Northern Europe

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[+] Countries
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Understand
Get In
[+] Get around
- By ferry
- By train
See
Do
Sleep
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Get out

Northern Europe is a European region in the North of the Baltic Sea.

Northern Europe region

[edit] Countries

Northern Europe comprises

[edit] Other territories

[edit] Cities

[edit] Understand

The terms Nordic countries and Scandinavia refer to different regions in Northern Europe. The Nordic countries are Sweden, Norway and Denmark, Finland, Iceland and sometimes the Faroe Islands and Greenland, whereas Scandinavia, in geographic, linguistic, anthropological, political and historical terms, refers to Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

The name Scandinavia comes from the Skandage body of water that lies sandwiched between Norway, Sweden, and the Jutland peninsula of Denmark. The culture of Scandinavian countries are relatively similar, and the languages are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Where the written word is concerned, Danish and Norwegian are approximately 63% identical, differing roughly to the same extent as Scottish & Irish Gaelic. With regard to conversational similarity, the two are still quite close but share a number of notable differences. A Germanic ear untrained in any Scandinavian language can sometimes distinguish with the two. The Scandinavian languages are North Germanic, and strongly influenced by Low Saxon (Ancient German).

Iceland was a Norwegian and later Danish colony until 1944. Icelandic was originally of the same root as the other four languages, seeing as it derived from Old Norse, but the island's seclusion resulted in its isolation and, as a result, it hasn't changed profoundly from the 13th century. The spoken language and its written counterpart are unintelligible to other Scandinavians, but not to the Faroese, who speak a variant of this language that is also unintelligible to Scandinavians with its own lexical base.

Finnish, the native language of Finland, belongs to the Finno-Ugric family and is entirely unrelated to the Scandinavian languages. However, the state and some coastal municipalities are officially bilingual due to a 5.5% Swedish-speaking minority.

[edit] Get In

[edit] Get around

[edit] By ferry

Major coastal cities of the Baltic Sea are connected with ferry lines; e.g. Turku-Stockholm and Helsinki-Tallinn. Many of the ferries are large and quite elaborate. Additionally, travelling among the straits in Denmark is also workable by way of ferry.

[edit] By train

The ScanRail pass offers unlimited train travel in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.No Longer available ended 2007

Prices in 2005 Validity Youth Adult Senior Child 5 days in 2 months 160 € 230 € 204 € 115 € 10 days in 2 months 215 € 308 € 274 € 154 € 21 consecutive days 249 € 358 € 316 € 179 €

The 5-day Flexipass is valid for 15 days if purchased within certain Nordic regions. Outside the Nordic countries, only a 10-day version is available. In addition to free travel in the region, you can also take night trains to/from Berlin (Germany) with the pass.