When visiting Scandinavia it’s good to know that Scandinavia is a geographic area in northern Europe that encompasses Denmark and the Scandinavian peninsula with Norway and Sweden, where Scandinavian languages are spoken.
Scandinavia
Scandinavia's first settlers came from two different people. One immigrated from the south, the other from the northeast. When mixed, Scandinavia gained the greatest genetic diversity in Europe for its time.
When visiting Scandinavia it’s also good to know that climate in Scandinavia is very mild for the latitudes.
This is mainly due to two factors: partly that the North Atlantic stream brings warm water from southern latitudes, and that the predominant west or southwest winds bring warm air from the west and southwest respectively.
When visitig Scandinavia winters in the south are normally very mild, compared to those of the corresponding latitudes, but the variations from the coast to the hinterland are very large.
The mildest are those on Norway’s west coast, where the average temperature in January is around 3.5 degrees Celsius, while in the northeast, the average temperature in January is around a minus 15 degrees Celsius, and in extreme cases the temperature in west wind protected areas in Upper Norland inland can reach temperatures down to minus 50 degrees Celsius.
When visiting Scandinavia in the summer, temperature differences are less and most of the peninsula has average temperatures between 16 and 18 plus degrees in July. The warmest is in western Denmark and Gothenburg with average temperatures around 20 degrees.
Did you know?
Sweden is not only famous for ABBA, Björn Borg and Volvo but also for developing the worlds’ most used massage technique- Classic Swedish Massage. For more specific information about the massage please visit The Massage School.
Visit Sweden
The country offers a wide range of natural, historical and cultural attractions and either if your interest lies in the outdoors or if you are more of a history buff, you will have your interest met.
Visit Norway
Norway is famous for its grand and beautiful natural sceneries with the mountains and fjords but Norway have a lot to offer when it comes to culture as well.
Visit Denmark
The smaller sibling of the three but with its own attractive features. Its flatness makes for a great place to plan a trip on a bicycle and its many beaches makes it an ideal summer vacation spot.
Quick facts:
Residents: aprox. 10 million Currency: Swedish krona (generally between 7-9 kronor per US dollar) rozigo
Visiting Scandinavia/Sweden
Area / size: aprox. 450 300 km2. Sweden is the 5th largest country in Europe to the surface. 75 per cent of the land area is covered by forests.
Sweden is unusually tight on lakes of different sizes. There are 267 570 lake and sea islands.
The Sami has the status of indigenous people and immigrated from the East for between 8000 and 5000 years ago. There are more than 17,000 Sami in Sweden
The monarchy:
Sweden is a constitutional monarchy with a king or ruling queen as the country’s head of state. Since 1544, Sweden is a heritage monarchy where the succession is regulated in order (Father to son). This came to include female succession in 1980 and Sweden’s upcoming regent becomes therefore a queen (Crown Princess Victoria).
Visiting Scandinavia/Norway
Area / size: aprox. 385 200 km2. Norway (including Svalbard and Jan Mayen) is slightly larger than Germany, but the Norwegian landscape is predominantly dominated by mountains and hilly terrain with prehistoric glaciers and varied topography.
The most eye-catching feature is the fjords; deep sea wrecks surrounded by steep sides and with a deeper threshold in the estuary.
The largest part of Scandinavia’s Sámi population lives in Norway.
The monarchy:
The Norwegian monarchy is one of the oldest of the present-day monarchies in the world and from the 9th century, the number of governors has reached more than 60 people.
Norway is a constitutional monarchy where the monarch (king / ruling queen) is the country’s head of state. The upcoming regent is Crown Prince Haakon.
Quick facts:
Residents: aprox. 5.3 million
Currency: Norwegian krone (aprox. 8 kroner per US dollar)
Quick facts:
Residents: aprox. 5, 8 million
Currency: Danish krone (aprox. 6,5 kroner per US dollar).
Visiting Scandinavia/Denmark
Area / size: aprox. 43 000 km2. The land is relatively flat with small heights where the mean height above sea level is 31 m and the highest natural point is Møllehøj measuring 170.86 m.
Denmark consists of 443 named islands resulting in a long coastal strip, 7314 km. A circle surrounding the whole of Denmark would have a perimeter of only 742 km.
Other characteristics that show the close connection between land and sea are that no place in Denmark is farther from the coast than 52 km. About 300 different bird species live in Denmark or visit Denmark for longer periods of the year.
The Faroe islands and Greenland is a part of the Danish Realm since 1397 so two of the minorities include the Inuit in Greenland and the Faroese on the Faroe Islands.
The monarchy:
Denmark is a constitutional monarchy where the country’s head of state is king or ruling queen appointed after a parliamentary assembly (Danish Legislative Assembly) laid down by law.
Denmark has been a monarchy so far back in time as there are written sources of the country’s history and between 1660 and 1848 there was an autocracy.
