Great Continental Railway Journeys

Michael Portillo travels through Hungary, beginning his adventure in the far northwest of the country in the town of Sopron. There he learns how a picnic for European unity on the Austrian border attracted East Germans fleeing for the West just months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. In nearby Nagycenk, he discovers how the country's national fire service was started by the son of Count István Széchenyi. On arrival in the elegant capital city Budapest, Michael visits the exquisitely decorated Keleti station and finishes the evening with a drink at the New York Café