Gamla Stan: Stockholm’s Old Town
Visitors and locals alike enjoy strolling along the cobblestone lanes of the pedestrian-friendly Old Town, Gamla Stan. This well-preserved medieval city center is a living museum where you can shop, stop for lunch or a fika, dine in a Michelin star restaurant, bask in royal splendor at the Royal Palace or simply enjoy the sights.
Read More
Djurgården: Stockholm’s playground
Djurgården is a place filled with green spaces that is an escape from the city. It is a place to dine, to visit some of the city’s top museums, or to find thrills at an amusement park.
Read More
Stockholm, Sweden
This city of fourteen islands connected by 57 bridges is found on the east coast of Sweden where the fresh water of Lake Mälaren flows into the salt water of the Baltic Sea.
Read More
Viking Ocean Cruises: Viking Homelands Cruise from Bergen to Stockholm
Viking Ocean Cruises offers a Viking Homelands cruise between Bergen, Norway’s charming former Hanseatic town and gateway to the fjords, and Stockholm, Sweden’s grand capital city of 14-islands linked by 57 bridges.
Read More
Viking Ocean Cruises’ Viking Jupiter
We booked our Viking Ocean Cruise for all that it is. We loved it for what it is not. Here’s why.
Read More
The Faroe Islands: The Sheep Islands
These 18 volcanic islands between Scotland and Iceland were formed millions of years ago have remained much undisturbed by the outside world. Residents are descendents of Vikings who arrived in longships over a thousand years ago in search of new uninhabited land. Today, the Faroe Islands are a self-governing part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
Read More
Hurtigruten: A journey to the top of the world
The stunning West Coast of Norway was living up to its reputation as the most beautiful coastline in the world. This region is renowned for its spectacular landscape of fjell, fjord, and foss (mountains, fjords, and waterfalls).
Read More
Greenland
We glided past floating sculptures shaped by wind and weather, frozen reminders of ages past, shimmering shapes in a sparkling sea, the sky a clear cerulean. On both sides, dramatic peaks soared nearly 5000 feet above, dwarfing us as we sailed past icebergs and waterfalls in a pristine wilderness. This was the rarest of days in Ikerasassuag, “The Long Channel”, Prince Christian Sound.
Read More
Voyage of the Vikings aboard Holland America’s Amsterdam: Iceland
It is said that when the Vikings first saw Iceland–with volcanoes, black lava fields, sulfurous steam, and bubbling mud pools– they thought they had discovered the entrance to the Netherworld.
Read More
Cruise ports in Norway: Holland America’s Voyage of the Vikings
The oldest of the Scandinavian capitals, founded over a thousand years ago, Oslo was an important center of wood trade. In the 1600s, after yet another devastating fire, King Christian IV, ruler of Denmark and Norway, rebuilt the city in brick and stone closer to Akershus Fortress and named it Christiania after himself. The original name was not restored until 1925.
Read More
Stockholm, Sweden and the archipelago
Where the fresh waters of Lake Malaren meet the salt water of the Baltic Sea you’ll find the capital city of the Kingdom of Sweden– Stockholm. This political and cultural center of a country a bit larger than California is on 14 islands connected by 57 bridges. Its water is so pristine that you can swim or fish in it and, if you’re lucky, catch a salmon right outside the Royal Palace.
Read More
Gotland: Pearl of the Baltic Sea
We spotted the towers of Visby’s medieval cathedral as we approached Sweden’s island of Gotland. We were there to see the Old Town, a medieval Viking and Hanseatic trading post with a ring wall, towers, and moat. It is so well preserved that it seems to have come to life from a fairy tale. Today, Visby is a modern municipality and cultural center, a fusion of the best of the old and new. You can shop for innovative local goods and modern Scandinavian designs in historic buildings along winding 13th century cobbled lanes.
Read More
Iceland: Land of Fire and Ice
It is said that when the Vikings first saw Iceland–with volcanoes, black lava fields, sulfurous steam, and bubbling mud pools– they thought they had discovered the entrance to the Netherworld.
Read More
Wonderful Copenhagen
The capital of the world’s oldest kingdom is a world of wonders– tales of kings and queens, Vikings, and a mermaid, with a fortress, castles, palaces, and crown jewels. The largest of the Scandinavian cities, once the capital of an empire that included Norway and Southern Sweden, cosmopolitan Copenhagen, or “merchants’ harbor”, is a city as enchanting as the fairy tales inspired here.
Read More