Larvik to Holstebro

Michael Portillo’s saga through Norway and Denmark resumes in Larvik on Norway’s southern coast, where he investigates the city’s prized natural resource, a distinctive blue rock named larvikite. From Larvik’s port, he boards a ferry for Denmark, landing in Hirtshals.

At the tip of the Jutland Peninsula, Michael visits the 19th-century artists’ colony of Skagen to admire their light-filled landscapes. He then heads south to the pastures of Holstebro, home to some of Denmark’s half a million cows. Denmark produces 85 million kilos of butter and five billion kilos of milk per year. Michael visits the Lurpak factory to see one of the nation’s premier industries.