Cruise Itinerary

The city that launched the Beatles, Liverpool is still a hardworking docks town, offering a lively pub scene and a branch of London's Tate Gallery. Sample shore excursions: The Beatles; The Roman City of Chester.

Canada's oldest settlement is the gateway to the scenic wonders of New Brunswick, which remains remarkably unspoiled with 85 percent of the province still unsettled with vast expanses of forests, hills, streams, and a spectacular coastline dotted by historic and charming towns.

The capital of Nova Scotia and the largest city in Canada's Atlantic Provinces, Halifax was once Great Britain's major military bastion in North America. The beautifully restored waterfront buildings of Halifax's Historic Properties recall the city's centuries-old maritime heritage. Stroll the waterfront, and you may find Nova Scotia's floating ambassador, the schooner Bluenose II, tied up to Privateer's Wharf, just as old sailing ships have done for over 200 years. Halifax is also the gateway to Nova Scotia's stunning scenery, including famous Peggy's Cove, where surf-pounded granite cliffs and a solitary lighthouse create an unsurpassed scene of rugged natural beauty.

Red Bay is a fishing village in Labrador, notable as one of the most precious underwater archaeological sites in the Americas. Between 1530 and the early 17th century, it was a major Basque whaling area.

Located at the most northerly tip of Newfoundland, L'Anse aux Meadows is nestled near the fishing village of St. Anthony. It is the site of the first European settlement in the New World, approximately 500 years before Columbus' arrival. Other Norse groups had relocated from their homelands to the New World. In 1961, explorer and writer Helge Instad discovered a group of large mounds in the countryside. These mounds were excavated revealing the remains of a Norse settlement. This site became L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Park in 1977 and is noted on the UNESCO World Heritage List of important cultural properties. The site at L'Anse aux Meadows has been completely excavated allowing visitors to see the remains of the homes, a smithy, and various worksheds. The park's interpretive center displays Norse artifacts from the excavation which include iron rivets, a flywheel and the floorboard of a boat. Researchers still debate as to whether the site at L'Anse aux Meadows is Leif Eriksson's 'Vinland,' a lush, beautiful area where he settled in for the winter around the year 1000. Parks Canada will greet you on disembarking the ship and you may explore at leisure this first settlement of the New World.

Greenland’s capital boasts some 16,000 inhabitants. Although the town does not offer us any shore excursions, there are several attractions which guests may wish to visit. One is the roofed town market, where the products of the nearby sea and wilderness are for sale, including the meat of whales, seals, birds and fish. The Katuaq Cultural Center offers changing exhibitions. Especially worth a visit is the National Museum, which besides many historic objects, contains the quite famous 500-year old mummies recovered from Qilakitsoq. The nearby Museum of Art has works by both Inuit and Nordic artists. There is also an artisan’s center where guests may purchase locally produced works, and a collection of traditional houses.

Meaning the Great Plain this city enjoys unimpeded views of endless green fields and verdant slopes and explains why Erik the Red chose the name Greenland when he settled here in 985. To this day the ruins of the Norse era are clearly visible, as are the reconstructions of Erik's farmstead and Thjodhildur's Church. In the village of Igaliku lie the ruins of the Viking's Cathedral and the Episcopal Bishop's Farm.

Nanortalik means "place of bears" in Greenlandic. Summer visitors to this extraordinary - and extraordinarily isolated - port may spot polar bears on the offshore flow ice. Those offshore waters also teem with seals and Minke, humpback and fin whales. Ashore, brightly painted wooden houses cluster to a rocky peninsula in the harbor. Dramatic boulders dot the landscape, and mountains surround the port. (Nanortalik is well known to the world's elite rock climbers.) Ruined Viking farmsteads and ancient Inuit sites dot the surrounding countryside. The port was founded 1797 as a Danish whaling station. Today, Nanortalik is a fishing port, and many people are traditional seal hunters.

The patron saints of Reykjavik are fire and ice. Iceland is a land of volcanoes and glaciers, lava fields and green pastures, boiling thermal springs and ice-cold rivers teeming with salmon. This unspoiled demi-paradise is also home to a very old and sophisticated culture. The northernmost capital in the world, Reykjavik was founded in 874 when Ingolfur Arnarson threw wood pillars into the sea, vowing to settle where the pillars washed ashore. Today, Iceland is an international center of commerce and home to one of the most technologically sophisticated societies in the world. Reykjavik is the gateway to Iceland's natural wonders, which range from ice fields to thermal pools. The island is in a continual process of transformation much like its society, which blends Nordic tradition with sophisticated technology.

The city that launched the Beatles, Liverpool is still a hardworking docks town, offering a lively pub scene and a branch of London's Tate Gallery. Sample shore excursions: The Beatles; The Roman City of Chester.