Northern Europe from Southampton

Despite its pummelling by the Luftwaffe and some disastrous postwar urban sprawl, the thousand-year-old city of Southampton has retained some of its medieval charm in parts and reinvented itself as a twenty-first century shopping centre in others, with the giant glass-and-steel West Quay as its focus.

Core of the modern town is the Civic Centre, a short walk east of the train station and home to the excellent Southampton City Art Gallery that’s particularly strong on contemporary British artists. The Western Esplanade runs alongside the best remaining bits of the old city walls.
Rebuilt after a French attack in 1338, they incorporate God’s House Tower, at the southern end of the old town in Winkle Street, which currently houses the Museum of Archaeology. Best preserved of the city’s seven gates is Bargate, at the opposite end of the old town, at the head of the High Street; it’s an elaborate structure, cluttered with lions, classical figures and defensive apertures. A shore excursion on your MSC Northern Europe cruise from Southampton can be the opportunity to discover the capital of England, London.
For the visitor, London is a thrilling place. Monuments from the capital’s glorious past are everywhere, from medieval banqueting halls and the great churches of Christopher Wren to the eclectic Victorian architecture of the triumphalist British Empire. You can relax in the city’s quiet Georgian squares, explore the narrow alleyways of the City of London, wander along the riverside walks, and uncover the quirks of what is still identifiably a collection of villages.
The capital’s great historical landmarks – Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London and so on – draw in millions of tourists every year.

Lerwick, the port where your MSC cruise ship awaits your return, is very much the focus of Shetland’s commercial life.

All year, its sheltered harbour is busy with ferries and fishing boats, as well as specialized craft including oil-rig supply, seismic survey and naval vessels from all round the North Sea. In summer, the quayside comes alive with visiting yachts, cruise liners, historic vessels such as the restored Swan and the occasional tall ship.
Behind the old harbour is the compact town centre, made up of one long main street, flagstone-clad Commercial Street, whose narrow, winding form, set back one block from the Esplanade, provides shelter from the elements even on the worst days. From here, narrow lanes, known as closses, rise westwards to the late Victorian new town. The northern end of Commercial Street is marked by the towering walls of Fort Charlotte, begun for Charles II in 1665, burnt down by the Dutch fleet in August 1673, and repaired and named in honour of George III’s queen in the 1780s.
Exhibits at the Shetland Museum, in a wonderful purpose-built waterfront building, include replicas of a hoard of Pictish silver found locally, the Monks Stone, thought to show the arrival of Christianity in Shetland, and a block of butter, tax payment for the King of Norway, found preserved in a peat bog.
MSC Northern Europe cruises also offer excursions to Scalloway, once the capital of Shetland, which however waned in importance throughout the eighteenth century as Lerwick grew. Nowadays, Scalloway is fairly sleepy, though its harbour is busy enough.
The town is dominated by the imposing shell of Scalloway Castle, a classic fortified tower house built with forced labour in 1600 by the infamous Earl Patrick Stewart, who held court in the castle and gained a reputation for cruelty and corruption.

Skjolden is a village in the municipality of Luster in Vestland county, Norway. It is located at the end of the Lustrafjorden, a branch of the Sognefjorden.

Nordfjordeid is the administrative centre of the municipality of Stad in Vestland county, western Norway. It is located at the end of the Eidsfjorden, an arm off of the main Nordfjorden, west of the large lake Hornindalsvatnet.

Despite its pummelling by the Luftwaffe and some disastrous postwar urban sprawl, the thousand-year-old city of Southampton has retained some of its medieval charm in parts and reinvented itself as a twenty-first century shopping centre in others, with the giant glass-and-steel West Quay as its focus.

Core of the modern town is the Civic Centre, a short walk east of the train station and home to the excellent Southampton City Art Gallery that’s particularly strong on contemporary British artists. The Western Esplanade runs alongside the best remaining bits of the old city walls.
Rebuilt after a French attack in 1338, they incorporate God’s House Tower, at the southern end of the old town in Winkle Street, which currently houses the Museum of Archaeology. Best preserved of the city’s seven gates is Bargate, at the opposite end of the old town, at the head of the High Street; it’s an elaborate structure, cluttered with lions, classical figures and defensive apertures. A shore excursion on your MSC Northern Europe cruise from Southampton can be the opportunity to discover the capital of England, London.
For the visitor, London is a thrilling place. Monuments from the capital’s glorious past are everywhere, from medieval banqueting halls and the great churches of Christopher Wren to the eclectic Victorian architecture of the triumphalist British Empire. You can relax in the city’s quiet Georgian squares, explore the narrow alleyways of the City of London, wander along the riverside walks, and uncover the quirks of what is still identifiably a collection of villages.
The capital’s great historical landmarks – Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London and so on – draw in millions of tourists every year.