Shining Scandinavia is a land where myth comes alive. Viking words still name the craggy peaks and brilliant lakes, and the Norse divinities which created them.

Perhaps it is the phenomenal beauty of the landscape that preserves this mythic aura, or the pale sunlight, which bathes it long into the summer nights. As the ship glides into the majestic amphitheater of a fjord, shrinking it to a toy against granite walls that rise to snow-capped heights and drop to the sea floor, one enters a world made fresh by gods and giants. The landscape is cradled in the cobalt embrace of the sea.

Stockholm is a sea-faring city draped across 24,000 islets, Copenhagen and Helsinki are cultural capitals with the bold hearts of sailors. Further east the Baltic enters the gates of Russia, where the splendor of the czars, the Kremlin's raw power, and the dramatic rise of democracy can all be explored. Northward the forests dwindle to tundra, then to ice-pack, as the ship rides the gleaming waves of the Midnight Sun.

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