My story, I reincarnated as Homunculus in a steampunk world famous 19th century characters but everyone is gender swapped, takes place in a steampunk version of the 19th century. Right now, my characters are traveling from London to Transylvania. How would you get from London to Transylvania? Am I correct in assuming they take a ferry to Belgium and then travel through Munich, Austria, Hungary and Romania? How long would this take?
Depending on the time of year it might be faster to take a steamer to Northen German and then go by rail from there. I fid find some isochronic maps for a general idea of travel times https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/isochrone-maps-color-time And there's always the trusty Bradshaw's guide for a more detailed timetable https://archive.org/details/BradshawsContinentalRailGuideSeptember1888/page/n6/mode/1up
How long would it take? I imagine you'd be traveling though a number of countries to reach Transylvania. Would the train still go through Munich, Austria, Hungary and Romania, or would it travel through different countries? edit: From what I gather, the travel would be 33 hours. Is that correct?
So without going too deep into a research rabbit hole looks like going direct overland. Boat trian overnight to Paris. Paris Munich. Munich Vienna. Etc. Would take about a week baring breakdowns delays and werewolf attacks. Detouring via the Baltic coast looks like it would add 4 or five days. Retracing the route of the Demeter across the med to Bulgaria about 3 weeks, assuming nothing snacks on the crew ♂️
The original Dracula has a good description of Jonathan Harker's trip to Translyvania - depending on what part of the 19th Century this is, the Orient Express would be able to take you a great portion of the way, far easier than it would have been before it was created. Harker leaves Munich on May 1 and arrives at Dracula's castle on May 5 - sadly we don't know how long it took him to get from London to Munich. The Orient Express went through France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Serbia with the terminus in Istanbul, as you can see, so you'd get off the train in Budapest and take another train to Transylvania, and then a slow carriage ride through the mountains as you enter areas way too remote for rail - which slows progress to a crawl. As for the sea route, Dracula departs from his castle on the 26th of June, takes 6 days to reach the coast, and from there sails to England, arriving off the coast on the 6th of August and taking a few days for the ship to drift slowly towards land. For reference: http://towanderandwonder.bergbuilds.domains/draculas-route/
Depending on how, exactly, you imagine a steampunk version of the 19th century, travel times could be a bit faster. Ships could run faster if they're built better and have more advanced engines, and improved construction techniques for railroads could speed up the trains.
