NORWEGIAN FJORDS & ARCTIC WONDERS

Your voyage begins with a night at leisure in Hamburg before you board tomorrow. The Speicherstadt warehouse district – a UNESCO World Heritage Site of red-brick Gothic buildings laced with canals – is one of the most atmospheric quarters in Europe and easily explored on foot. The fish market at Altona is worth an early morning visit, and the St Pauli waterfront gives a sense of the maritime energy that has driven this city for centuries.

Today you embark on your cruise

Bergen announces itself with a sweep of wooden wharves, coloured facades and mountains rising on all sides. The Bryggen wharf – a UNESCO-listed row of Hanseatic merchant buildings dating to the 14th century – is the city’s most distinctive image and worth a proper wander through its narrow back passages and dark galleries. The Floibanen funicular climbs to the summit of Mount Floyen in minutes and delivers a panorama over the city and the surrounding fjords that frames the rest of the voyage perfectly.

Molde sits on the southern shore of the Romsdalsfjord with a backdrop of 222 named peaks, snow-covered year-round, that give the city its nickname – the Town of Roses and Mountains. The panoramic viewpoint at Varden, reached by a short walk above town, takes in the full sweep of the fjord and the mountain range beyond. Those with more energy can tackle the Romsdalseggen ridge, one of Norway’s great hiking routes, with waterfalls and river valleys visible at every turn.

Longyearbyen is one of the most remote inhabited places on earth – a former coal-mining settlement on the Svalbard archipelago, deep inside the Arctic Circle, where polar bears outnumber people and the landscape is one of tundra, glaciers and frozen fjords. The Svalbard Museum tells the story of both the coal industry and the extraordinary natural environment that surrounds it. Outside the settlement, the wilderness is genuine and vast – guided excursions run across the tundra in search of reindeer, Arctic foxes and, with luck, polar bears on the ice.

Honningsvag is the gateway to Nordkapp – the North Cape – a 307-metre cliff at the northernmost point of continental Europe where the Barents Sea meets the Arctic Ocean. The drive out to the cape is an experience in itself, across a stark plateau of tundra and Arctic light. At the top, the globe monument marks the point where Europe ends and the open ocean begins. In August the midnight sun is fading but the quality of light at this latitude remains extraordinary at any hour.

Tromso is the largest city in northern Norway and the most cosmopolitan stop on the Arctic leg of this voyage. The Arctic Cathedral – a striking 1965 structure of triangular glass and concrete that mirrors the surrounding peaks – is the city’s signature building. The Fjellheisen cable car climbs to 421 metres above the city for views across the islands and fjords that stretch in every direction. Tromso also holds the distinction of having the world’s northernmost botanical gardens, where fragile Arctic and sub-Arctic species grow in carefully managed conditions.

Leknes is the gateway to the Lofoten Islands, an archipelago of jagged peaks, deep fjords and tiny fishing villages that rises almost vertically from the Norwegian Sea. The landscape here is among the most dramatic in Europe – sharp mountains dropping straight to narrow straits, red and yellow rorbuer fishing cabins clustered at the water’s edge, and beaches of white sand that look improbable at this latitude. The village of Nusfjord is one of the best-preserved fishing villages in Norway. The light in the Lofotens in August is soft and extraordinary and photographers rarely leave disappointed.

Haugesund sits on the Karmsundet sound and traces its history back to the Viking Age – the burial mound of Harald Fairhair, the king credited with unifying Norway in the 9th century, stands just north of the city. The town centre is compact and pleasant, with a handsome Neo-Classical Town Hall and a lively waterfront. Haugesund is also the birthplace of Marilyn Monroe’s father, a fact the city commemorates with a bronze statue near the harbour – an unexpected footnote for such a quietly Norwegian town.

Your voyage concludes in Hamburg this morning. If time allows before your onward journey, the Elbphilharmonie concert hall on the waterfront is worth seeing even from the outside – one of the most striking pieces of contemporary architecture in Europe, and a fitting final image from a city that has always known how to build.