THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES

Norway: a mountainous spine of a country bordered by Sweden, Finland & Russia to the East and the sea with a raw, jagged 16,000 mile coastline to the West. Indented by Fjords, coursed by valleys, laid with lakes and with Skerries and Islands randomly littering the sea as if carelessly cast aside by some quixotic Nordic God. Above the Arctic Circle endless days under the Midnight Sun & Black Nights illuminated by the Northern Lights.

Parked in mid Atlantic, Iceland is like a geological visitor centre without the plastic. At every turn there are fumaroles, geysers, waterfalls, rhyolite mountains, rift valleys, calderas, andesite lava fields, glaciers, black sand beaches, glacial lagoons, pseudo-craters, moraine out wash plains, fjords, melt water rivers and more. And for a bit of variety each quadrant of the island is different one from the other!

Stretching from Skane in the south, where the country practically touches Denmark, to the apex of the Scania peninsula, Sweden is a pastoral tapestry studded with elegant cities. Carefully manicured fields gradually give way to birch and pine forests, the skerried west coast contrasts with the Stockholm Archipelago, and either side of the country, Goteborg & Stockholm vie with each other for style, chic and culinary kudos.

SAuomi: Sculpted by the Ice Age into the Land of Forests & Lakes, Suomi is the surprise that never stops surprising. Vast pine & birch landscapes interwoven with Towns and Cities handing down their Swedish & Russian legacies. And beyond Ostrobothnia and the Arctic Circle, lies Sapmi (Lapland) with its Rolling Fjells and Arboreal Forests that are Winter Playgrounds and where, in Korvantunturi, you'll find the legendary home of Father Christmas.

Home of the Vikings and the birthplace of the King of Fairytale writers, much of Danmark is a Fairytale itself. This, the oldest of European Kingdoms, stretches over the Jutland Peninsula and 1431(sic) islands including Funen and Sjealland on which sits Kobenhavn: a City State all of its own. The Little Mermaid, despite being decapitated twice, having her arms sawn off and being sung to by Danny Kaye, remains the City and the Country's most enduring symbol.