Norway’s Viking heritage comes vividly to life on Bygdøy Peninsula at the Viking Ship Museum. Star exhibits include three remarkably preserved ships, Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune, found in royal burial mounds in the Oslo area.
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The Bacardi Building is one of Havana’s principal landmarks, standing on the western edge of the city’s historical center. Its architect originally won the international competition for its construction with a Neo-Renaissance proposal, but after visiting the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris he completely reworked his design into an extravaganza of Art Deco style. The facade of the twelve-story building is lavishly decorated with red Bavarian granite. The upper part of the building is faced with glazed terra-cotta reliefs of geometric patterns, flowers and female nudes. Photo by: Almonddew
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Surrounded by 7 mountains, Bergen is an attractive town on the west coast of Norway. It is the ideal starting point for fjord tours and fjord cruises. The world famous waterfront – Bryggen with its unique architecture is listed by UNESCO as one of the world’s most significant examples of the history and culture of a medieval settlement. Today, Bryggen is a fascinating place of active workshops. Many of the remaining 58 buildings are now used as artists’ studios where painters, weavers and craftsmen produce fine-quality, original items.
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The Faroes are a group of 18 hauntingly beautiful islands, situated between Iceland and Norway. The archipelago covers a total area of 1,399 sq km and has a gentle warmed by the Gulf Stream. The scenery is amazing, rugged mountains up to 880 m high are thickly carpeted with impossibly green grass, incised everywhere by waterfalls, rivers and fjords. Extraordinary skies constantly transform the landscape. Photo by: hlemmur
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The Svalbard Archipelago lies north than Alaska and is northernmost part of the kingdom of Norway, lying about half way to North Pole. There are three large islands in the Svalbard Archipelago – Spitzbergen, Nordaustlandet and Edgeoya and the Gulf Stream current sink close to them. The islands are rugged and desolate, with around 60 per cent of the land covered with glaciation. Photo by: Paul Zizka
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Lying just inside the Arctic Circle west of Norway are the Lofoten Islands, a chain of fabulous mountainous islands with wooded hillsides and lovely white sandy bays. There are five main islands in the group: Austvagoy, Gimsoya, Vestvagoy, Flakstadoya and Moskenesoya and three smaller ones. Although the islands are so far north, they enjoy a fairly mild climate due to the Gulf Stream. Photo by: joepvanwyk
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Fjords are found only in high latitudes, in the mountainous western coast of Norway, where glaciers are fed or are fed by heavy snowfalls, down to the sea in ancient river valleys or along faults. For the rock glacier followed by sinking land and rising sea levels, leading to flooding of the valleys. In some cases, deepening valleys and glaciers lasted below sea level. Some fjords coasts are densely dismembered to narrow and deep cross straits, which are very convenient inland waterways communications.
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