevelaer (42) – Krefeld (46) – Dusseldorf (46) – Cologne (48) – [boat - Bonn (54) - Coblenz (58)] – Bingen (62)

Chapter 3 – Into High Germany
Heidelberg (66) – Bruchsal (71) – Muhlacker (75) – Pforzheim (75) – Stuttgart (75) – Goppingen (82) – Ulm (89) – Augsburg (95)

Chapter 4 – Winterreise
Munich (102) – Grafelfing (111) – Rosenheim (115) – Hohenaschau (115) – Riedering (116) – Sollhuben (116) – Rottau (116) – Austrian border (134)

Chapter 5 – The Danube: Seasons and Castles
[Austria] Salzburg (135) – Eigendorf (135) – Frankenberg (135) – Ried (135) – St. Martin (135) – Eferding (144) – Linz (146) – Mauthausen (157) – Grein (157) – Persenbeug (162) – Ybbs (168)

Chapter 6 – The Danube: Approach to Kaiserstadt
Ybbs (169) – Pochlarn (170) – Melk (172) – Agstein [ruins] (178) – Mitter Arnsdorf (182) – Mautern (184) – Durnstein (184) – Gotweig (187) – Maidling im Tal (188) – Vienna (193)

Chapter 7 – Vienna

Chapter 8 – The Edge of the Slav World
Vienna (234) – Petronell (234) – Scloss Deutsch-Altenburg (235) – Hainburg (235) – Czechoslovakian border (236) – [Czechoslovakia] Bratislava (236)

Chapter 9 – Prague Under Snow
[Train to] Prague (253) – [Train to] Bratislava (273)

Chapter 10 – Slovakia: A Step Forward at Last
Bratislava (274) – Nagy Magyar (277) – Samorin (279) – [bus and car to] Kovecsespuszta (280) – Kissujfalu (290)

Chapter 11 – The Marches of Hungary
Kissujfalu (292) – Nove Zamky (292) – Kobolkut (296) – Cenke (301) – Parkan (308) – Hungarian border…