Introduction
Scandinavia Travel: A thousand years ago, the Vikings dominated the beautiful fjords, glaciers, mountains, hot springs, geysers, volcanoes, unspoiled islands, and gorgeous coastlines of northern Europe. Today, Scandinavians still itch with wanderlust. And you can’t blame them. Norway’s pristine fishing villages, ancient Viking ships, and medieval cathedrals ignite the imagination. Denmark’s islands, white-sand beaches, Viking ruins, quaint towns, and extensive bicycle trails call out to the peripatetic soul. Sweden brings you eye-to-eye with the past in accessible museums and over 25,000 nationally protected Iron Age graveyards and burial grounds. Scandinavia cruises -- (Norway, Denmark, Sweden) together with Iceland and Finland -- bring you face to face with the history, culture, and wildlife of Europe’s Far North.

Cruise the shores of Scandinavia and encounter sheer rocky cliffs, fertile farms, soft-sand beaches, and the remains of stone-built, seaside hamlets that date back hundreds of years. Scout for seals and dolphins. View seabirds like black-winged godwits, gull-billed terns, avocets, and other breeding waders. Venture along the coast of Sweden and watch razorbills, oystercatchers, little and Arctic terns, and graceful white-tailed sea eagles. Dine on a smorgasbord of seafood delights, including herring, shrimp, crab, lobster, and mussels. Journey to Viking shores—join us on a Scandinavia cruise.
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Natural History
Scandinavia and Spitsbergen serve up tidewater glaciers and the chance to see reindeer, walrus, seals, arctic foxes, and, the mighty polar bear. Observe seals and gaze at birds throughout some of the globe’s most spectacular fjords. In northern Norway, along the Loften Islands, mountaintops provide habitats and hideaways for razorbills, kittiwakes, puffins, and rare white-tailed sea eagles. Huge colonies of sea birds nest at Rost. Keep a keen eye out for the colorful puffin with its “horns” and bright orange beak, a favorite among photographers. On the wing, puffins resemble tiny missiles flying fast and low to the water. They dive underwater and swim with their wings to feed on small, minnow-sized fish. They store their catches inside their bills to carry them back to their nesting young.

If you head out to the Svalbard Islands (the largest of which is Spitsbergen), just a mere 600 miles from the North Pole, you may encounter polar bears. Polar bears, descendants of brown bears, live throughout the Arctic and feed mainly on ringed and bearded seals. The bears’ winter hunting tactic is to wait patiently next to a seal’s breathing hole. When the seal comes up for a breath, WHAM! the polar bear crushes it with one blow and scoops it onto the ice. Polar bears also eat walruses, stranded whales, birds, fish, and, in summer, vegetation.

Polar bears grow bigger than Volkswagens and weigh more than 1,000 pounds. Their huge feet help stabilize them when they travel across thin ice. In the water, these paws work like paddles for swimming. Polar bears may swim upwards of 100 miles from land or ice to the closest iceberg. The hollow, translucent hair of their fur traps air and, combined with their heavy layer of blubber, insulates their bodies against the Arctic’s frigid air and water.

Around Samiland in Finland you may find yourself among the reindeer. Watch hundreds of these elk-like mammals graze lichens along the coast. They travel long distances in search of food. Both cows and bulls sport antlers—some bulls have racks over four feet wide. Although considered the same species, reindeer measure a bit smaller than caribou. In northern Eurasia, more than 2,000 years ago, Arctic peoples domesticated the reindeer. You can still find herders in Scandinavia looking to reindeer for all kinds of goods, from clothing and shelter to food and pets.

How do reindeer survive severe winter weather? Like the polar bear, reindeer trap air close to their bodies with the specially adapted, hollow hairs of their fur coats. The air keeps them insulated against the cold and even helps them stay afloat in water. Both reindeer and caribou swim well, splashing across rushing rivers and even fording icy oceans.

Up around Arctic Norway, jump into a Zodiac and search for walruses. A male walrus may measure more than 12 feet long and weigh more than 3,000 pounds. Females tend to be a little shorter, about 8 feet long, and weigh up to 2,750 pounds. Walruses are large seals with long, downward-curving tusks, which they use like hooks to haul themselves out of the water and onto ice. They also wield them in defense against polar bears. Walruses live in herds; if you’re lucky, you may see a whole herd lounging around the rocky coast.

For more information on the natural history of Scandinavia, see book selections below.
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History
The Vikings were tribes of fierce pirates and warriors who lived in Scandinavia and explored all over Northern Europe, the North Atlantic Ocean, parts of the Arctic, and even across the Atlantic Ocean to North America. From the late 700s into the early 1100s, they ransacked, conquered, and pillaged settlements throughout the modern-day areas of Russia, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Ireland, and England, reaching as far south as Byzantium and the Mediterranean.

The origins of the name “Viking” are obscure, but may come from the Old Norse word “vik,” meaning bay or creek. Over the years, Scandinavians took to saying to “go a-Viking” when they wanted to tell some one “to fight as a pirate or warrior.” Although they fought brutal battles and maneuvered easily in swift, light warships, most Vikings spent much of their time as farmers, carpenters, blacksmith, and at other peacetime activities.

The Viking Period emerged after a long term of rapid population growth. Farmland was becoming scarce. In search of better lands to live and farm, many Vikings left Scandinavia. Around the same time, these Scandinavians developed new techniques for building and sailing boats. Their relatively lightweight, long, narrow boats propelled by both oars and sails traveled well in rough seas and shallow rivers. A crew of men could drag these boats ashore. With these, Scandinavians found themselves able to voyage further than they previously imagined.

By the 1100s, the Swedes charged forth to conquer the Finns and dominate their land. The Norwegians colonized Iceland but wound up infighting and, actually vanished as a nation for some 500 years. By the sixteenth century, Denmark and Sweden divided all of contemporary Scandinavia. The two countries waged a war with each other that lasted 134 years. After the Napoleonic Wars, the political map shifted. Finland separated from Sweden and, for the next 100 years, Finland remained a province of czarist Russia. Norway claimed independence from Denmark only to wind up bound in a union with Sweden.

In the early 20th century, Norway and Sweden split. The Russian Revolution soon followed and Finland found itself in the throes of a civil war. At the end of its civil war, Finland, for the first time in its history, emerged a free and independent nation. The Russians, however, attacked Finland in 1939. Under Stalin’s rule, they defeated the Finns but never occupied Finland. Germany attacked Denmark and Norway in 1940. The Nazis took over Denmark and Iceland claimed its independence from Denmark. Even though many Europeans regarded Iceland as an Aryan haven, the Allied forces quickly supported the newly independent Iceland. By the 1990s, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland all belonged to NATO. Denmark, Sweden, and Finland all joined the European Union.

For more information on the history of Scandinavia, see book selections below.
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Culture
Over a thousand years ago, Viking exploration and conquest stretched throughout Scandinavia from the Black Sea to Greenland and all the way across the Atlantic to North America. Scandinavia, Finland, and Iceland formed the region called Norden. During the Viking Period, other Europeans called the Vikings Norsemen, Normans, or Danes.

The Vikings ruled this rugged region from the 700s to the 1100s. During this period, they developed the runic alphabet with its big angular shapes, shapes easy enough to carve into stone. To mark the grave sites of those who fell during battle, Vikings erected chiseled headstones in graveyards and on battlefields. Sweden alone boasts over 2,000 rune-stones that still stand as a testament to Viking warriors.

The runic alphabet was the foundation for a long literary history. The roots of these literary traditions come from oral tales, legends, and especially poems passed down from generation to generation over the course of centuries. These poems often wove elaborate, inspiring tales of gods or battles. Viking leaders often brought poets into battle to recite verse and bring luck and victory.

By the 1200s, after the Viking Age, oral ballads rose in popularity throughout Denmark and Sweden. Around this time, between 1100 and 1300, Scandinavians started to compose long stories known as sagas. Sagas such as Beowulf narrated the wild adventures of heroes and the lives of chieftains. The Reformation brought on the translation of the Bible into Swedish and Danish. Hymns translated in the 1600s are still sung today. The 1700s gave rise to Scandinavian theater full of comedies, tragedies, and dramas. The Golden Age of the 1800s carried Scandinavian literature into a period of romanticism followed, in the later third of the century, by realism. The romantics underscored the emotion and glory of the Viking Age. The realists, such as dramatist Henrik Ibsen, commented on daily life with a more journalistic eye, often criticizing society. Modern Scandinavian literature includes facets of both romanticism and realism. One of the most well-known Scandinavian writers is Denmark’s Isak Dinesen, who wrote Out of Africa, published in 1937.

In the far northern Finnish region of Lapland (also known as Samiland), the local Sami people, though savvy of modern influences, still practice many of their traditional crafts. Nomadic people, the Sami follow the reindeer and recognize no national boundaries. Their area extends from the Kola Peninsula in the former Soviet Union through Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Although they no longer live in huts and tents (except in summer, when the reindeer graze along the coasts), they still consider themselves nomadic. During Easter week, the Sami celebrate the year’s baptisms and weddings and often hold reindeer races. From late fall through early spring, the Sami harness teams of reindeer to big wooden sleds to pull sleds full of families and cargo as they continue on their nomadic path.

From 1612 to 1720, whalers combed the seas along the western coast of Spitsbergen Island in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. They hunted bowhead and Greenland right whales. Later, whalers sought beluga whales, and hunters tracked Arctic foxes, polar bears, caribou, and seals throughout the interiors of these northern islands. Today, Svalbard caters to a culture of contemporary explorers and researchers. The remains of whaling and fishing villages dot the coastlines. Only about 1,200 Norwegians live in Longyearbyn, the capital of Svalbard. Many of them guide visitors on skiing, dog sledding, boating, snowmobiling, or trekking excursions across this frosty wilderness.

For more information on the culture of Scandinavia, see book selections below.
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Dos and Don'ts
Scandinavia Travel Tips:

Do expect to go ashore in small groups. Expert guides bring you up close to the spectacles of Scandinavia, the wildflowers, the deep fjords, the ancient architecture, and the picturesque fishing villages nestled along the coasts.

Prepare yourself for changeable weather. Bring foul weather gear to cover you from head to toe and plenty of clothes to layer on when the wind blows and peel back when the sun shines. Don’t forget your sun block.

To enjoy wildlife, especially sea birds, tote powerful binoculars. Remember to ask your guides for spotting scopes.

Do follow the rules outlined by the ship captain and the natural history staff. Don’t feed or touch any wild animals; Scandinavia is not a petting zoo.
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Weather
From May to September expect clear sunny weather in the 80 F range. The daylight hours are long. The sun never drops below the horizon from May 13th to July 29th.
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Best Time to Go
Norway is at its best and brightest from May to September. Late spring is a particularly pleasant time - fruit trees are in bloom and daylight hours are long.

Norway's cold dark winters are not the prime time to visit.
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Temperature Range
Summer: 70 to 90 F.
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Books
Andersen's Fairy Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen
Literature
For more than 100 years, the beloved stories of Hans Christian Andersen have transported young readers to magical worlds of the imagination, without sugarcoating the truth, as is so often the case with contemporary children's literature.

A History of Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, by T.K. Derry
History
This comprehensive volume gives a historical overview of the region from prehistory through the 1970s and emphasizes the common cultural, political, and social background of the five modern states.

Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Icelandic Stories, by Hermann Pálsson (translator)
Literature
Some of the best reading available is to be found in the great sagas of medieval Iceland.

Last Places: A Journey to the North, by Lawrence Millman
Travel Narrative
This collection of side-splittingly funny experiences tells of the author's four-month trip from Scotland to Newfoundland via the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland.

The Vikings, by Else Roesdahl
History
A captivating account of history, viewing the Vikings as a legitimate Norse civilization, with a vibrant, artistic, agricultural and exploratory culture, more than as merely pagan invaders of the rest of civilized Europe.

The Shadow of the Midnight Sun, by Harald Gaski
Culture
A good insight into the culture and character of the Saami people.

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