Tourism in Norway

Already our last country to visit! We end our wonderful trip with Norway.

Norway is famous for its varied landscapes that extend across the Arctic Circle, its fjord-indented coastline, mountains, ski resorts, lakes and woods. Especially the fjord coastline, mountains and waterfall attract many tourists. It’s located in the north of Norway.

I will sum up a couple of cities that are worth visiting:

OSLO

The capital of Norway, situated near by the Fjord coastline. On this coastline you can take ‘Fjord cruise’ or a ‘Fjord tour’. When you are interested, you definitely have to look at this site: http://www.norwaynutshell.com/

Furthermore you can visit the Vigeland Sculpture Park, the Viking Ship Museum, the Munch Museum and Holmenkollen.

Top attratctions in Oslo:

• The Norwegian Opera & Ballet

A building made from marble and glass, located in Bjørvika. The Opera House is open to the public, and walking on the roof is a popular activity.

• Holmenkollen

A famous Ski Jump in Holmenkollen, it is the world's oldest Ski Museum and an observation deck with panoramic views of the city.

• Viking Ship Museum

The world's two best-preserved Viking ships from the 9th century are on display at the Viking Ship Museum on the Bygdøy peninsula, which also shows Viking tools, sledges, a horse cart and wood carvings.

• Natural History Museum

Located in eastern Oslo, the Natural History Museum complex houses the Zoological Museum and the Geological Museum. Surrounding the museum buildings is the Botanical Garden, with 7,500 plant species from around the world.

• TusenFryd

TusenFryd is an amusement park which features over 30 attractions, including several rollercoasters, children's rides and a water park.  It is located just 20 minutes south of Oslo.

TROMSO

-       The northern lights sparkles across the blue sky

-       fishing villages

-       Botanical gardens

-       Crystalline waterfalls

Music is a major part of the Tromso culture, particularly techno and electronic music, which adds some thumping thunder to the city once a year during the annual Insomnia Festival.

Sources:  

http://www.norway.org/travel/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Norway

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g190455-Norway-Vacations.html

http://www.visitnorway.com/en/Where-to-go/East/Oslo/What-to-do-in-Oslo/Attractions-in-Oslo/

History of Norway

The last time we can tell you a story of the history..

We went to a museum where you find everything about the history of Norway. We made a tour in the history of Norway and were guided by a person who was dressed like a Viking. We had to listen at this person, who was talking through a microphone. A short review of the history of Norway..

“Norwegians, like the Danes and Swedes, are of Teutonic origin.  This means noting or relating to the northern European stock that includes the German, Dutch, Scandinavian, British, and related peoples. The Norsemen are also known as Vikings, ravaged the coasts of northwest Europe from the 8th to the 11th century. The Vikings built rapid, easily manoeuvrable vessels for their many expeditions they made. They were skilled navigators across the open seas. These hardy men voyaged to America and back.

There were different ages, like us, but another version of age.

•         The Bronze age: between 3000 and 2500 BC new settlers arrived in eastern Norway. The people were Indo-European farmers who grew grain and had  cows and sheep.
•          Iron age: the last 500 years BC. This age is characterized by the widespread with use of steel or iron.
•          Migration age: 5^th century, is characterized by rich finds of weapons and gold objects.
•           The Viking Age :

This age was a period of Scandinavian expansion through trade, colonization and invasions. Vikings were well-equipped. They wore a chain mail armor , were well-trained against attacks of the enemy. In addition to gold and silver, an important outcome from the raids were slavery. They were brought to the Norwegian farms as slave workforce. While the men were out at sea, the women had control over the management of the farm.

See you next time!

Sources:

http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0107851.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway#Viking_Age

The economy of Norway

The economy of Norway

Norway has a mixed economy. I’ll explain you a little bit about the mixed economy itself, the economic growth and the economic policy.

Mixed Economy

The Norwegian economy is generally characterized as a mixed economy, which means a capitalist market economy with a clear component of state influence. As in the rest of Western Europe, the expansion of most industry in Norway has largely been governed by private property rights and the private sector. Some industrial activities now are owned by the state. 

 Economic Growth

Norway is a highly developed, industrial country with an open, export-oriented economy. It is listed as one of the richest countries in the world. It has also achieved top-rankings with regard to standard of living, life expectancy, health and housing standards.

Economic Policy

 

Norway’s economic policy is designed to stabilize and counteract unemployment and inflation, to stimulate growth and to influence the structure of industry and the distribution of income. In addition to their financial and credit policies, the central authorities have implemented an income policy which involves taking measures to influence the outcome of the wage, agricultural and fisheries settlement negotiations and more.

Labour Market

 

The labour market in Norway is les or more good.

It’s because the achievement of high employment has been a priority item on the political agenda of post-war Norway. During the 1970s, the development of the North Sea oil fields combined with an active labour market policy led to significantly lower unemployment in Norway than in other industrial countries.

In recent years, the size of the workforce has stabilized at 2.0, 2.1 million employees. The number of women employees escalated in the 1980s and has since remained high. There are a considerable number of part-time employees on the Norwegian workforce. Just under half of all women and about 10% of all men work fewer than 36 hours a week.

 http://www.norway.org/aboutnorway/economy/economy/

The culture of Norway

On our trip we discovered that Norway is a magnificent country and we like its culture very much!

For a period of over 400 years, Norway was occupied by Denmark. But still, Norway has been able to preserve their rich culture.

Norway offers great views of the most spectacular landscapes. I’m sure everyone will know about the incredible fjords which coil through mountains and villages. The Norwegian people are very fund of outdoor activities such as walking, hiking and skiing, and during the summer time, the southern coastline of Norway is warm enough for swimming. Also fishing is a popular activity, as the houses and wooden cabins are close to the many beautiful lakes.

 

Some of the Norwegian art works are the Gothic Cathedral of Trondheim, the paintings of Edvard Munch and the traditional costumes called ‘Bunad’. Also the fascinating heroic tales with trolls, elves, kings and witches are included in their people’s cultural heritage.

 

These traditional folk tales were first told hundreds of years ago and have been passed on generation after generation by word of mouth. The stories never were written down, until a hundred years ago, when two men Asbjørnsen and Moe wrote the book ‘The Collected Folk Tales’.

You may also know the god ‘Thor’ with his magical hammer from the comic series by Marvel. This is one of the gods who was created by the people of Norway hundreds of years ago!

 

Sources:

http://www.norway.org.uk/studywork/study/learning-norwegian/Norway-For-Young-People/Culture/

http://www.nhh.no/en/about-nhh/living-in-norway/people-and-culture.aspx

http://creativeroots.org/2009/09/norwegian-bunad/

http://www.fjordnorway.com/en/ABOUT-THE-REGION/Fjord-Norway/What-is-a-fjord/?view=article

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/munch_edvard.html

Politics of Norway

Unfortunately, we have already arrived in our last country! We end our trip in Norway. As everybody knows it’s a country in North-Europe and their neighbours are Sweden, Finland and Russia. We stayed some days in the capital Oslo. Let’s have a look at their political system , their  foreign relations and administrative divisions.

Norway is a constitutional monarchy with Harald V. as king (since 1991). Important to know is that the country is now independent. Till 1905 they were part of the union with Sweden.

As said they have a king but the council of Ministers or the government has the executive force.  The government consists of a coalition of the Labour party, Socialist party and the Centre party and premier Jen Stoltenberg is the leader. Next to this there is a parliament with 169 members, elected every four years. It  is the highest political department of Norway.   This current system exists since 2009.

Now some more details about the government. Their task is to present bills.

Furthermore, the minister-president, the minister of foreign affairs and the minister of financials are the most important posts. Next to this there are more than 20 parties in Norway. The principals are “De Arbeiderpartier, Kristelig Folkeparti, Høyre, Venstre, Fremskrittspartiet ,Sosialistisk Venstre and Senterpartiet”.

What about Norway and international relationships? They are the co-founder of the VN, the NAVO, the council of Europe, the Norway council, the EER, the WTO and the OESO. Nevertheless, they aren’t member of the European Union. Which means they still pay with their own currency; the Norwegian Kroner (NOK).

We also thought of the provinces and the communities in this country. There are 19 provinces and 434 communities. The communities are responsible for the primary and secondary education, social services, municipal roads, water, sewerage and town and country planning. Also every four years elections are held.

We are now at the end of our trip and blog and would like to thank you to follow us. We hope you have enjoyed our blogs and maybe we get to see you another time, during another trip, on another blog!

 

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Norway

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_Norway

http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Europe/Norway-POLITICS-GOVERNMENT-AND-TAXATION.html

http://www.norway.org/aboutnorway/society/political/