Filleted by canals reflecting arching bridges and gabled rooflines, Amsterdam beguiles you wherever you wander. Like Venice, Amsterdam is easy to explore by canal, and you can even find hop-on, hop-off tours to take you to some of the best sights. Gaze in awe at Rembrandt’s Night Watch at the Rijksmuseum, or let Van Gogh’s sunflowers warm your soul. See how diamonds are cut, sniff the scents of millions of blossoms at the flower market or Keukenhof Gardens or explore a replica of a Dutch East India ship at the Maritime Museum.
Antwerp’s Cathedral of Our Lady, the loftiest in the Low Countries, contains four spectacular biblical scenes painted by Pieter Paul Rubens. Rubens is just one of a least a dozen great 16th century Flemish painters who worked in Antwerp, including Frans Hals, Jan and Pieter Breughel, and Anthony Van Dyke. Antwerp’s wealth brought them here. The lovely guild houses and town hall in Market Square attest to the city’s importance during the Golden Age – it once accounted for 40% of the world’s trade. Today the city on the River Scheldt is more famous for its diamonds and designers.
Arendal is a sailor’s town, as you will immediately guess when you go ashore. The Tyholmen or old district was originally an island and its elegant timber buildings dating from the 19th century surround the yacht-filled Pollen, or harbour. The Town Hall is a 3-story wooden mansion that belonged to a ship owner. And offshore lies the island of Merdø, with its 1736 sea captain’s home. A short trip south takes you to Grimstad, where Henrik Ibsen lived before becoming Norway’s most famous playwright.
Lying in the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, the North Sea Frisian island of Borkum has a relatively mild climate. Which is why many Germans consider it their favorite close-by getaway. Borkum has been the site of health resorts since the 1860’s, when its soothing muds and vivifying waters were purported to heal many ills. Seals bask on the almost endless beaches along with human bathers - sometimes equally au naturel.
When the British bombed Copenhagen to oblivion in 1801 and 1807, no one thought the city could survive. But it’s a testament to the hearty Danes that Copenhagen is today one of the loveliest and liveliest cities in Europe. Walk the Strøget (a pedestrian only area of endless charms), gaze at the twinkling lights and flower-filled gardens of Tivoli, or wander the corridors of Christansborg Palace. A few miles away lie Kronborg, the haunt of Hamlet’s father in Helsingør (Elsinore) and the water-ringed castle of Frederiksborg in Hillerød.
Esbjerg isn’t very old, dating from the 1880’s, but the town looks like its founders launched an elaborate architectural fantasy. What you notice first are its incredible red brick buildings. Gabled, arched, quoined, crenellated and decorated to a fare-thee-well. Some remind you of Venetian palazzos, others of Tuscan or Moorish castles. Equally fanciful is the very modern sculpture called “Man Meets the Sea” that dominates the beach promenade - Easter Island in the North Sea!
Nestled at the end of the winding Flensburg Fjord, the steeples and masts of sailboats in Flensburg’s harbour offer a picturesque scene that belies its past. For it was here in 1945 that Admiral Karl Dönitz made Flensborg the seat of Germany’s wartime government after Hitler committed suicide in Berlin. Today, Flensburg is a happier place, with many Danes coming over the border (only a couple kilometers away) to shop, dine and partake of Flensburg’s famous brew, Flensberger Pilsener.
Grandly overlooking the riverfront in Gdansk is the magnificent medieval crane that once unloaded cargoes when this was a Hanseatic League port. It’s an appropriate visual for the city where Solidarity, the movement that freed Poland from communist rule, was born in its shipyards. The heart of Gdansk is an historic visual treat, replete with Renaissance and Baroque churches, gabled houses and tree-shaded streets. Its serene beauty veils a turbulent history of harsh rule by Teutonic Knights, Polish kings, Nazi and Soviet invaders and independence as a free state.