Great Continental Railway Journeys Catch up, Series 7: 6. Stockholm to the Arctic Circle on BBC 2

Great Continental Railway Journeys

Series 7: 6. Stockholm to the Arctic Circle

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.\n\nIn Stockholm, Michael braves a precarious tour of the city from its rooftops before boarding a heritage tram to get the lowdown on 1930s Sweden from an expert. At the capital’s Royal Institute of Technology, Michael investigates the transport of the future in a near-vacuum tube. He tours Uppsala University and takes Sweden’s 1,300km Inlandsbanan railway, which was completed in 1937, to travel north to Ostersund and Kiruna.\n\nMichael finishes deep in the Arctic Circle at a remote climate research station, where scientists are building on data recorded at the time his guidebook was published. En route, Michael learns why Sweden built the strategic inland railway on which he is travelling. He discovers how the nation created a welfare state, has lunch with traditional Sami people in Vilhelmina and checks into a chilly hotel made of ice.

Source: BBC 2

Most recent episodes of Great Continental Railway Journeys

Great Continental Railway Journeys

Series 8: 4. Sarajevo

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, which ended in the ...

13-03-2025

BBC 2

All episodes

Great Continental Railway Journeys

Series 8: 3. Knin To Split

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 a Venetia ...

12-03-2025

BBC 2

All episodes

Great Continental Railway Journeys

Series 8: 2. Buzet To Pag

Ably assisted by Lila, an expert labrador, Michael Portillo hunts for truffles in the Istrian countryside near the hilltop town of Buzet. His railway adventure through the Balka ...

11-03-2025

BBC 2

All episodes

Great Continental Railway Journeys

Series 8: 1. Pula To Pazin

Michael begins a journey across the Balkan countries of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Armed with shield and sword and weighed down by a heavy helmet, he mounts a valiant d ...

10-03-2025

BBC 2

All episodes

Series 7 (shortened Versions): Episode 3

Michael Portillo travels from the chateaux of the Loire Valley to the heart of the Champagne region at Reims.\n\nBeginning in historic Orleans, Michael follows his Bradshaw&rsqu ...

27-06-2024

BBC 2

All episodes