Great Continental Railway Journeys

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Michael Portillo retraces the journeys from George Bradshaw's 1913 Continental Guide.

Michael Portillo travels on the great train routes of Europe, as he retraces the journeys featured in George Bradshaw's 1913 Continental Railway Guide.

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Michael Portillo

Ben Rowland

Alison Kreps

John Comerford

Fremantle

Great Continental Railway Journeys: Series 7 (Shortened Versions): Episode 10

Episode 10

Series 7 (Shortened Versions)

BBC Two - Great Continental Railway Journeys, Series 7 (Shortened Versions), Episode 10

Michael Portillo learns how Sweden created a welfare state.

Michael Portillo continues his journey from Stockholm to the Arctic Circle. On the way he decorates a Dala horse and learns how Sweden created a welfare state.

Michael Portillo continues his 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.
Heading north away from the cities aboard Sweden’s 1,300 km Inlandsbanan Railway, completed in 1937, Michael discovers why Sweden built this strategic inland line.  In Mora he learns to decorate a Dala horse; in Östersund he learns how the nation created a welfare state.  He joins traditional Sami people for lunch in Vilhelmina and checks into a chilly hotel in Kiruna, made from ice.  He finishes deep in the Arctic Circle at a research station, where scientists are building on data recorded at the time his guidebook was published.

Great Continental Railway Journeys: Series 7 (Shortened Versions)

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Bradshaw's 1913 Guide in hand, Michael Portillo embarks on another rail journey.

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Great Continental Railway Journeys

Series 7 (Shortened Versions)

Episode 10

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