For the last few months, we’ve been taking a deep-dive into the journey on board the Orient Express during the events of From Russia With Love.
While doing this, I’ve plotted the course on the new Google My Maps feature, and I’m pleased to show it to you here:
The map is interactive – you can zoom in and out, open it full screen, and click on any of the markers for photographs and links to the posts about that station.
Here are the stations in order of the events from the novel:
Istanbul (Turkey)
Uzunkopru (Turkey)
Alexandropolis and Pithion (Greece)
Thessaloniki (Greece)
Idomeni (Greece)
Belgrade (Yugoslavia – Serbia)
Vincovci and Brod (Yugoslavia – Croatia)
Zagreb (Yugoslavia – Croatia)
Ljubljana (Yugoslavia – Slovenia)
Sezana (Yugoslvia – Slovenia)
Poggioreale (Italy)
Maestre, Venice, Padua, Vicenza and Verona (Italy)
Domodossola (Italy)
Iselle (Italy) and Brig (Switzerland)
Lausanne and Vallorbe (Switzerland)
Dijon (France)
Splendid work. I’ve been following with great interest.
Fantastic, I’ve enjoyed these Orient express pages…….
Excellent series. I am British living in Milan and recently did the Milan to Venezia Mestre stretch again, now only two hours by Frecciabianca train, same route via Verona, Padova , Vicenza. In 1983 while Interailling I did the stretch Venice, Trieste , Villa Opicina to Belgrade on a night train. I think it went through Zagreb as well. I am pretty sure that in those days the train stilll carried on direct from Belgrade to Istanbul, but I never got that far. The year after I did Milan to Lausanne, via Brig and Domodossola. Your articles bring back some good memories and inspire me to try and complete the route. I just need Lausanne to Paris and Belgrade to Istanbul. Much less interesting than Bond, in 1983, I did smuggle several pairs of Italian jeans into the former Yugoslavia in my rucksack. They were in short supply at the time.
I took the Orient Express to Athens in 1966.. and it was a life-changing event for me. It took 4 days and I’ve never been so glad to get off a train in my life.. (the toilets were blocked after Day 1..)
I treated myself to a meal in the dining car while passing through Yugoslavia.. and no, I didn’t order a bottle of Chianti with my fish.. I remember the train stopping in deserted stations in the middle of nowhere while peasant women would come by hawking water melons at outrageous prices. No beer since then has ever tasted so sweet as the first cold beer at Athens station. I wish I could do it all again.
Fantastic stuff. I did the Budapest to Venice sleeper train in 2010. The dining car served me a terrible meal. But a large scotch & ginger was just 49 pence. I drank myself into a stupor, passed out in a lavatory and was woken up by the angry knocking on the toilet door by a gun toting Croatian border guard shouting “Kontrol! Documents!” Happy times.