Europe’s Baltic nations boast some of the continent’s most atmospheric Old Towns. Hanseatic homes and churches dot the cityscape of Tallinn, Estonia. The cobblestone streets of Stockholm’s Gamla Stan straddle one of the oldest inhabited islands of the city’s scenic archipelago. St. Petersburg, Russia’s sparkling jewel, hosts remarkably preserved palaces. The nations of the Baltic Sea were made for exploration, and Viking makes your discoveries all the more rewarding. Here are a few sample highlights you will enjoy on a Scandinavia cruise:

• Stockholm’s archipelago, the “Venice of Scandinavia”
• Neoclassical and Art Nouveau treasures of Helsinki
• St. Petersburg’s magnificent gilded architecture
• Tallinn’s red rooftops and slender steeples
• Brightly colored houses of Copenhagen’s Nyhavn district
• Picturesque wooden buildings hugging Bergen’s harbor
• Norway’s splendid vistas of fjords, glaciers and soaring peaks
• Breathtaking sculpted massifs of the Lofoten Islands
• Dazzling wintertime displays of the northern lights
• Extended daylight hours of the midnight sun