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The Great Bond Geoguesser Game

NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
edited November 2022 in Trivia & Games Posts: 7,593
Hi all, I had an idea that this might be a fun game: the idea basically is you search for a location important in the Bond-verse, post a screengrab here, and everyone has to guess where the location is / why it's important to the Bond-verse.

Will it be too hard? Maybe we can also provide clues? I don't know. Let's see how it goes, and I'll kick things off:
314886798_465830092308640_6406522854449052724_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=fVsU0_n2Bq8AX8u-VnC&_nc_ht=scontent.fyvr4-1.fna&oh=00_AfCqqXHSD_UBwWvt8cUqOxHtAl3zm6S2Xgq26u_1T4J4kg&oe=636F80DD


Some clues right off the bat maybe:
  1. Not an English speaking country.
  2. Important more to the novels than the films.
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Comments

  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    edited November 2023 Posts: 9,082
    NOTE: I replaced my original response (which was about a link problem solved afterwards) with the following list of locations I compiled, originally on page 17 on this thread, to have it on page 1 for easier reference, and intend to keep it updated here...hoping there will still be updates.

    Here's the list of the locations we had so far (as per 2023/08/25) on this thread:

    Thread Page One

    1. 136 Blvd Haussmann, Paris (SPECTRE headquarters in the TB novel - image link now gone)
    2. Federal Finance Ministry, formerly House of Ministries, Berlin (TLD short story)
    3. 1200 Avenue of the Americas, NYC (Bond meeting Leiter in the DAF novel)

    Thread Page Two

    4. Rhyolite Station, Nevada, where the train from Spectreville is headed in the DAF novel
    5. Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten, Maximilianstrasse, Munich. Bond and Tracy's stay before being married at the consulate (OHMSS novel)

    Thread Page Three

    6. Lake George Town Hall...ten miles away from the "Dreamy Pines Motor Court", according to the TSWLM novel
    7. Zurich Airport (Viv's abortion from TSWLM and Bond's proposal in OHMSS - both from the novels)
    8. Grand Hotel Excelsior Port Royal, Jamaica. Bond meets with Goodnight in the TMWTGG novel
    9. Sotheby's (rear entrance) from The Property of a Lady/Octopussy (short stories)

    Thread Page Four

    10. Baikonur Space Station, Kasachstan

    Thread Page Five

    11. Sankt-Anna-Kirche, Augsburg (mentioned in OHMSS)
    12. Boodle's Gentlemen's Club, London (model for "Blades" in the novels)

    Thread Page Six

    13. Villa di Fiorano, near Rome (Lucia's home in SP)
    14. Tunnel under Fort Antoine, Monaco, and the theatre above it. (Links have vanished in the meantime.)
    15. Hotel National, Moscow (location in spin-off novels Red Nemesis and With a Mind to Kill)
    16. École des Ursulines, Quebec, Viv's alma mater from the TSWLM novel

    Thread Page Seven

    17. Rockefeller Center, Ice Rink (CR novel et al.)
    18. Festspielhaus Bregenz, QOS "Tosca" performance
    19. Heiligenschwendi, Switzerland (the barn where Bond proposes to Tracy, OHMSS)

    Thread Page Eight

    20. St. Margaret's Bay, below the White Cliffs of Dover, where Fleming had a summer retreat
    21. Kingston, Jamaica, Liguanea Club, the opening scene of DN

    Thread Page Nine

    22. Centre Pompidou, Paris. Drax headquarters in MR (movie).
    23. Hotel Aurora, Andermatt, Switzerland. Petrol station in GF.
    24. "Hildebrand" safe house, 35 Spring Gardens, London SW1A 2BA (SP)
    25. Grande Cascade du Bois de Boulogne, Paris, used for "white lady scene" in MR

    Thread Page Ten

    26. Chuy's Restaurant, Austin, TX (from The Facts of Death)
    27. Palacio de Correos de México (aka Banco de Isthmus, LTK)

    Thread Page Eleven

    28. British Consulate in Munich (where Bond and Tracy got married in the OHMSS novel)
    29. Millennium Mills, Silvertown/Royal Victoria Docks, London (spin-off/continuation novels)

    Thread Page Twelve

    30. Castillo de Santa Catalina, Cadiz, Spain (aka Isla de Los Organos, Cuba, from DAD)
    31. Magere Brug ("Skinny Bridge"), Amsterdam (DAF)
    32. Los Callejones de Las Masadas, near Cuenca, Spain (pipeline protests in TWINE)
    33. Théatre de Paris, 28 rue Blanche, 75009 Paris (from James Bond "Solstice" cartoon)
    34. Mönckebergstrasse, across from St. Peter's Church, Hamburg (TND)
    35. Winter Palace/Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, Russia (GE)

    Thread Page Thirteen

    36. Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire. "Palazzo Cadenza", Rome (SP)
    37. E. 69th Street, NYC. The "San Monique" consulate from LALD
    38. Reguliersgracht 36, Amsterdam. Tiffany Case lives on the third floor (DAF movie).
    39. Former location of Quarterdeck, M's country house, Marlowe, Buckinghamshire (OHMSS)
    40. Sirkeci Railway Station, Istanbul (FRWL novel/movie)

    Thread Page Fourteen

    41. Morskaya Ulitsa, Vladivostok, KGB Headquarters. Mentioned in TMWTGG (the novel) when Bond tells M what happened to him in YOLT (also the novel)
    42. Dijon Station, where Bond and Tanya got off the Orient Express in the FRWL novel
    43. Courtyard of the Conservatory of Music Benedetto Marcello in Venice, from CR
    44. Basilica of St. Mary Star of the Sea, Key West, Florida, where the wedding of Felix Leiter and Della took place in LTK

    Thread Page Fifteen

    45. Ian Fleming's home 1936 - 1940, Flat B, 22 Ebury Street, Belgravia, London S.W. 1.
    46. "House on Checkpoint Charlie", now Mauermuseum, Friedrichstrasse, Berlin (OP)
    47. Former place of Smersh HQ, 13 Ulitsa Sretenka, Moscow (FRWL novel)
    48. The Duck Inn, Pett Bottom, Canterbury - mentioned in JB obituary in the YOLT novel

    Thread Page Sixteen

    49. Driveway of The One and Only Ocean Club, Paradise Island, Nassau, where Bond checks into the hotel in CR
    50. Fouquet's Restaurant in Paris (from the short story "From a View to a Kill")
    51. Entrance gates to Danilia Village in Corfu, doubling for the "villa near Madrid" where the killer Gonzalez is hiding in FYEO
    52. Traungasse/Lagergasse, Vienna, doubling for Bratislava in TLD
    53. Hai Fat's Dragon Garden (from TMWTGG), filmed at Castle Peak Road in Hong Kong
    54. Entrance gate to Villa La Gaeta, Lake Como, Italy (Mr. White's residence from CR)

    Thread Page Seventeen

    55. Piazza della Paglietta in Siena, opposite Via Salicotto No. 56 - the entrance to the tunnel that leads to the safe house in the PTS of QOS
    56. Queen Mary Court, University of Greenwich, London (as the Kremlin Art Repository in OP)
    57. Strada Statale 18 Tirrena Inferiore, near Acquafredda (40°02'26.2"N 15°39'02.1"E) - NTTD
    58. Zoological Society of London, Outer Circle, Regent's Park, London, NW1, 4RY. In DN-the-novel, Bond pretends to be an ornithologist from the "Royal" Zoological Society which must be this one.

    Thread Page Eighteen

    59. The Queen's Stand, Epsom Downs, Kent (St. Petersburg Airport in GE)
    60. The chapel of Château d'Anet, France (Jacques Bouvar's "funeral" in TB)
    61. The Five Bells, Ringwould CT14 8HP Deal (probably model for the World Without Want pub in the MR novel)

    Thread Page Nineteen

    62. Ministerio de Cultura (in 2008: Instituto Nacional de Cultura), Casco Antiguo, Panama City (Andean Grand Hotel in QOS)
    63. Barcelona, Montjuic Palacio Nacional and Fira de Barcelona) (Bond goes missing in Double or Nothing)
    64. (Former) Jacksonville, Fla., Union Terminal (Bond and Solitaire get off the train in LALD novel)
    65. Former Auberge de la Montespan, St Jean de la Ruelle, where Bond regrets not being able to spend the night, instead having to follow Goldfinger into Orléans (GF novel)

    Thread Page Twenty

    66. Former location of Scott's Restaurant (aka Scotts). 18-20 Coventry Street, Piccadilly Circus, Westminster, London. Fleming's favourite restaurant and mentioned or described in MR, DAF and YOLT (the novels)
    67. Torre di Talamonaccio, Talamone, Southern Tuscany (Mathis' villa in QOS)

    Thread Page Twenty-One

    68. Piazza Vittorio Veneto, Sapri, province of Salerno, Campania, Italy (train station scene in NTTD - however, the movie scene shows a mirror image of the square)
    69. Railroad crossing in Berlin-Spandau, part of the Bavarian police's chasing of Bond after he "borrowed" the Alfa Romeo in Octopussy
    70. Amsterdam, Reguliersgracht 36 (Tiffany Case had the No. 4 apartment). This time interior pictures.
    71. Dunsmuir Hellman Home and Estate, Oakland, CA. Home of Stacey Sutton in AVTAK where Bond cooked quiche and stuff.

    [Soon to be updated to current status. j_w_pepper 2023-11-21)
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,593
    Oh damn, I’ll try to fix it today.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    edited November 2022 Posts: 7,593
    Updated Image:
    314886798_465830092308640_6406522854449052724_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=fVsU0_n2Bq8AX8u-VnC&_nc_ht=scontent.fyvr4-1.fna&oh=00_AfCqqXHSD_UBwWvt8cUqOxHtAl3zm6S2Xgq26u_1T4J4kg&oe=636F80DD

    EDIT: If you are familiar enough with the correct novel, the clues in the image more or less spell the solution out for you.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    edited November 2022 Posts: 9,082
    Looks like Paris to me. It's 136 Blvd. Haussmann, SPECTRE headquarters in the TB novel.
  • SIS_HQSIS_HQ At the Vauxhall Headquarters
    Posts: 3,800
    St. Regis hotel in Live And Let Die?
  • CharmianBondCharmianBond Pett Bottom, Kent
    Posts: 558
    Yeah definitely looks like Paris so either it's From a View to a Kill but you did say novel so I thinking it might be Boulevard Haussmann from Thunderball because that's the first appearance of Blofeld whereas in the films it's FRWL.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    Posts: 9,082
    Not trying to be overly assertive, but it is definitely 136 Boulevard Haussmann, as can be easily verified by Google Street View. (Disclaimer: SPECTRE HQ was shown in a different street in the TB movie. This is the "literary" address only.)

    @NickTwentyTwo, as a benevolent criticism, I think there was no need to mention it was not in an English-speaking country, and especially none for leaving the "Boulevard" marking on the street there (one can disable that on Google Maps)... which sort of gives something away. So I think it was too easy.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    edited November 2022 Posts: 7,593
    j_w_pepper wrote: »
    Not trying to be overly assertive, but it is definitely 136 Boulevard Haussmann, as can be easily verified by Google Street View. (Disclaimer: SPECTRE HQ was shown in a different street in the TB movie. This is the "literary" address only.)

    @NickTwentyTwo, as a benevolent criticism, I think there was no need to mention it was not in an English-speaking country, and especially none for leaving the "Boulevard" marking on the street there (one can disable that on Google Maps)... which sort of gives something away. So I think it was too easy.

    Haha I was worried it would be too hard! But you're right of course, it's the address for SPECTRE in TB. I welcome the constructive criticism.

    Did you want to post one for us to guess?

    EDIT: If you want, you can DM me a location and I can get the image up in the thread for others to guess.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    Posts: 9,082
    NickTwentyTwo wrote: »
    Did you want to post one for us to guess?

    EDIT: If you want, you can DM me a location and I can get the image up in the thread for others to guess.

    Thanks for the offer, but I'm not really totally unprepared once I realised I was probably the first to post the right answer :-).

    I would just not restrict this to Street View, but suggest a satellite photo. The object shown plays a role in a literary work of the Bondverse, and in fact about two thirds of that work takes place in the immediate vicinity of it, but of course adjusted to the time it was written.
    Well, here it is:
    geoguessingsae1r.jpg

    I'll just wait if something comes up :-) and give further hints if the results are somewhat flaccid.


  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,593
    Tough one... look like America to me; had a look at some locations from the novels but haven't turned up anything yet. The blue dome in the bottom right seems like it should be a good clue. Looking forward to seeing if anyone else has some insight.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    edited November 2022 Posts: 9,082
    I must admit I never really noticed the "blue dome" on the right, but if I had enabled those descriptions, it wouldn't be a secret any more :-) My main intention when cutting out the screenshot was to portray the quite extensive building in the center of the picture.

    Edit: I invite those specialists on European history, say @DarthDimi and @Dragonpol, to take a look at this even if they don't feel like playing games.

    Further edit: I didn't mean to leave out @CommanderRoss on purpose
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,593
    Of course, and it's quite distinct. Makes me think I don't know much about urban geography. :)) I'll keep thinking!
  • CharmianBondCharmianBond Pett Bottom, Kent
    edited November 2022 Posts: 558
    Alright, this may not have been completely sporting but alternatively like a good spy I used all the available information at my disposal. My first thought was also America, CIA HQ specifically. But then I saw the .de extension on the webpage so I went to the German secret service building and just looked around the area so it was a bit of blind luck finding it.

    It's the German Finance Ministry building across the street from Checkpoint Charlie so that makes the Bond connection The Living Daylights?
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    edited November 2022 Posts: 9,082
    Good job, @CharmianBond. Now could you elaborate on why the Federal Ministry of Finance is connected to The Living Daylights. The .de extension on the link is caused by the fact that I am using a German upload service, so it is not really an indication of where the building is located, but nevertheless you're right.

    PS: @NickTwentyTwo, the "blue dome" is in fact a hot-air balloon :-)
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    edited November 2022 Posts: 7,593
    CharmianBond wrote: »
    Alright, this may not have been completely sporting but alternatively like a good spy I used all the available information at my disposal. My first thought was also America, CIA HQ specifically. But then I saw the .de extension on the webpage so I went to the German secret service building and just looked around the area so it was a bit of blind luck finding it.

    It's the German Finance Ministry building across the street from Checkpoint Charlie so that makes the Bond connection The Living Daylights?

    Nice detective work! Even if finding it was a bit of blind luck, as per the Sergeant. The "two thirds of the story" clue confounded me a bit, but did make me think of the short stories. Didn't make the connection to TLD though. Well done.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    edited November 2022 Posts: 9,082
    OK, just to wrap this up for everyone involved, with a bit of history education:

    "The Living Daylights" (the short story or novella) is about Bond attempting to shoot a Soviet sniper to allow an eastern defector to cross the border that ran along Zimmerstrasse in Berlin (before the wall was built along the same line). Bond stayed in an old apartment building at the corner of Wilhelmstrasse and Kochstrasse (south of Zimmerstrasse, but in the Western sector), overlooking a bombed-out area where basically nothing was left standing. The next structure worth mentioning was the GDR's Haus der Ministerien (House of Ministries), where he ultimately detected the sniper who morphed into Kara Milovy for the TLD movie.

    The "Haus der Ministerien" was originally built in 1935 as Göring's Ministry of Aviation, with the usual pomp, grandeur and excess typical for that era. It surprisingly survived WWII and ended up in the Soviet sector and was later used for several ministries of the GDR (hence the name in the TLD story). After the fall of the wall, it was used as the seat of the so-called Treuhandanstalt (literally, Trust Agency) that was commissioned to privatise GDR enterprises that were deemed viable...not very many, and there was much resentment to the work of the Treuhand. Its head at the time, Detlev Rohwedder, was killed by a sniper (how fitting in connection with the TLD story!) from the RAF (not Royal Air Force, but Red Army Faction) in 1991. It has since been renamed the Detlev Rohwedder Building and now houses the Federal Finance Ministry.

    By the way, Fleming describes it as an ugly square building. But I do think it has a certain style of esthetics (and has doubtless been landmark-protected for ages; check it on Wikipedia or whereever). My theory goes anyway that the Nazis knew very well what was esthetically pleasing and used it for their purpose (not just here), with lots of symmetry and Greek-classical allusions. It's just where they went overly gigantic with their designs that people (justifiably) balked. A lot of what the Nazis built is ugly because of that megalomania, but nothing is ugly just because the Nazis built it. They knew how to influence people by giving them what was actually pleasing to the eye...albeit to further their own purpose.

    PS: Anyway to @CharmianBond, I guess it's your turn.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    edited November 2022 Posts: 7,593
    Thanks for the info! All extremely interesting. Would love to have a round from you CharmianBond. Again, if you want a hand with images, let me know.
  • CharmianBondCharmianBond Pett Bottom, Kent
    Posts: 558
    Very interesting stuff @j_w_pepper. I've actually not read TLD yet I was just basing it off what little I knew, so I do love a happy little accident.

    Right, I've gone back to Street View. Hopefully this one shouldn't be too difficult but let's see how we get on.

    EF7tF0B.png
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,593
    Seems like we're dangerously close to a few LALD locations...
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    edited November 2022 Posts: 9,082
    I'm more thinking along the lines of 1200 Avenue of the Americas -> Rockefeller Center -> one of Bond's first kills in Casino Royale-the-novel ("‘Well, in the last few years I’ve killed two villains. The first was in New York — a Japanese cipher expert cracking our codes on the thirtysixth floor of the RCA building in the Rockefeller centre, where the Japs had their consulate.") ->or even William Stephenson, codename "Intrepid", a possible model for Fleming's Bond.

    Whatever, it's too late for me by now. Talk to you tomorrow.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,593
    That makes sense, considering also that we've only really been covering literary Bond (to my preference, personally). Glad I made the thread; learning (and relearning) a lot.
  • CharmianBondCharmianBond Pett Bottom, Kent
    Posts: 558
    I'm really glad too @NickTwentyTwo, thank you for coming up with the idea, it's a great little game.

    You're bang on @j_w_pepper it is the Avenue of the Americas but there is a more direct reason I chose it. Does anyone want to take a guess before they return?
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    Posts: 9,082
    NickTwentyTwo wrote: »
    That makes sense, considering also that we've only really been covering literary Bond (to my preference, personally). Glad I made the thread; learning (and relearning) a lot.
    That's what I think this thread should be about. And we've only just started. Still: [yawns]
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    Posts: 9,082
    CharmianBond wrote: »
    I'm really glad too @NickTwentyTwo, thank you for coming up with the idea, it's a great little game.

    You're bang on @j_w_pepper it is the Avenue of the Americas but there is a more direct reason I chose it. Does anyone want to take a guess before they return?

    Oops, sorry @CharmianBond, this sort of coincided, but I'll think about it tomorrow.
  • CharmianBondCharmianBond Pett Bottom, Kent
    Posts: 558
    j_w_pepper wrote: »
    CharmianBond wrote: »
    I'm really glad too @NickTwentyTwo, thank you for coming up with the idea, it's a great little game.

    You're bang on @j_w_pepper it is the Avenue of the Americas but there is a more direct reason I chose it. Does anyone want to take a guess before they return?

    Oops, sorry @CharmianBond, this sort of coincided, but I'll think about it tomorrow.

    No worries, get some rest 🙂

    I also agree though that the game should stick mainly to literary Bond, but I wouldn't mind sprinkling a few film ones in too. I think it'll be interesting to see as we get settled into the game how it'll work with non-Fleming books.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,593
    For sure; for now I think it makes sense to stick to Fleming Literary Bond.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    edited November 2022 Posts: 9,082
    CharmianBond wrote: »
    ...it is the Avenue of the Americas but there is a more direct reason I chose it.

    I guess it is the House of Diamonds then (its address is actually 50 West 47th, around the corner). In the DAF novel, Bond is informed by M that the Spang Bros. bought control of a "House of Diamonds" and also meets "Shady" Tree there, though we can only guess if the one in your picture is really the same enterprise as the one in the novel. It's a rather generic name in a "Diamond District" anyway, and Fleming places it on West 46th Street.

    (And no, I didn't remember all that but was tempted to look it up. Good opportunity to re-read at least bits and pieces of Fleming, so thank you for making me do it.)
  • CharmianBondCharmianBond Pett Bottom, Kent
    Posts: 558
    It is Diamonds Are Forever, but more simply it's the street on which Bond reunites with Felix. On the right the 'DIA' is for a jewellery store called 'DIAMOND CENTER' and the coincidence amused me so I thought would be a nice little clue.

    'He went on and turned right into the Avenue of the Americas, stopping in the first doorway, the entrance to a women's underwear store where a man in a tan suit with his back to him was examining the black lace pants on a particularly realistic dummy.'
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    edited November 2022 Posts: 9,082
    Ah, yes, I haven't got to that part again so far. It's in the next chapter. Page 077.

    PS: @CharmianBond and @NickTwentyTwo: Whose turn is it? Just to avoid killing this thread before it really got going.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,593
    I think it's yours, given that you guessed Charmian's?
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