Between the Woods and the Water--help, I'm lost!

August 2, 2007 10:05 AM

I've decided to spend August with the books of the Eminent Patrick Leigh Fermor, but I've found I may need a map to help me...

I'm looking for a very large, fairly detailed (meaning that small towns and villages are represented, as well as--hopefully--prominent geographical features (famous alpine locations, etc.) map of Europe from the Netherlands to Instanbul.
Free (as in online and downloadable) would be preferable, but I'm willing to invest a little cash to help me better visualize Fermor's journey. I've trolled the usual online repositories (Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, etc.) but have not seem anything that seems detailed enough. Suggestions, anyone?

posted by Chrischris to travel & transportation (3 comments total)

Why not use Google Earth, and import the locations as placemarks?

Here's an apparent list of locations from the book (which I have not read).
posted by desjardins at 10:55 AM on August 2, 2007

I'm in Transylvania now, following much of the same path Fermor did, at least in this section of Europe. Here are the problems you will encounter regarding maps, at least relative to the general area where I am, which was covered in "Between The Woods And Water":

1) The political boundaries (especially in Hungary / Romania) have changed wildly since the travels were undertaken. This means that . . .

2) The names of cities and towns have often been greatly altered as well. Ceausescu's method of deleting the Hungarian influence in Transylvania meant that he moved man people from the south and east of Romania (the "Romanian" Romanians) to lands previously of a Magyar majority. The names of towns changed, villages were razed, etc. Many "Jewish" villages were similarly altered or destroyed, though those aren't mentioned much in his book.

3) Many of the more beautiful geographic images in the book no longer exist. Mountains yes, but forests in some places have totally vanished, and reappeared in others.

4) If you can, you should get trilingual maps of some areas, like Transylvania. Fermor often refers to many places by their old German and Hungarian names, where they are now often Romanian. For instance, I'm in Cluj-Napoca, which was also Kolozsvár to the Hungarians (and still is to those living here) and Klausenberg to the Saxon population. You can see some resemblance in those names, but this isn't true of every place.

Any single map of Europe, no matter how large, won't be big enough. Look for regional maps from the appropriate time.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 11:09 AM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

This doesn't really answer your question, but I used the map feature of flickr to get pictures of some of the places he visits.

Once he reaches the major rivers of Europe, it's a lot easier to follow along. Vienna is still where it was, too.
posted by teaperson at 6:05 PM on August 2, 2007