Travel to twelve ports of call in the rich and beautiful north, a part of Europe that travelers often overlook. Your itinerary includes Norway's Bergen, where quaint, colorful buildings from the 18th and 19th Centuries line narrow streets; festive Copenhagen, where famed Tivoli Gardens amusement park is a living fairy tale; Poland's Gdansk, where daring workers' strikes helped bring down Communism; sophisticated Helsinki, one of the first planned municipalities in Europe; cosmopolitan Oslo, where most candid and controversial sculptures depict the human life cycle--outdoors; Iceland's Reykjavik, where Viking settlers established the world's first parliament in 930; Germany's Rostock, which still conveys a charmingly medieval personality; imperial St. Petersburg, where complex history mixes high culture and cutthroat politics; Norway's Stavanger, an oil center with an old town of cobblestone walkways and whitewashed buildings; breathtaking Stockholm, whose green spaces and waterways account for sixty percent of the city's size; Estonia's Tallinn, where strategic location on the Baltic Sea has enticed many invaders; and charming Trondheim, Norway's first capital. Enjoy a fresh and enchanting approach to Europe.