British Isles & Baltic Magic

Located in eastern Northern Ireland on Belfast Lough, an inlet of the north channel of the Irish Sea, Belfast is the capital and largest city in the country.

Elegant is the word that will come to mind.

As you take in the Danish capital’s rich history and traditions. With castles and crown jewels, galleries and museums, cathedrals and canals, the sightseeing ranks among the best in Europe.

The Strøget is a series of pedestrian-only streets which make strolling and shopping a pleasure. And be sure to visit Tivoli, a unique combination of picture-perfect flower gardens, lakes, theaters and restaurants with more than 100,000 colored lights.

Don’t worry how to pronounce Cobh, you’re really here to see Cork, Ireland, the main district of which sits on an island formed by the diverging channels of the River Lee. The city is filled with picturesque quays and bridges.

Whether you’ve come to kiss the Blarney stone, to outfit yourself in Irish tweeds or to hear “The Bells of Shandon” ringing, Cork and its surrounding countryside will charm you from glen to glen.

Ancient port and ship building center north of Edinburgh, it is now an important industrial center for Scotland

Gothenburg, also known as Goteborg, is the largest port in Sweden and its second-largest city. Located on Sweden’s southwest corner, it is known as the home of the Volvo Group, the Gothernburg Film Festival, the Liseberg amusement park, a variety of music festivals, and much more.

Gothenburg is served by Göteborg Landvetter Airport, Sweden’s second-largest airport and the only commercial passenger airport in the city.

Graceful design, imaginative architecture the Finns have long been admired for their beautiful buildings, gardens and parks. You’ll enjoy visiting them too, as you pass all styles of centuries past and present, from medieval to neoclassical, as well as the superb ultramodern creations by Aalto, Saarinen, and other Finnish masters.

Shetland Islands, archipelago, 552 sq mi (1,427 sq km), off N Scotland. They consist of c.100 islands c.70 mi (110 km) long, about a fourth of which are inhabited. The largest are Mainland (where Lerwick, the main town, is located), Yell, Unst, Fetlar, Whalsey, and Bressay. Oil, produced offshore in the North Sea since the 1970s, supplements income from traditional sheep, cattle, and knitware industries. Tourism is also important. The hardy Shetland pony and the Shetland sheepdog originated there. Occupied by Norsemen by the 9th cent., the islands were annexed to Scotland in 1472. Fishing is plentiful here, and the rocky cliffs offset by vast colonies of gannets and gulls make for breathtaking scenery.

Restless, enduring and wonderful, London is Europe’s largest city. And surely, if you have the choice to visit only two or three cities of the world in your lifetime, by all means make one of them London.

The Romans started it all. The city they developed was “the square mile,” – and Londoners still hunt for Roman relics in the Thames. History is everywhere you look in London, yet today the city is as modern and metropolitan as any city on earth.

By day, London is buzzing with the frenetic pace of commerce not even Dickens could have imagined. By night, the excitement and glitter of theatres, cinemas, pubs and restaurants beckons throngs of travellers from around the world. But there is another London, a peaceful London of cool museums, quiet tea rooms, immaculate gardens and hushed churches.

There is Royal London – ancient pageantry in a modern kingdom – with its palaces, pomp and precise manoeuvres at the Changing of the Guard. And there’s outrageous London, the urban gathering ground for Cockney pitchmen, “fringe” theatre and the city’s youth, with their own distinctive style.

There is also Greenwich, easily accessed from central London by public transport, or take a more scenic route and arrive by riverboat. Notable for both its maritime history and royal heritage, it is perhaps best known for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time, based at the Royal Observatory.

London, this extraordinary city of contrasts, holds a stunning abundance of hidden-round-the-corner surprises. You owe it to yourself to explore them all. Here, then, is the London you’ll come to know and remember.

Newcastle is the capital of the Hunter Valley Region, in New South Wales. Located on the east coast of Australia, the Hunter Region encompasses a land area of approximately 31,000 square kilometres and a resident population of around 544,000 people. Newcastle’s population is estimated at 132,000 people. Getting to and from Newcastle is simple. From Sydney, it is a comfortable 2 hour drive (Sydney is 171 kilometres to the south); 30 minutes by air and two hours by passenger train (there is a regular hourly service). There are also direct flights from Brisbane and Canberra. Newcastle is the gateway to the Hunter Valley and is now a very different place to the time when steel and coal industries were the main source of employment. Long gone are the smoky grey industrial images – they have been replaced with elegantly restored historic buildings; picturesque parks and gardens; an extensive selection of restaurants boasting cuisine from around the world; and the natural beauty of its white sandy beaches and harbour. There is a wide selection of magnificent art galleries and museums; nightclubs and eateries; and extensive shopping facilities. The long list of natural attractions
within easy access of the city includes everything from wilderness areas, rainforests and beaches to world famous vineyards. The green rolling hills of Australia’s oldest winemaking region are studded with restaurants, guest houses, and of course, the vineyards where more than twenty varieties of grape ripen slowly in the warm summer sunshine to produce some of Australia’s finest wines. Lakes, beaches, rivers and bays, combine with lush countryside to make the Hunter
region surrounding Newcastle almost unlimited in its appeal.

As the French capital, Paris is the commercial, financial, and industrial focus of France, a major transportation hub, and a cultural and intellectual center of international renown. A beautiful city in which tourism is the main industry, Paris is cut by the Seine River. On its stately, formal right (northern) bank are many of the most fashionable streets and shops, and such landmarks as the Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde, Louvre, and Sacré Coeur.

The left bank houses governmental offices and is the site of much of the city’s intellectual life. It is known for its old Latin Quarter and for such landmarks as the Sorbonne, the Luxembourg Palace, the Panthéon, and the modern Pompidou Center (see Beaubourg). The historic core of Paris is the Île de la Cité, a small island occupied in part by the Palais de Justice and the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. Above the city rises the Eiffel Tower. Paris is divided into 20 arrondissements (boroughs) and governed by a mayor.

A fishing village when it was conquered (52 B.C.) by Caesar, it became an important Roman town. It was a Merovingian capital in the 5th cent. and became the national capital with the accession (987) of Hugh Capet, count of Paris. It flowered as the center of medieval commerce and scholasticism but suffered severely during the Hundred Years War. Paris consistently displayed a rebellious and independent spirit, as in its resistance to Henry IV (1589-93); the first Fronde (1648-49); the revolutions of 1789, 1830, and 1848; and the Commune of Paris (1871). During World War II it was occupied (1940-44) by the Germans but was relatively undamaged.

Founded as a fortress in the 13th century, Stockholm eventually grew to become the capital of Sweden. It is a city of remarkable beauty with numerous parks, tree-lined squares and boulevards, and pleasant water vistas. To grasp the full character of Stockholm, visitors must hop from island to island, each of which boasts its own personality. Sergels Torg, a central square located in Norrmalm, serves as the focal point for modern Stockholm. On Helgeans Holmen, the tiny island
immediately south of Norrmalm, sits the Riksdagshuset (Parliament Building), followed by the medieval Gamla Stan (Old Town) island and then the large Sodermalm, a bohemian enclave in a former blue-collar quarter.

Across the Strommen (the Current) lie the two scenic islands of Skeppsholmen and Kastell-Holmen. Farther east, Djurgarden Island houses a number of city museums and connects to the northern Ostermalm, a pricey residential neighborhood that adjoins Norrmalm sprawling across 14 islands, the Swedish capital has always enjoyed an ideal
commercial location at the confluence of Lake Malaren and the Baltic Sea. As a result, a forest of high-rise office buildings and condominiums has grown up beside the medieval castles that once guarded Sweden’s strategic waterways. Founded in the mid-13th century, this former outpost developed into a vibrant capital in the 17th century, when landscapers and architects began to build elegant parks and squares that rivaled those in the finest European cities.

Today, picturesque Stockholm boasts a stunning combination of man-made gardens in its center and natural scenery on its outskirts, where sun-lit lakes shimmer in the pine-clad countryside.

Stornoway, on Hebridean Island, is a small town. (Population 6000) Due to how north it is, the northern lights can be seen in the summer. Still a thriving fishing port, it is a windsurfers paradise. Beautiful, rugged scenery and friendly natives (Gaelic is widely spoken) never let you forget that you are still in Scotland.

The capital and largest city in Estonia, Tallinn is located on the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, Finland. It offers an interesting blend of modern, Western atmosphere with well preserved medieval buildings, walls and narrow streets. It is very popular with artists and has numerous galleries, museums and cultural festivals.