We disembarked in Bergen and most of the group went their separate ways. I stayed on for two days and was delighted to tour the famous Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg’s home where we were treated to a piano concert overlooking the small cottage where he composed many of his most famous works. The midsummer solstice [...]

June 18: At Sea, when we weren’t attending the numerous lectures offered by guest professors onboard, there was time to sit and enjoy the calm waters of the North Sea and relax. June 19: Le Boreal’s captain maintained top speed to take us north of Bergen to the longest and most spectacular Fjord in Norway, [...]

A visit to the Little Mermaid and a lovely canal barge tour of this picturesque city is a must. Denmark is making great strides in wind generated energy, so our arrival in Copenhagen involved the ship navigating through fields of wind generators.

I had visited Gdansk when I was living in Warsaw in 1984 in the dark days just after martial law was lifted. It was wonderful to return and see how much progress had been made to restore the town. We were able to go inside the shipyard where Solidarity was formed and visit the great [...]

If it’s Wednesday, it must be Latvia! Riga has been painstakingly restored over the past 10 years with an influx of funding from abroad and it is now a UNESCO world heritage site, deservedly so. The town was not heavily damaged in the war as the Germans withdrew quickly in the face of the advancing [...]