Amsterdam to Northern France Part 1

Michael Portillo continues his railway adventure which takes him across the heart of Europe. Steered by his 1913 railway guide, Michael journeys through a prosperous pre-war Europe of emperors, kings, pomp and elegance. He experiences the dazzling cities of the pre-war Low Countries and tastes the delicacies of Brussels before travelling to the French sector of the western front where, from 1914, the trains carried a new cargo of artillery shells, and the Edwardian tourists of 1913 were replaced by soldiers facing the horrors of the trenches.