Among the travellers were Ross Webster, chairman of Friends of the Yass Gorge, and his wife, Julie.

They spent the latter part of July and early August in awe of natural wonderlands and museums, as well as traversing the Baltic Sea.

The group of friends flew first to Dubai for a stopover before visiting the Czech Republic, Norway, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Russia.

The Websters’ first major activity was an electric-train tour along the Flam Line, a 20km railway journey between Myrdal and Flam in Aurland, Norway that consists of mountainsides, waterfalls and tunnels.

“It goes through high peaks and very hilly sections and heavy snow country. Just beautiful,” Mr Webster said.

Ms Webster described it as her highlight of the trip. “You just see the thousands of years of history across those peaks and valleys,” she said.

The couples then went by train back to Oslo where they flew to Copenhagen to tour the Baltic Sea via the Norwegian Getaway, a 326m-long cruise ship.

It was a seven-day cruise that went from Copenhagen to Tallinn, Estonia to Saint Petersburg, Russia. “The ports were so good, bloody magnificent. And the weather was brilliant the whole way, roughly six to 23 degrees Celsius,” he said.

Mr Webster also described the cruise as “calm”. “You didn’t even feel like you were on a ship anymore. I call it a ‘water-based palace’,” he said.

Once they disembarked at St Petersburg, the group spent three days visiting museums and palaces.

“The imperial palaces were the highlights, particularly about Nicholas the second,” Mr Webster said.

The final major site visit was Stockholm, Sweden where the Websters visited Vasa Museum.

There, they learnt more about the Vasa ship, a warship that capsized and sank in Stockholm in 1628.

“It sank in deep water and 350-odd years later, it was raised for display. The sea there isn’t saline and so the wood of the ship was preserved,” Mr Webster said.

As well, they also ducked into ABBA The Museum, which opened in 2013.

“We like their music and there was just thousands of people there,” he said.

Asked about how he would sum up the trip, he said “all those Scandinavian countries all beautiful”.

“If you ever get the opportunity, go visit them. They’re some of the most cleanest parts of the world,” he said.