The WORST episodes of Great Continental Railway Journeys

Every episode of Great Continental Railway Journeys ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Great Continental Railway Journeys!

All aboard! Armed with his trusty Bradshaw's guide, Michael Portillo explores Europe’s most beautiful, enchanting regions, uncovering how the railways have shaped the continent.

Last Updated: 4/12/2025Network: BBC TwoStatus: Continuing

1.00

1 votes

#1 - Lisieux to Giverny

Season 8 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/4/2025

In the apple orchards of the Calvados region, Michael Portillo discovers how the classic digestif has been distilled since 1865 at the Pierre Huet estate.

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1.00

1 votes

#2 - Bayeux to Argentan

Season 8 - Episode 19 - Aired 4/3/2025

In Bayeux, Michael Portillo admires the Bayeux Tapestry, the 70-metre-long work of art commissioned to record William the Conqueror's conquest of England and the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

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1.00

1 votes

#3 - Rennes to Mont Saint-Michel

Season 8 - Episode 18 - Aired 4/2/2025

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.

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1.00

1 votes

#4 - Brest to St Brieuc

Season 8 - Episode 17 - Aired 4/1/2025

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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1.00

1 votes

#5 - Nantes to Lorient

Season 8 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/31/2025

Michael Portillo’s rail travels take him to the north west corner of France, where he explores the beautiful regions of Brittany and Normandy and learns of their connections with Great Britain.

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1.00

1 votes

#6 - Roskilde to Copenhagen

Season 8 - Episode 10 - Aired 3/21/2025

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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1.00

1 votes

#7 - Aarhus to Odense

Season 8 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/20/2025

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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1.00

1 votes

#8 - Myrdal to Heddal

Season 8 - Episode 7 - Aired 3/18/2025

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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1.00

1 votes

#9 - Bergen to Flåm

Season 8 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/17/2025

Michael Portillo embarks on a Scandinavian railway adventure from the Norwegian port of Bergen to the Danish capital of Copenhagen.

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5.00

2 votes

#10 - Larvik to Holstebro

Season 8 - Episode 8 - Aired 3/19/2025

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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6.50

6 votes

#11 - Linz to Bratislava

Season 7 - Episode 5 - Aired 9/2/2020

Michael travels through Austria and the Czech Republic, exploring a dark era in history. At Prague Central Station, Michael meets a woman who, as a young girl, travelled by train to safety in London.

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6.59

39 votes

#12 - Rotterdam to Utrecht

Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/25/2016

Armed with his 1913 Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide, Michael Portillo discovers the magnificent art and architecture of the Dutch Golden Age.

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7.00

1 votes

#13 - Rotkreuz to Brienz

Season 8 - Episode 14 - Aired 3/27/2025

Michael Portillo scales the Swiss Alps on one of the the steepest cog railways in the world and visits the 19th-century fairy-tale Grand Hotel Giessbach.

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7.00

4 votes

#14 - Pula to Pazin

Season 8 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/10/2025

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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7.00

4 votes

#15 - Buzet to Pag

Season 8 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/11/2025

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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7.00

1 votes

#16 - Zweisimmen to Lausanne

Season 8 - Episode 15 - Aired 3/28/2025

Aboard the Golden Pass Express, Michael Portillo wends his way in style down steep mountainsides from Interlaken to the Swiss Riviera. In Lausanne, he contends with a knife-wielding robotic arm.

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7.08

12 votes

#17 - Switzerland

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/29/2012

Michael Portillo explores Switzerland, taking in Basel, Zurich and Lake Lucerne before making a spectacular ascent by train to Europe's highest station.

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7.16

25 votes

#18 - London to Monte Carlo

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/8/2012

Armed with his 1913 guide, Michael Portillo follows the most popular Edwardian route through France, stopping at Paris and the Cote D'Azur along the way.

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7.20

15 votes

#19 - Transylvania to the Black Sea

Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/20/2016

With Bradshaw's 1913 Continental Railway Guide in hand, Michael Portillo ventures east through Romania. He uncovers an unlikely fan of his Bradshaw's.

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7.25

4 votes

#20 - Knin to Split

Season 8 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/12/2025

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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7.29

7 votes

#21 - Palermo to Mt Etna

Season 7 - Episode 4 - Aired 8/26/2020

In Palermo, Michael takes in the art and architecture of the futurists and feasts on a Sicilian speciality - spaghetti and sardines.

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7.36

14 votes

#22 - Bordeaux to Bilbao

Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/1/2013

Michael Portillo samples the delights of the French and Spanish Atlantic coast and learns how Britain's 'railway king' Edward VII made the region popular.

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7.42

12 votes

#23 - Genoa to the Brenner Pass

Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/11/2016

Michael Portillo embarks on an action-packed adventure from the Italian Riviera to the Austrian Alps with his Bradshaw's 1913 Guidebook in hand.

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7.45

11 votes

#24 - Dresden to Kiel

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/10/2013

Steered by his 1913 railway guide, Michael Portillo explores Germany and learns how tourists in the early 20th century would have been visiting quite a new country.

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7.50

4 votes

#25 - Mostar to Dubrovnik

Season 8 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/14/2025

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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