With Bradshaw's 1913 Continental Railway Guide in hand, Michael Portillo ventures east through Romania. He encounters a bloodsucking vampire in Transylvania and brown bears in the Carpathian forest before visiting a fairy tale castle with modern conveniences in Sinaia, striking oil in Ploesti, tapping into the nation's musical soul in Bucharest and loading cargo from a 100-foot crane in Constanta. Travelling through what was, at the turn of the 20th century, one of Europe's youngest nations, Michael sinks his teeth into a Victorian gothic best seller and uncovers an unlikely fellow fan of his Bradshaw's.

Michael Portillo leaves Europe behind to take in the sights, smells and tastes of north Africa as he travels from the Mediterranean port of Tangier to the Berber city of Marrakech. With his 1913 guidebook in hand, he discovers in Tangier how this once proudly independent nation fell under the control of the French as rival European powers scrambled to extend their empires in Africa. At Asilah, Michael lends a hand with the construction of Morocco's new ú3 billion high-speed railway line to Casablanca. In Fez, he dodges the donkeys and learns how to make lamb tagine before being scrubbed down in a traditional hammam.