Planning

We began planning for this trip last year. Because we live in a warm climate, we thought it might be a good idea to get out of the heat for at least part of the summer. We usually take our vacations during the "off" season, but we felt this would be as good a time as any to see northern Europe. And since we have not been to Scandinavia, it seemed like the ideal opportunity.

We'll start off in Ireland -- first in Galway then Dublin. Next we'll head to London for a few days and then off to Stockholm Sweden to meet up with our Rick Steves tour of Scandinavia:

After ending in Bergen Norway, we fly back across the Baltic Sea to Estonia to meet up with our second Rick Steves tour which covers Tallinn Estonia, Helsinki Finland and St. Petersburg, Russia:

Then, we're on our own, again. We'll take the day train to Moscow where we'll spend five days. From Moscow, we'll fly back to Paris where we will "decompress" before returning home.