The WORST episodes of Great Continental Railway Journeys

#1 - 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.

#2 - Rotterdam to Utrecht

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

Michael Portillo heads for the Netherlands, where he roots around the world's largest flower auction in Haarlem, operates a crane in Europe's largest container port, Rotterdam, and investigates Amsterdam's famous red-light district.

#3 - Switzerland

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

Michael Portillo uses George Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide to explore Switzerland, whose remarkable railways helped make it a favourite with Edwardian tourists. He begins in the truly international city of Basel and travels east to visit industrial Zurich. He then heads for the glorious Alps and learns how astonishing engineering feats conquered the most challenging peaks, before taking in the striking beauty of Lake Lucerne. Michael's journey ends with a spectacular ascent by train to Europe's highest station, perched atop Switzerland's dramatic Jungfraujoch.

#4 - London to Monte Carlo

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

Leaving London behind, armed with his 1913 railway guide, Michael Portillo follows the most popular route of the Edwardian traveller through France. His first stop is Paris, where he absorbs the atmosphere of La Belle Époque, before he travels south to the Cote D'Azur, where he samples the Edwardian highlife and learns why the area attracted the rich and artistic alike. He then ends his journey as he arrives at the gaming tables in glamorous Monte Carlo.

#5 - 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. Transylvania, the Carpathian Mountains, Peleș Castle in Sinaia, the oil refinery at Ploiești, Romania's most famous composer George Enescu in the capital, Bucharest and the oldest inhabited city in Romania, Constanța on the Black Sea.

#6 - 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.

#7 - Bordeaux to Bilbao

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

Michael Portillo sets out to sample the delights of the Atlantic coasts of Spain and France, beginning in Bordeaux, where he uncovers a historic British connection to the region's wines. Across the border in San Sebastian, Michael learns how diplomacy brought Britain and Spain closer together and rides on a hair-raising scenic railway. Heading to Bilbao, he explores the industrial ties between France and Spain and learns to cook a traditional Basque dish.

#8 - Genoa to the Brenner Pass

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

From the from the Italian Riviera to the Austrian Alps Michael visits remote villages of the Cinque Terre he then heads to Parma next up is the Alps stopping off in Rovereto he ends his trip at the Brenner Pass home to on of the world's longest rail tunnels.

#9 - Dresden to Kiel

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

#10 - Hungary to Austria

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/15/2012

Steered by his 1913 railway guide, on this journey Michael Portillo explores the once-great empire of Austria-Hungary, domain of the famous Habsburg monarchs. Starting in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, he travels via Bratislava in Slovakia to the beautiful and elegant city of Vienna, where he immerses himself in pre-war decadence. From there, he travels to Salzburg, before heading to the magnificent scenery of the Salzkammergut region to visit the emperor's Austrian summer house at Bad Ischl, where in 1914 European history changed course forever.

#11 - Turin to Venice

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

Steered by his 1913 railway guide, Michael Portillo takes the train from the former political capital of Italy, Turin, to Casanova's capital of romance, Venice. Along the way, he recreates the famous Italian Job on an historic Fiat test track and follows fashion in Milan before investigating the early 20th century British love affair with Lake Como in a seaplane. In Verona, Michael discovers the 'House of the Capulets', bought to attract Edwardian tourists to the scene of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. He then heads over the rail bridge across the lagoon to Venice, where he finds a microcosm of pre-First World War Europe in the Venice Biennale art exhibition.

#12 - Madrid to Gibraltar

Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/27/2013

Armed with his 1913 railway guide, Michael Portillo returns to his native Spain to discover what the intrepid tourists of the Belle Epoque experienced on their travels through the fading Spanish empire. In Madrid, he visits the scene of an assaination attempt at the royal wedding of a British princess and a Spanish king. In Cordoba, Michael dances with an unusual partner and enjoys all the fun of the feria. Heading further into Andalusia, Michael arrives in Seville, the city he has made his Spanish home. In the city's tobacco factory, he learns about a gypsy girl named Carmen. After sipping sherry in Jerez, he traces Winston Churchill's tense diplomatic mission to Algeciras on Spain's Costa del Sol and finishes with tales of British espionage on the Rock of Gibraltar.

#13 - La Coruna to Lisbon

Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/26/2014

Armed with his 1913 Bradshaw, Michael Portillo explores a very different Spain from the one he knows best and ventures across its border with Britain's oldest ally, Portugal.

#14 - Copenhagen to Oslo

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/17/2013

#15 - Riga to Tampere

Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/18/2016

Michael Portillo braves the freezing temperatures of the Baltic Sea and finds peace paddling a canoe on the Lakes of Finland.

#16 - Zermatt to Geneva

Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/27/2016

Armed with his 1913 railway guide, Michael Portillo travels from the Swiss Alps to the shores of Lake Geneva. From the Swiss Alps to the shores of Lake Geneva caught up in a war zone with the Red Cross and rescued from an avalanche by a St Bernard puppy. Takes to the skies in a vintage bi-plane and tries watchmaking, James Bond style.

#17 - Berlin to the Rhein

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/22/2012

Michael begins this journey in Berlin, the capital of Germany, which at the beginning of the 20th century was a powerhouse of science and technology. Led by his 1913 railway guide, he then heads west via the picturesque Harz Mountains to the industrial Ruhr Valley to learn how imperial Germany was war ready. He then travels south along the tourist trail of the castle-studded Rhein river and ends his journey in the Rheingau to taste the wines of its age old vineyards.

#18 - Haifa to the Negev

Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/3/2014

Michael Portillo uses his 1913 copy of Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide to venture beyond Europe as he travels through the Holy Land. He begins in Israel, learning about the Baha'i faith and how it spread to Britain in the Edwardian era, hearing the story of the origins of Tel Aviv, and visiting the Christian, Jewish and Muslim quarters of the capital Jerusalem. Michael then crosses the separation barrier between Jerusalem and the West Bank in the company of his Palestinian guide and meets the embroiderers of the Arab Women's Union in Bethlehem, before finishing his journey in the Negev desert.

#19 - Lyon to Marseille

Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/10/2014

Michael Portillo follows in the footsteps of Edwardian travellers to trace a route recommended in his Bradshaw's guide from the heart of France to the Mediterranean coast. His journey begins in Lyon, where he learns how the city got its gastronomic reputation, and takes instruction from a leading chef on making an omelette. In Avignon, he samples a glass of the region's famous wine Chateauneuf-du-Pape, before his journey ends at the Mediterranean port of Marseille, where he joins a pilot boat as it leads a supertanker to its berth.

#20 - Amsterdam to Northern France

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/6/2012

Michael Portillo uses George Bradshaw's 1913 Continental Railway Guide to explore the dazzling cities of the pre-war Low Countries before tasting the delicacies of Brussels. He then travels to the French sector of the Western Front, where from 1914 the trains carried a new cargo of artillery shells, with the Edwardian tourists of 1913 replaced by soldiers facing the horrors of the trenches. He will end his epic journey in the forest of Compiegne to hear how, after four years of conflict, the Armistice was finally signed in a railway carriage.

#21 - The Black Forest to Hannover

Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/20/2015

Armed with his 1913 Continental Railway Guide, Michael Portillo ventures deep into the Black Forest on a quest to discover the essence of Germany and discovers how Hansel and Gretel helped to unify the nation. A humbling masterclass in carving cuckoo clocks shows him how the nation's reputation for quality and reliability in manufacturing was established from the early 18th century. A romantic stop at the ruined Schloss in Heidelberg follows before Michael gets an insider's guide to share dealing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. At Goettingen University, Michael discovers two sides of student life at the turn of the 20th century - the duelling fraternities and the groundbreaking scientists who laid the foundation for Germany's world class transport technology today. Braving the force of the Goettingen wind tunnel, Michael investigates the track where model trains are fired at up to 360km per hour.

#22 - Sofia to Istanbul

Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/16/2015

Armed with his trusty 1913 Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide, Michael Portillo travels east through the Balkans along the most exotic section of the route taken by the Orient Express. His journey begins in Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, and includes stops in the ancient city of Plovdiv, the region of Rumelia, and former capital of the Ottoman Empire Edirne. Arriving in Istanbul, Michael takes a trip on the Bosphorus - a much-coveted stretch of water - finds out about Turkish delight and travels along the Marmaray metro line, which connects European and Asian Istanbul via a tunnel beneath the Bosphorus.

#23 - Warsaw to Krakow

Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/19/2014

Michael Portillo uses his 1913 copy of Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide to explore Poland. He begins in the capital Warsaw, where he takes to the floor to dance to one of Chopin's polonaises with high-school students rehearsing for their leavers' ball, before discovering how the former industrial city of Lodz supplied the vast Russian empire of the early 20th century. He then heads to Poznan and rides one of the few remaining steam-powered commuter trains, visits a factory in Wroclaw that manufactures car bodies for locomotives, and ends his journey in Krakow, where he takes a tour in an iconic vehicle of the communist era.

#24 - Tula to St Petersburg

Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/5/2014

Michael Portillo ventures once more on to the European rail network to retrace journeys featured in George Bradshaw's 1913 publication Continental Guide, beginning by travelling through Russia. He starts in the industrial city of Tula, before visiting Leo Tolstoy's former home of Yasnaya Polyana and learning how the author's life and works were intertwined with the railways. Michael then boards the train that runs from the Caspian Sea to Moscow, where he performs an important role in a dramatic opera at the Bolshoi Theatre, before exploring the beauty and history of St Petersburg and riding on the first railway ever built in Russia.

#25 - Prague to Munich

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/24/2013

With his 1913 guidebook in hand, Michael Portillo explores the stunning art nouveau architecture of the Czech capital. In a café popular with artists of the time he discovers the dance craze of the day - the tango - and gamely gives it a go. In the spa of kings, Marienbad, now known as Marianske Lazne, Michael samples the sulphurous waters and wallows in peat and mud. At the Skoda factory in Pilsen he investigates how the machine products of peacetime gave way to the manufacture of armaments for war and test drives a state of the art passenger train locomotive made there today. Crossing the border from Bohemia to Bavaria, Michael encounters a fire breathing dragon in Furth-im-Wald and in Nuremberg he rides German railway history - made in Britain. Arriving in Munich, he finds a blue horse created at the time of his guidebook and discovers an early 20th century pioneer who laid the foundations for the city's pre-eminence in science and technology today.