
Michael Portillo is nearing the end of his thousand-mile rail journey from Reno, Nevada, to San Diego in southern California. In this final leg, clad in khaki boiler suit and sporting dark glasses, he joins the US Navy Pacific Fleet, birthplace of the elite flying academy Top Gun. Aboard the Pacific Surfliner, he arrives first in the coastal town of La Jolla, where he takes to the water in a kayak to explore the extraordinary 75-million-year-old caves.\n\nIn San Diego, he picks up the trail of the industrialist and property speculator John D Spreckels, who made the city boom in the 19th century and built a pavilion to house the largest outdoor pipe organ in the world. Michael is offered the chance to play it. Appleton's recommends a trip to a huge structure, completed in 1888, on which San Diegans have depended for water for 130 years - the\nSweetwater Dam.
Source: BBC 2
Series 2 Reversions: 9. Chicago To Champaign, Illinois
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BBC 2
Series 2 Reversions: 5. Santa Fe, New Mexico, To The Grand Canyon
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BBC 2
Series 2 Reversions: 4. La Junta To Colorado Springs
05-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 2 Reversions: 2. Sedalia To St Joseph, Missouri
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BBC 2
Series 2 Reversions: 1. St Louis To Jefferson City, Missouri
02-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 3 Reversions: 1. Reno To The Napa Valley
Steered by his 19th-century Appleton's guidebook, Michael Portillo embarks on a one thousand-mile American adventure through California. Along the way he discovers how the railr ...
04-06-2018
BBC 2
Series 2: 7. La Junta, Colorado, To Pueblo, New Mexico
31-01-2017
BBC 2
Series 2 Reversions: 4. La Junta To Colorado Springs
05-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 3: 2. Boston To Concord, Massachusetts
Michael Portillo's 19th-century Appleton's guidebook leads him to the Parker House Hotel, where in his best pinny, he whisks up a Boston cream pie.\n\nIn the fine dome atop Mass ...
08-11-2022
BBC 2
Series 4: 5. Kamloops To Calgary
Clutching his 1899 Appleton’s Guide, Michael Portillo boards one of the world’s most famous trains, the Rocky Mountaineer, to cross the backbone of the North America ...
26-09-2022
BBC 2
Series 3: 13. San Francisco To Sausalito, California
Armed with his trusty Appleton's Guide, Michael Portillo's rail journey through California takes him to the commercial metropolis of San Francisco. Riding through the vibrant st ...
28-11-2022
BBC 2
Series 4: 4. Vancouver Island To Kamloops
Michael Portillo explores British Columbia, steered by his Appleton’s Guide to Canada, published in 1899. He discovers how two superpowers nearly came to war over a pig an ...
22-09-2022
BBC 2