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Armed with his 1913 Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide, Michael Portillo ventures to the northernmost reaches of Europe, where he braves the freezing temperatures of the Baltic Sea and finds peace paddling a canoe on the lakes of Finland. On his journey from the Latvian capital, Riga, to the Manchester of Finland, Tampere, Michael encounters medieval knights in Tallinn, grills sausages in Helsinki and samples cloudberry liqueur in a hot tub by the light of Finland's midnight sun.

A hundred years ago, Latvia, Estonia and Finland were part of the Russian Tsar's vast empire, but as Michael discovers, each country had a vibrant identity and culture of its own. Aboard a beautifully restored tram built in 1901, Michael finds that Riga in 1913 was one of the Russian empire's most important cities, where industry was booming but workers unhappy with their lot were rebelling.

After a picnic of chewy dried fish and beer on board a Soviet-era train, Michael arrives in Estonia, where in the magical setting of a ruined 13th-century cathedral, he hears a choir sing the nation's most important song and learns how, more recently, the Baltic countries demonstrated their desire for independence from the Soviet Union with a singing revolution.

Seasoned members of the Tallinn Ice Swimming Club introduce Michael to their sport before he crosses the Baltic Sea by ferry to Helsinki, where he discovers the music of the great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius and learns how his masterpiece Finlandia spurred Finns toward their independence.

North of Helsinki in Tampere, Michael takes to the water again to explore one of Finland's 180,000 lakes.