London, England. Morning arrival and welcome by a French-speaking local guide, then transfer to the hotel for the night.

Southampton, England: embarkation. Breakfast at the hotel and coach transfer to the port at 10:00 a.m. to board the Sky Princess. Departure at 4:00 p.m. (B, D)

At sea. A full day aboard the Sky Princess. All meals are served on board. (B, L, D)

Skagen, Denmark. Arrival at 9:00 a.m., departure at 6:00 p.m. At the northern tip of Denmark, where the Baltic meets the North Sea, Skagen is a fishing port whose maritime history goes back to the early Middle Ages. Its light drew painters from the middle of the nineteenth century, Michael and Anna Ancher and P. S. Krøyer among them. Yellow houses with red tile roofs, white picket fences, and at Grenen, the chance to stand with one foot in each sea. (B, L, D)

Copenhagen, Denmark. Arrival at 7:00 a.m., departure at 5:00 p.m. Founded in the twelfth century on a series of islands and islets, the city is threaded with canals and keeps a body of late Renaissance and rococo architecture. Andersen's Little Mermaid, the old harbour of Nyhavn and its five-hundred-year-old gabled houses, the shops on Strøget, the rococo palaces of Amalienborg and the Tivoli gardens. (B, L, D)

Berlin (Warnemünde), Germany. Arrival at 8:00 a.m., departure at 11:00 p.m. Warnemünde, a former fishing village that became a seaside resort in the nineteenth century, guards the entrance to the port of Rostock, one of the medieval Hanseatic League cities, and opens Mecklenburg. From there, Berlin and its restored Reichstag under its glass dome, the Brandenburg Gate, Museum Island and the old Cold War landmarks. (B, L, D)

At sea. A full day aboard the Sky Princess. All meals are served on board. (B, L, D)

Tallinn, Estonia. Arrival at 10:00 a.m., departure at 9:00 p.m. Estonia was ruled by the Teutonic knights, Polish princes and Russian tsars, then by the Soviet empire for fifty-one years, until the Baltic republics gained independence in 1991. The country kept the Latin alphabet and the Catholic and Protestant faiths. A former Hanseatic League city, Tallinn is the country's political, commercial and cultural centre. (B, L, D)

Helsinki, Finland. Arrival at 7:00 a.m., departure at 5:00 p.m. Nicknamed the Daughter of the Baltic, the Finnish capital lines up neoclassical buildings from the tsarist period, which began in 1809, and remarkable modern architecture along broad boulevards punctuated by squares and parks. The country produced the composer Sibelius and the architects Eliel and Eero Saarinen and Alvar Aalto. Around 616,000 inhabitants. (B, L, D)

Stockholm, Sweden. Arrival at 9:00 a.m. Founded seven centuries ago on the island of Gamla Stan, the city now spreads over fourteen islands linked by bays, canals and inlets. Weathered copper roofs, towers, spires and domes watch over the old town. The ship stays in port overnight. (B, L, D)

Stockholm, Sweden. A second day in port, departure at 2:00 p.m. One more morning for Sweden's artistic and cultural centre, its museums and its waterside districts. (B, L, D)

Visby, Sweden. Arrival at 8:00 a.m., departure at 5:00 p.m. Thirteenth-century walls surround the former Viking settlement, recognised by UNESCO as the best-preserved medieval trading centre in Northern Europe. Twenty thousand inhabitants, forts, churches and winding streets. The Gotlands Fornsal museum covers eight thousand years of the island's history, and beyond the walls, the Hanseatic harbour of Almedalen, the Powder Tower, the Maiden's Tower and the twelfth-century St Mary's Church. (B, L, D)

At sea. A full day aboard the Sky Princess. All meals are served on board. (B, L, D)

Kristiansand, Norway. Arrival at 8:00 a.m., departure at 6:00 p.m. On Norway's southern coast, wooded hills run down to the sea and wooden houses catch the light. History, steam locomotives, village charm and sea cliffs all lie within walking distance of the piers. (B, L, D)

At sea. A full day aboard the Sky Princess. All meals are served on board. (B, L, D)

Southampton, England: disembarkation. Arrival at 7:00 a.m. Early morning disembarkation and transfer to the London airport for the return flight to Montreal. (B)