NO-FLY Nordic adventure

Want to avoid the airport? You can still explore Scandinavia on a cruise departing from the UK

- BEVERLY WATTS

Huddled together on a Nordic peninsula, Norway, Denmark and Sweden share an intertwined history dating to the Viking age. The coastal communities of Kristiansand, Copenhagen and Gothenburg retain strong seafaring links, and a cruise here from the UK provides a taster of each stop.

In all three Nordic cities, you'll find stunning modern architecture, interesting restaurants, and shops selling woollen knitwear, folklore trolls and wooden handicrafts.

Setting sail from Tilbury

Join a cruise at Tilbury in Essex, which is within reach of the M25. The Ambassador Cruise Line's London International Cruise Terminal is there, and it's where the imposing ship Ambience leaves from on this Nordic trip.

Arrive the night before and you can have a look round Tilbury, an important historic site where Queen Elizabeth I prepared to repel the Spanish Armada in 1588. Don't miss the Tilbury Fort - it's considered to be England's best example of a 17th-century bastioned fortress, looked after by English Heritage.

The right Ambience