mia9898

Hi all,

My boyfriend and I travelled to Iceland just over a year ago as part of our big Europe trip, and absolutely fell in love with both the natural landscape and culture. We are from Sydney, Australia and are travelling to Canada at the end of the year to celebrate his graduation. While in the northern part of the world, we are hoping to also add on Europe...but really don't know much about which destinations are best suited for us.

We are considering: Norway, Finland, Denmark and Sweden.

Our biggest priorities are:
- History (particularly modern history)
- Natural scenery and outdoor activities (e.g. we loved glacier hiking in Iceland)
- Christmas spirit!!
- Good food (I am coeliac and he is vegetarian so the more liberal the city in terms of diet the better - Iceland was also great in this regard)

We will probably have around 15-ish days in this part of the world, and really want to make the most of it. What do you think?

Thanks very much for your time,

M

Odin

All of the countries will have Christmas spirit, it's something they do well at the time of year when the days are short. I thought I'd mention the short days in winter as many on this board are fixated with it as if it impedes potential enjoyment of these countries in winter, rest assured, they have lights & are good at making dark evenings cosy. And yes, the further north you go, the less daylight there is and in some cases, none or little at all.

A very nice thing to observe whilst in Scandinavia is Santa Lucia day, which this year is 13 December. It really kicks off Christmas. At the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, they'll be open over Christmas. Skansen will have a winter market (Stockholm). There hasn't been much snow or cold temps in the areas of Scandinavia that I visit frequently (Copenhagen & south of Stockholm) during Christmas for the past few years, certainly nothing like the North American winters. Further north it will be different of course.

Sweden will have many winter activites especially in the north of the country, dog sledding, snow mobiles etc, same as Norway & Finland (which is not part of Scandinavia BTW).

jeffreycwuk

On Danish history, I strongly recommend Sønderborg and Flensburg (on the German side of the border.) Outside Sønderborg lies the battlefield of the Danish- Prussian war. As you all know, it fundamentally changed Denmark and redefined her identity.

There are some re enactment by actors and actresses.