Great Continental Railway Journeys
Great Continental Railway Journeys is a TV show on BBC2. All aboard! Michael Portillo explores Europe's most beautiful, historic and enchanting regions by rail, uncovering how nature and history have shaped the continent. The program has been available since 2024. A total of 57 episodes have been broadcast, most recently in August 2025.
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Great Continental Railway Journeys
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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In Zurich, Michael has a brush with the absurd in the anarchic paintings of the Dadaists and visits the Grossmunster Church to learn about the rebellious pastor at the centre of the Swiss Reformation.
Michael Portillo ventures into the bowels of an immense hydroelectric dam to learn how the Swiss use their mountainous environment to power the country.
Michael Portillo is transported back in time to the tiny Alpine village home of Switzerland’s most famous child, Heidi. He then heads to the Rhine Gorge, also known as the Swiss Grand Canyon.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Michael Portillo embarks on a Scandinavian railway adventure from the Norwegian port of Bergen to the Danish capital of Copenhagen.
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.
In Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Michael Portillo traces the fateful last journey in 1914 of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie.
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.
Ably assisted by Lila, an expert labrador, Michael Portillo hunts for truffles in the Istrian countryside near the hilltop town of Buzet.
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.
Series 5
1:00:00
1:00:00Michael Portillo concludes his journey in the Netherlands, where he travels from Rotterdam to Utrecht, including a visit to the world's largest flower auction.
50:00Michael Portillo finds medieval knights in Tallinn, grills sausages in Helsinki and samples cloudberry liqueur while travelling in Latvia, Finland and Estonia.
1:00:00Michael Portillo travels from the Italian Riviera to the Austrian Alps, starting in Genoa, where he learns how football was introduced to the port.
50:00Michael Portillo travels from the Mediterranean port of Tangier to the Berber city of Marrakech, including a trip to the most famous gin joint in the world.
1:00:00Michael Portillo travels from the Swiss Alps to the shores of Lake Geneva. Along the way, he is caught in a war zone with the Red Cross and rescued from an 'avalanche'.
50:00Armed with his trusty 1913 Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide, Michael Portillo ventures east through Romania to the shores of the Black Sea.