28-Day North Cape & Scandinavia Medley

Andalsnes is your starting point for a ride on the Trollstigvein (troll’s path), a zig-zag drive up mountains and over waterfalls
that’s out of this world! Trollstigven’s often cloud-shrouded summit is the ultimate challenge for mountain climbers.

The airport for Puerto La Cruz in northeast on the Caribbean. Isla de Margarita is off the coast.

You can thank Olav Kyrre.

He’s the Viking king who founded Bergen in 1070. During the Middle Ages, the city became Scandinavia’s primary port, and today, against all odds, you can still see buildings and other relics of this long period. There’s the medieval fortress of Bergenhus, as well as the summer home of composer Edvard Grieg. Bergen, Norway is also a jumping off point for excursions to some of Norway’s wonders, such as Sorfjord, Samnangerfjord, Tokagjel Gorge and Steindalsfjoss Waterfall. After you’ve visited all of these, there will be a short spelling quiz.

This is the town where north was invented. That’s right no village in the entire world is further north than Honningsvag, Norway. How far north is it? It is so far north the sun doesn’t even think of setting from mid-May until the end of July-which seems like an awful lot of work, and that could explain its need to set and stay set from late November to late January. (This period is especially difficult if you have a night job.) Honningsvag is the gateway to the North Cape, but hey, if you want to head that direction, you’re on your own.

France’s second city and a major seaport, Marseille is an important industrial center and produces many food products. It is the oldest French town, settled by Phonecians, Greeks and annexed by Rome in 49 B.C. During the Crusades, Marseilles was a commercial center and transit port for the Holy Land. Taken by Charles I of Anjou, it was absorbed by Provence and bequeathed to the French crown in 1481. It grew as a port in the 19th century, with the opening of the Suez Canal and the conquest of Algeria. It is known for its great avenue, the Canebière, and for the Chateau d’If, a castle in its harbor.

Today Marseille is France’s largest port and is as warm as the sun on the south of France. An ethnic stew of French, Arabic, and Italian cultures, Marseille’s slightly risque charm appeals to those who love the spice of a real melting pot. Nearby is the gracious Aix-en-Province. At the home and studio of Paul Cezanne, you can revisit the birth of impressionism exactly a century ago.

On the shores of the Nordfjord, little Olden is a gateway to a spectacular ice wilderness of stunning dimensions. Climb an amazing zig-zag road past towering cliffs and tumbling waterfalls to the giant Jostedal Glacier- the largest icefield in Europe, where summer skiers zip over ice moguls! Guests of Olden can also take a horse-drawn carriage to a beautiful lake watershed by the blue ice massif of Briksdal Glacier.

Rome wasn’t built in a day…but you can tour it in just over 10 hours. A teeming anthill of humanity and antiquity intermingled with awful traffic jams, Rome grew up on the Tiber (“Fiume Tevere”) among seven low hills that rise from the river’s soggy eastern banks. It’s a city of many peeling layers of history, of which the bottom layer–that of the earliest Roman centuries–is the most interesting and still astonishingly whole. The hub of this layer is the Palatine Hill, the Forum, the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus.

On the western bank is the Citta Vaticana, the independent papal city where the Pope blesses pilgrims from all over the world. Neighboring Trastevere (“Across the Tiber”) is a mix of Roman, Greek and Jewish subcultures, great for little restaurants and nightlife. Further north on the other bank is “vecchia Roma,” medieval Rome of the Pantheon and Piazza Navona; Renaissance Rome is centered south of the Corso Vittorio Emanuele. Commercial Rome is the city of the Via del Corso, the Piazza del Popolo, the controversial Victor Emmanuel monument and finally the Stazione Termini, the nexus for all trains and roads from Rome.

This historical city, located in Andalusia, is one of the world’s most beautiful cities and contains many landmarks, including the Moorish Alcazar and the Gothic Cathedral. Seville was also the site of the 1992 world’s fair.

Southampton Parish, on Main Island, is one of the nine parishes each of 2.3055 (two point three zero five five) square miles. It was named after Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton (1573-1624), an English aristocrat, one of the most colorful Elizabethans, the patron and friend of William Shakespeare.

The world’s northernmost university – only one institute of higher learning may boast of that distinction, and at the moment anyway, that institution is the University of Norway at Tromso. Situated about 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Tromso has continuous sunshine from late May to mid-July. Nearby is the city of Narvik, known for mysterious lightning that occurs every August.

Located 245 miles north of Oslo, Trondheim was originally called Nidaros. Venture to Nidaros Cathedral, considered one of the most beautiful Gothic buildings in Northern Europe. Visit Ringve Museum of Musical History for a lively experience, with a collection of over 2000 instuments.