Capitals of the North: Our 2017 Trafalgar Tour
In September 2017, we joined Trafalgar’s 13-day Capitals of the North tour, travelling from Copenhagen through Stockholm and Helsinki before continuing into Russia: St. Petersburg, Novgorod and Moscow. Four countries, six main stops, and a very different city waiting at each one.
This was the Denmark–Sweden–Finland–Russia version of Capitals of the North. We did not visit Oslo. Some later itineraries use the same name for a longer route through Norway, so the version matters if you are comparing old trip reports.
Our route through the north.
Copenhagen → Stockholm → Helsinki → St. Petersburg → Novgorod → Moscow. The map follows our confirmed stops; connecting lines show their sequence rather than exact roads or ferry tracks.
Denmark · Day 1: Copenhagen start
Sweden · Stockholm
Finland · Helsinki
Russia · Through Day 13
Our tour began on 17 September and ended on 29 September 2017. The intermediate stops are grouped by country rather than assigned unverified daily schedules.
Denmark · Copenhagen
Where the tour began.
Copenhagen was our introduction to the trip. Our short film captures that first stop, which we described at the time as brief enough to leave us wanting to return.
We visited the Little Mermaid, and our photos also take us beyond the city to Frederiksborg Castle. The chapel’s detailed interior was one of the things we chose to share afterwards. For anyone putting together a Copenhagen stay, it is a useful reminder to leave room for an excursion outside the centre.
We also photographed Carlsberg along the way. Our caption wondered whether Copenhagen could ever run out of beer. Evidently, important cultural research was happening.
Watch our travel film
Copenhagen on film.
1:24 · Filmed in 2017
Sweden · Stockholm
Golden mosaics and an ice throne.
Stockholm came next. Our City Hall visit took us into the Golden Hall, whose glittering mosaic walls made it into our later photo posts. We also shared the city’s streets, the Royal Dramatic Theatre and a recommendation to visit the Nobel Museum.
There was an Icebar stop too, complete with drinks and an ice-sculpted version of the Iron Throne. A rather different kind of royal seat from the ones we would encounter in Russia.
Our Stockholm film is a quick look at the city from this trip. These films were uploaded in March 2019; the journey itself was in 2017.
Watch our travel film
Stockholm on film.
1:25 · Filmed in 2017
Finland · Helsinki
A short stop by the Baltic.
Helsinki was our last capital before crossing into Russia. Our photos include the cathedral above Senate Square, time by the harbour and a bridge decorated with love locks.
We also visited the Sibelius Monument, with its striking cluster of metal pipes. Between the waterfront, Senate Square and that sculpture, our posts capture several sides of a short Helsinki stay.
A small correction to our old video: its YouTube title says Insight Vacations. This was our Trafalgar Capitals of the North trip, as confirmed by the original booking.
Watch our travel film
Helsinki on film.
2:10 · Filmed in 2017
Russia · St. Petersburg
Palaces, fountains and gilded rooms.
St. Petersburg began the Russian part of our route. Our photos from this stop include the Hermitage and Winter Palace, St. Isaac’s Cathedral and the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood.
We also visited Catherine Palace and walked through its gilded Grand Hall. Outside the city, Peterhof gave us a completely different setting: gardens, fountains and the palace rising behind them. The sunlit Grand Cascade photograph at the top of this story comes from that visit.
Those posts are a helpful record of what we actually saw, but they do not establish which visits were included in the base tour and which were optional. We have kept that distinction open rather than treating every palace as an inclusion.
Watch our travel film
St. Petersburg on film.
2:42 · Filmed in 2017
Swipe through our photos, or tap a photo to see it in full.
Russia · Veliky Novgorod
A family dinner, live music and a story of survival.
Between St. Petersburg and Moscow, we stopped in Veliky Novgorod. Here we joined a paid excursion for dinner prepared by a local family. They cooked local cuisine and played traditional music live for us—a chance to spend an evening with people who called this place home.
Our photograph with the family brings that evening back: traditional dress, colourful shawls, and Francis holding one of the instruments. This was a separately paid experience on our trip.
We also saw Saint Sophia Cathedral and visited the Novgorod museum-reserve complex in the Kremlin. The huge historic bells displayed outside the cathedral’s belfry stayed in our memory, along with the story of how they survived the war.
That memory has a real historical basis. During World War II, some of the bells were buried beside the Volkhov River; others sank when an evacuation barge was attacked in 1941. They were recovered after Novgorod’s liberation in 1944. Their survival is part of the city’s heritage, although we have not identified a formal “war-survival memorial” designation for the particular bell in our photo.
Historical context: the Novgorod Museum-Reserve’s account of the bells during the war and a 2016 interview with Saint Sophia’s bell-ringer.
Swipe through our photos, or tap a photo to see it in full.
Russia · Moscow · Day 13: tour finish
Red Square, the Kremlin and the Metro.
Moscow was the final stop of our 13-day tour. We shared photographs from Red Square, the colourful exterior of St. Basil’s Cathedral and the Cathedral of the Annunciation inside the Kremlin.
Our records also include a walk through GUM and time waiting for a train in the Moscow Metro. It was not just the buildings above ground that caught our camera’s attention.
Other posts show Moscow State University, a war memorial and the Radisson Royal building by the river. A photograph of a hotel is not proof that we stayed there, so we have left hotel names out of our trip facts.
Watch our travel film
Moscow on film.
3:35 · Filmed in 2017
Reading this as a trip-planning reference.
This is a record of our September 2017 journey. Use it to understand the route and see our films, while checking current transport, tour availability and entry requirements separately before making plans.
The key difference when searching for this tour is Oslo: it appears in a later 15-day version, but was not part of ours. Our original booking confirms 13 days from Copenhagen to Moscow, and the Trafalgar 2017 preview brochure lists the same four countries and Novgorod stop. For current offerings, start with Trafalgar.
Amazing Britain was a separate tour that followed this one. We will cover it in its own story.
