The Best Episodes of Great Continental Railway Journeys

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8.3/10(27 votes)
#1 - Madrid to Gibraltar
S2:E110/27/2013
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Director:Tom Richardson
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Director:Tom Richardson
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8.2/10(11 votes)
#2 - Pula to Pazin
S8:E13/10/2025
Michael Portillo mounts a valiant defence against fierce latter-day Roman gladiators in Pula's amphitheatre as he begins a journey across the Balkan countries of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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8.2/10(8 votes)
#3 - Buzet to Pag
S8:E23/11/2025
Ably assisted by Lila, an expert labrador, Michael Portillo hunts for truffles in the Istrian countryside near the hilltop town of Buzet.
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8.1/10(22 votes)
#4 - Turin to Venice
S2:E211/3/2013
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Director:Tom Richardson
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Tom Richardson
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8.1/10(27 votes)
#5 - Copenhagen to Oslo
S2:E411/17/2013
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Director:Dean Griffiths
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Dean Griffiths
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8.1/10(15 votes)
#6 - Berlin to Stuttgart
S7:E38/12/2020
Michael Portillo embarks on a rail journey through Germany, steered by a Bradshaw’s Continental Railway Guide published in 1936. His unique window on Europe between the world wars takes him through a tumultuous period in German history, when the nation’s first democracy and its vibrant culture of art, design and decadence were swept away by fascism, nationalism and the increasing likelihood of war. In a vast stadium, Michael hears how new rail lines were constructed to transport crowds of spectators to the Nazi Olympic Games of 1936. Michael learns how a planned boycott by the United States and other European nations failed and how the success of a black American athlete undermined the Nazi ideology of Aryan superiority.
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8.1/10(12 votes)
#7 - Palermo to Mt Etna
S7:E48/19/2020
Michael Portillo’s 1936 Bradshaw’s Guide brings him to the Italian 'treasure island' of Sicily, full of natural beauty and 'scenery of the greatest charm'. But the interwar guide book also tells Michael that the head of government in Italy is the fascist leader Signor Benito Mussolini. On a railway journey from the capital, Palermo, through the ancient town of Agrigento and the port of Siracusa, to Europe’s largest volcano, Mount Etna, Michael explores Sicilian life under the dictatorship. Michael finds out how the dictator took on the mafia and asks whether it is true that under Mussolini, the trains ran on time.
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8.0/10(11 votes)
#8 - Knin to Split
S8:E33/12/2025
Michael Portillo’s railway adventure reaches the Dalmatian coastal city of Zadar, once an important Venetian trading hub and still a centre for the production of Maraschino cherry liqueur.
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8.0/10(9 votes)
#9 - Mostar to Dubrovnik
S8:E53/14/2025
Michael Portillo enjoys a journey on the historic line from Sarajevo to Mostar, descending 600 metres through the Dinaric Alps, reflecting on the divisions which tour apart the old Yugoslavia.
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8.0/10(7 votes)
#10 - Larvik to Holstebro
S8:E83/19/2025
Michael’s saga resumes in Larvik on Norway’s southern coast, where he investigates the city’s prized natural resource, a distinctive blue rock named larvikite.
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8.0/10(7 votes)
#11 - Brest to St Brieuc
S8:E174/1/2025
Michael Portillo’s railway journey reaches the naval port of Brest, home to France’s oceanographic fleet. He also learns how to make a sweet, buttery Breton cake called kouign-amann.
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7.9/10(8 votes)
#12 - Sarajevo
S8:E43/13/2025
In Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia, Michael Portillo traces the fateful last journey in 1914 of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie.
Director:Unknown
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7.9/10(9 votes)
#13 - Bergen to Flåm
S8:E63/17/2025
Michael Portillo embarks on a Scandinavian railway adventure from the Norwegian port of Bergen to the Danish capital, Copenhagen.
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7.9/10(8 votes)
#14 - Myrdal to Heddal
S8:E73/18/2025
Michael Portillo’s rail journey continues on the Bergen Line, heading towards the Norwegian capital of Oslo, with its fine modernist architecture and 19th-century parliament building.
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7.8/10(13 votes)
#15 - Salamanca to Canfranc
S7:E17/29/2020
Michael Portillo sports a strikingly modern edition of his Bradshaw’s Continental Handbook, dated 1936. His destination lies close to his heart: the ancient kingdom of Spain and land of his father, recommended in Michael’s guidebook for its exceptional climate and glorious history. 1936 was a turbulent time in Spain, with political upheaval descending into a brutal civil war. Michael begins an emotional rail journey, which takes him deep into his family’s past and reveals the tentacles of the regime which forced his father into exile.
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7.8/10(12 votes)
#16 - Orleans to Reims
S7:E28/5/2020
Michael Portillo travels from the chateaux of the Loire Valley to the heart of the Champagne region at Reims. Beginning in historic Orleans, Michael follows his Bradshaw’s guide to the magnificent stained-glass windows of the Cathedral of Sainte-Croix, which tell the story of the heroine of France, Joan of Arc. The image of the saintly teenage warrior endures as a symbol of resistance, and her life is celebrated in an annual parade. Michael meets her modern-day incarnation.
Director:Unknown
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7.7/10(12 votes)
#17 - Batumi to Baku
S6:E23/15/2018
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Director:Dave Minchin
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Director:Dave Minchin
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7.7/10(14 votes)
#18 - Stockholm to the Arctic Circle
S7:E69/10/2020
Michael Portillo embarks on a scenic, thousand-mile rail journey from the Swedish capital, Stockholm, to Abisko in the northern reaches of the Arctic Circle. Steered by his 1936 edition of Bradshaw’s Continental Railway Guide, Michael boards a steam train to celebrate Midsummer in Marielund, learns to decorate a Dala horse in Mora and takes an icy dip in one of the country’s 96,000 lakes.
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7.7/10(7 votes)
#19 - Aarhus to Odense
S8:E93/20/2025
Michael Portillo’s Scandinavian rail adventure reaches Denmark’s second city, Aarhus, an architectural playground with dazzling contemporary buildings set alongside historic half-timbered houses.
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7.7/10(7 votes)
#20 - Maienfeld to the Rhine Gorge
S8:E113/24/2025
Michael Portillo is transported 150 years back in time to the tiny Alpine village home of Switzerland’s most famous child, Heidi, and heads to the Rhine Gorge, also known as the Swiss Grand Canyon.
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7.7/10(6 votes)
#21 - Rennes to Mont Saint-Michel
S8:E184/2/2025
Michael Portillo’s railway adventure reaches Rennes, capital of Brittany. At the Lycee Emile Zola, he hears how the school was used as a military court for the second trial of Alfred Dreyfus.
Director:Unknown
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7.6/10(23 votes)
#22 - Dresden to Kiel
S2:E311/10/2013
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Director:Dean Griffiths
Writer:Unknown
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7.6/10(20 votes)
#23 - Prague to Munich
S2:E511/24/2013
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Directors:Dave Minchin, Tom Richardson
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7.5/10(12 votes)
#24 - Linz to Bratislava
S7:E59/2/2020
Michael Portillo travels by train through Austria and the Czech Republic, following his Bradshaw’s Continental Railway Guide, published in 1936. Michael’s journey takes him through spectacular scenery, from the handsome Baroque buildings of the northern Austrian city of Linz, through Czech South Bohemia to Prague, the city of a hundred spires, and onto the canyons and caves of the Moravian Karst region near Brno. He finishes on the River Danube in the Slovakian capital, Bratislava.
Director:Unknown
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7.5/10(6 votes)
#25 - Roskilde to Copenhagen
S8:E103/21/2025
Michael Portillo concludes his epic rail journey across Norway and Denmark, crossing an 18-kilometre box girder bridge between the islands of Funen and Zealand, known as the Great Belt Bridge.
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