Northern Europe from Copenhagen MSC Fantasia departing 17 Jul 2023

Split by lakes and surrounded by sea, an energetic and hip waterside vibe permeates Copenhagen, one of Northern Europe’s most user-friendly (and trendy) capitals.
Copenhagen city centre is waiting to be enjoyed on an MSC Northern Europe cruise excursion. It’s a welcoming, compact city with a centre largely given over to pedestrians (and cyclists) and an emphasis by day on café culture and top-notch museums.The historic core of the city is Slotsholmen, originally the site of the twelfth-centurycastle and now home to the huge Christiansborg complex.
Just across the Slotsholmen Kanal to the north is the medieval maze of Indre By (“inner city”), while to the south the island of Christianshavn is adorned with cutting-edge architecture in addition to the alternative enclave of Christiania.
North-east of Indre By are the royal quarters of KongensHave and Frederiksstaden, while to the west the expansive Rådhuspladsen leads via Tivoli Gardens to Central Station and the hotspots of Vesterbro and Nørrebro. Just off hectic Vesterbrogade outside the station is Copenhagen’s most famous attraction, Tivoli, an entertaining mixture of landscaped gardens, outdoor concerts and fairground rides.
A shore excursion on your MSC Northern Europe cruise can be the opportunity to discover Helsingør’s Kronborg Castle too. The present castle dates from the sixteenth century when it jutted into the sound as a formidable warning to passing ships not to consider dodging the toll, and it remains a grand affair, enhanced immeasurably by its setting; the interior, particularly the royal chapel, is spectacularly ornate.
Beneath the castle are the casemates, gloomy cavernous rooms that served as soldiers’ quarters during times of war.

Tallinn, Estonia’s compact, buzzing capital, with its enchanting heart surrounded by medieval walls, has been shaped by nearly a millennium of outside influence.

A cruise of the Baltic Sea with MSC Cruises can take you to visit the heart of Tallinn, its Old Town, still largely enclosed by the city’s medieval walls. At its centre is the Raekoja plats, the historic marketplace, above which looms Toompea, the hilltop stronghold of the German knights who controlled the city during the Middle Ages.
Raekoja plats, the cobbled market square at the heart of the Old Town, is as old as the city itself. On its southern side stands the fifteenth-century Town Hall (Raekoda), boasting elegant Gothic arches at ground level, and a delicate steeple at its northern end.
Near the summit of the steeple, Vana Toomas, a sixteenth-century weather vane depicting a medieval town guard, is Tallinn’s city emblem. The well-labelled and informative museum inside the cellar hall depicts Tallinn town life through the ages, and there is a good view from the belfry. For an even better view of the town square, climb the spiral staircase of the Town Hall Tower.
The fourteenth-century Church of the Holy Ghost (Puhä Vaimu kirik) on Pühavaimu is the city’s oldest church, a small Gothic building with stuccoed limestone walls, stepped gables, a carved wooden interior, a tall, verdigris-coated spire and an ornate clock from 1680 – the oldest in Tallinn.
Contrasting sharply is the late Gothic St Nicholas’s Church (Niguliste kirik), south-west of Raekoja plats. It now serves as a museumof church art, including medieval burial stones and the haunting Danse Macabre (“Dance With Death”) by Bernt Notke.

Instantly loveable, Helsinki is remarkably different from the other Scandinavian capitals, and closer both in mood and appearance to the major cities of Northern Europe.

Today, cruisers will find a youthful buzz on the streets, where the boulevards, outdoor cafés and trendyrestaurants are crowded with Finns taking full advantage of the short summer.
Following a devastating fire in 1808, and the city’s designation as Finland’s capital in 1812, Helsinki was totally rebuilt in a style befitting its new status: a grid of wide streetsand Neoclassical brick buildings modelled on the then Russian capital, St Petersburg.
Esplanadi, a wide, tree-lined boulevard across a mishmash of tramlines from the harbour, where your MSC cruise ship awaits your return, is Helsinki at its most charming. At its eastern end, the City Museum at Sofiankatu 4 offers a record of 450 years of Helsinki life in an impressive permanent exhibition called “Helsinki Horizons”.
To the north is Senate Square (Senattintori), dominated by the exquisite form of the Tuomiokirkko (Cathedral). After the elegance of the exterior, the spartan Lutheran interior comes as a disappointment; more impressive is the gloomily atmospheric crypt, now often used for exhibitions. About 50km east of Helsinki, Porvoo, one of the oldest towns on the south coast and one of Finland’s most charming, is just waiting to be discovered on an MSC Northern Europe excursion.
Its narrow cobbled streets, lined by small colourful wooden buildings, give a sense of Finnish life before the capital’s bold squares and Neoclassical geometry. The old town is built around the hill on the other side of Mannerheimkatu, crowned by the fifteenth-century Tuomiokirkko, where Alexander I proclaimed Finland a Russian Grand Duchy and convened the first Finnish Diet.

Without a doubt Stockholm is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and a vacation in Sweden with an MSC cruise will prove it.

Built on no fewer than fourteen islands, where the fresh water of Lake Mälaren meets the brackish Baltic Sea, clean air and open space are in plentiful supply here. An MSC cruise of Northern Europe will give you the opportunity to appreciate its port front, reach the Baltic Sea and experience the atmospheres with a tour of the town where broad boulevards lined with elegant buildings are reflected in the deep blue water, and rows of painted wooden houseboats bob gently alongside the cobbled waterfront.
But Stockholm is also a hi-tech metropolis, as you will find out on your excursion on land during your cruise, with futuristic skyscrapers and a bustling commercial heart. The old town, Gamla Stan, is a district with cobbled streets and narrow alleyways huddled together on a triangular-shaped island.
Today the area is an atmospheric mixture of buildings surrounded on all sides by a latticework of medieval lanes and alleyways. The district of Norrmalm swaps tradition for a thoroughly contemporary feel: this is downtown Stockholm where you’ll find shopping malls, huge department stores and conspicuous, showy wealth. In the green island of Djurgården you can see an extraordinary 17th century warship, the Vasa, rescued and preserved after sinking in Stockholm harbour.
Cross Norrbron or Riksbron from the Riksdagshuset and up rears the most distinctive monumental building in Stockholm, Kungliga Slottet – a low, square, yellowy-brown construction, with two arms that stretch down towards the water. It’s uniform and sombre outside, but with a magnificent Rococo interior that’s a swirl of staterooms and museums.
Itssheer size is quite overwhelming: you should not miss the Royal Apartments and the Treasure Room. The former are used for royal receptions and the second keeps a collection of crowns studded with precious stones.

Arriving on your MSC Cruise of Northern Europe, you will have the chance to visit Kiel, an expanding urban centre on the shores of the Baltic Sea.

Kiel became the Imperial military port of Germany in 1871 and, when its canal was opened to connect the Baltic and the North Seas in 1895, the town began to control the largest artificial waterway in the world.
Kiel is the ideal location for a relaxing vacation in Germany with an MSC cruise: it is simple and quiet, even during the Kieler Woche international regatta, an event not to be missed by sailing enthusiasts. The few city museums can be visited in one morning, however, if you want to get acquainted with Kiel you cannot ignore its waterways, to which the town is indissolubly bound: they can be visited by taking the Kiellinie footpath or taking a cruise along the Kieler Förde and along the canal.
A spacious promenade along the pier will give you the chance to admire a variety of vessels of all sorts, amongst which the dinghies of the sailing school and, from the wet dock in front, the best view one can get of Kiel. 6 km south-west of the centre, in Molfsee, where we find the Schleswig-Holsteinisches Freilichtmuseum.
This open air museum shows about seventy traditional buildings taken from the Lande and assembled in miniature villages: the colonial houses still maintain the original furniture – outstanding beds sleeping the entire family in order to keep warm in the freezing winters.
While on vacation in Kiel with your MSC Cruise, an excursion will take you to Lubecca, one of the few towns on the northern coasts of Europe that has kept its Medieval glory. For more than two centuries it has been one of the wealthiest and most powerful European cities. The wealth deriving from trade is best expressed through its architecture: from the oldest Rathaus in Germany to the churches with the tallest bell towers and the merchants’ mansions.

Vík í Mýrdal is a remote seafront village in south Iceland. It sits in the shadow of Mýrdalsjökull glacier, which covers the Katla volcano. Reyniskirkja is a wooden church dating to 1929. Reynisfjara beach has black pebbles, basalt columns and the Reynisdrangar offshore rock formations. The cliffs of Reynisfjall mountain are home to seabirds such as puffins. Just west, the Dyrhólaey peninsula has a large rock arch.

Molde is the most highly populated city in Norway which you can visit during your MSC cruise of Northern Europe.
When you get to the city centre, you could visit the Romsdal museum where there is a model of a part of town as it was before the second world war and in which there were 35 buildings built between the 16th and 19th centuries.
You can see for yourself on this vacation whether Norway has changed much or little! From Molde, a footpath takes you through the natural landscape to the panoramic viewpoint of Varden (407 metres a.s.l.) from where you can see the whole town and the splendid Romsdalsfjord. From Varden you have a full view of all 222 peaks, covered in snow all year round, that crown this area protected by UNESCO as a world heritage site.
If you want to reach one of the most beautiful and wild settings found in these latitudes, during your MSC cruise, you can climb up Mount Romsdalseggen. The view is breath taking: mountains, waterfalls and rivers will appear in front of your eyes at every turn of direction; in order to allow everyone to take this excursion, different routes have been organized for both experts and families. And don’t miss the troll references: like the Trollstigen mountain road, one of the most popular routes amongst visitors or the majestic peaks and the Stigfossen Falls that seem to irrigate the Isterdalen valley.
Half way between Trollstigen and the centre of Valldal, stop in Gudbrandsjuvet, a spectacular group of maelstroms about 5 metres wide and 20 metres deep that takes its name from the legendary outlaw who dived into it with the woman he had just kidnapped. Finally you reach the Face of the Troll, the largest vertical escarpment in Europe: 1,800 metres high to admire from the best viewpoint and picnic area not far from Åndalsnes.

Bergen’s maritime tradition is age old and your MSC Cruise of Northern Europe will lay anchor in a setting which exudes history.
An excursion on land will give you the opportunity to visit the Hanseatic quarter, where you find the oldest buildings in Bergen, built along the Bryggen docks, one of the most active and lively parts of town. Included by UNESCO amongst the world heritage sites, this quarter has preserved the old buildings of the port, and is, with its narrow alleys and dark, open galleries, one of the best preserved Medieval boroughs of the country.

A vacation in Norway with an MSC cruise will give you the opportunity to explore this fascinating land. A visit to the Hanseatic Museum and the Schøtstuene, the merchant navy league assembly will help you get to better know this intriguing town.
Håkon Hall in the royal palace built by King Håkon Håkonsson in the mid-14th century and the adjacent Rosenkrantz tower (1270) reflect to this day the power of the Hanseatic League in the Middle Ages. All this can be admired also from above with a ride on the Fløibanen funicular, that takes you up to the peaks of Mount Fløyen, from which it is worth walking down on foot: after crossing landscapes of rare beauty you will find yourself in the lively bustle of the fish market. You can take a walk amidst the wooden homes built on the side of the hill and along the long smau, the narrow passages typical of Bergen.
Take time to visit the original wooden church of Fantoft, built in 1150 but transferred here only in 1882. Along the shores of Lake Lille Lungegårdsvann you find many art galleries and a museum with a collection of paintings by Edward Munch. In Troldhaugen instead, there is the museum-home of the most famous Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg, who worked and lived here in a small cottage on Lake Nordås.

Attractive and friendly, Stavanger offers visitors arriving on an MSC cruise a variety of activities. Starting from a visit to the town itself, that has a centre full of shops, narrow streets climbing up the hill and an attractive cathedral.

You should walk around the old part of town facing the sea where your cruise ship will be anchored. In Stavanger you can enjoy visiting museums. Amongst the most interesting area the oil museum, the canning museum, the Rogaland art museum or the children’s museum.
Take a stroll in the environs of Stavanger instead to explore the 23 iron figures that form the “Broken Column” a sculpture by Antony Gormley. In Hafrsfjord look for the three swords in the rock, a monument celebrating the Vikings’ battle of 872 A.D. led by King Harald I. Nearby is the Jærmuseet science centre, elected the “best museum in Norway” in 2009. But the region of Stavanger is known especially for its fjords and in particular the Lysefjord.
The mountain walls drop almost a thousand metres vertically along the 42 kilometres of coast, for that is the depth of the sea in this narrow passage. An excursion on the waters is an experience you won’t forget. Also because from here one can admire one of the most famous attractions in Norway, the Preikestolen (the Pulpit), a rocky outcrop soaring 600 metres above the fjord. With an hour and half’s walk from the driveway you can reach this exceptional work of nature .
Another tourist attraction is Kjerag, a peak rising 1100 metres above sea level that dominates the Lysefjord, with its northern face plummeting into the sea. But it’s a little lower down, at about 980 metres that you find a natural masterpiece generated by the elements: the Kjeragbolten, a massive rock jammed between two rock faces.
The excursion takes up most of the day, but the awesome spectacle is worth the effort.

Arriving on your MSC Cruise of Northern Europe, you will have the chance to visit Kiel, an expanding urban centre on the shores of the Baltic Sea.

Kiel became the Imperial military port of Germany in 1871 and, when its canal was opened to connect the Baltic and the North Seas in 1895, the town began to control the largest artificial waterway in the world.
Kiel is the ideal location for a relaxing vacation in Germany with an MSC cruise: it is simple and quiet, even during the Kieler Woche international regatta, an event not to be missed by sailing enthusiasts. The few city museums can be visited in one morning, however, if you want to get acquainted with Kiel you cannot ignore its waterways, to which the town is indissolubly bound: they can be visited by taking the Kiellinie footpath or taking a cruise along the Kieler Förde and along the canal.
A spacious promenade along the pier will give you the chance to admire a variety of vessels of all sorts, amongst which the dinghies of the sailing school and, from the wet dock in front, the best view one can get of Kiel. 6 km south-west of the centre, in Molfsee, where we find the Schleswig-Holsteinisches Freilichtmuseum.
This open air museum shows about seventy traditional buildings taken from the Lande and assembled in miniature villages: the colonial houses still maintain the original furniture – outstanding beds sleeping the entire family in order to keep warm in the freezing winters.
While on vacation in Kiel with your MSC Cruise, an excursion will take you to Lubecca, one of the few towns on the northern coasts of Europe that has kept its Medieval glory. For more than two centuries it has been one of the wealthiest and most powerful European cities. The wealth deriving from trade is best expressed through its architecture: from the oldest Rathaus in Germany to the churches with the tallest bell towers and the merchants’ mansions.

Split by lakes and surrounded by sea, an energetic and hip waterside vibe permeates Copenhagen, one of Northern Europe’s most user-friendly (and trendy) capitals.
Copenhagen city centre is waiting to be enjoyed on an MSC Northern Europe cruise excursion. It’s a welcoming, compact city with a centre largely given over to pedestrians (and cyclists) and an emphasis by day on café culture and top-notch museums.The historic core of the city is Slotsholmen, originally the site of the twelfth-centurycastle and now home to the huge Christiansborg complex.
Just across the Slotsholmen Kanal to the north is the medieval maze of Indre By (“inner city”), while to the south the island of Christianshavn is adorned with cutting-edge architecture in addition to the alternative enclave of Christiania.
North-east of Indre By are the royal quarters of KongensHave and Frederiksstaden, while to the west the expansive Rådhuspladsen leads via Tivoli Gardens to Central Station and the hotspots of Vesterbro and Nørrebro. Just off hectic Vesterbrogade outside the station is Copenhagen’s most famous attraction, Tivoli, an entertaining mixture of landscaped gardens, outdoor concerts and fairground rides.
A shore excursion on your MSC Northern Europe cruise can be the opportunity to discover Helsingør’s Kronborg Castle too. The present castle dates from the sixteenth century when it jutted into the sound as a formidable warning to passing ships not to consider dodging the toll, and it remains a grand affair, enhanced immeasurably by its setting; the interior, particularly the royal chapel, is spectacularly ornate.
Beneath the castle are the casemates, gloomy cavernous rooms that served as soldiers’ quarters during times of war.