Thanks for all that. I actually meant all of Norway rather than that particular spot. I’m not sure how mobile we will be given the driving on a different side of the road.
Again, thanks.
Oh boy. That was a harder one, remember that Norway stretches from 58°N to 71°N.
Generally, I wouldn’t come to Norway for city life. Even our biggest cities are rather small and provincial from an international POV. I’d go for nature. Hiking, mountaineering or fishing. Provided you follow some fairly obvious rules for proper behavior (no camping on one spot more than three nights, no camping closer to a residential house than 150m, and don’t let it show that you’ve been there), camping in the wild is a right for anyone in Norway. We have a formalized right to free access to nature, even on privately owned lands
Some really beautiful alpine areas are Jotunheimen, Rondane, Dovrefjell with its musk ox population, Børgefjell and Saltfjellet.
Then there’s the forested areas of Eastern Norway, like Finnskogen, Alvdal and Engerdal.
The coast of Southern Norway is nice and cosy, albeit full of Norwegian tourists in the summer.
The Rogaland coast is special by Norwegian standards, being flat 
Great for surfing, with the swell of the North sea coming right in.
Then there’s our best marketed tourist destination, the fjords of Western Norway. Some places, there are almost sheer drops from alpine areas nearly above the treeline down into the sea.
The coast of Trøndelag and the southern part of Northern Norway (the area called Helgeland) is great for fishing and boating (and a sea eagle photography safari), but also for alpine hiking. Definitely undersold by the tourist industry. Watch out for bad weather, though. Occasionally, we lose a German tourist or two who insists on going out in a small boat in bad weather.
We’ve covered Lofoten, but Ofoten on the mainland inside Lofoten is almost as beautiful. Then there’s Tromsø and the island Senja, also recommended. And the inland of Troms county, with great swathes of wilderness.
And of course Finnmark with the North Cape and the prevalence of Sami culture. Inland Finnmark is famous for trout fishing, but bring your insect repellent. The mosquitoes can be plentiful, and the locals use to hunt them, dry them and use’em as barn stools 
Regarding cities, you might like to see Oslo with the Royal Castle and Akershus, Bergen with its old wooden buildings from the Hansa era, and Trondheim’s Cathedral. But as I said, you probably wouldn’t want to visit Norway for our city life
And, of course, the Femunden area :smack:
Thanks- this is all good. Hiking and camping? Umm- I used to do that in Australia where there were bushfires - not snow. And that was 40 years ago!
Thanks, but I’ll be seeing all the natural landscape from inside a car or coach. I never saw snow until I went to Scotland 
Is it true that at certain income levels marginal tax is actually over 100%? I am sure I recall that from somewhere.
Actually, why on earth do you put up with insane taxes anyway?
How many links away are you from your King?
Speaking of kings, having met some Danish and Dutch folks, the general attitude towards kings (queens, in their stake) was pretty much disinterest and they didn’t spend much mental time on it. How do you feel about the fact that you have a monarch?
Why do you put up with paying for education, no free health care, going back to work less than a year after having a child, and the risk of living on the street if you loose you job?
Another question: years ago, I read about an idea that a Norwegian engineer had for wave power. Instead of harnessing the wave directly, the idea was to build wind turbines in caves above the water-wave comes in, air is compressed-drives turbine/generator. Because of Narway’s rocky coast this wold be ideal.
Haven’t heard anything on it-are these things being built? Of course, with hydroelectricity so cheap in Norway, maybe they don’t make sense.
Wow…your Wiki link upthread says that motorized boats are only permitted in saltwater…so that’s a country-wide law? Interesting.
How many people in Norway eat whale meat? How do Norwegians as a whole feel about whaling? We hear about the Japanese and whaling quite often but very little about places like Iceland and Norway.
I don’t “put up” with any of that apart form the back to work in less than a year thing…
If so, your “recollection” is wrong. Totally wrong.
The maximum marginal tax on income in Norway is 47.8%, including Social Security tax. That tax bracket starts at 796400NOK (140000 USD) (cite with details in Norwegian). Compare to the median household (including both single and couple households) income in Norway of 397000NOK (71000 USD) or the median income for couples with small children of 609000NOK (108000 USD) for the both of them (cite in Norwegian).
We have a wealth tax of 1.1% for anything above a net wealth of 700000NOK per person (1400000 for couples). Net means after subtracting for debt, and the tax value of a house or an apartment is generally some 20-40% of the market value. So, basically, until you’ve paid off your mortgage you won’t have any taxable wealth.
We also have a sales tax of 25%, 14% for foodstuffs. The sales tax is included in the sales price, so there are no nasty surprises when you’re shopping (like we Euros experience when we go shopping in the US, where prices are quoted sans tax 
).
Then there are some special taxes on e.g. tobacco, alcohol, gasoline and such, but those taxes are really voluntary. You can live well in urban Norway without a car, and smoking and drinking is a choice you make.
Because to most of us, the advantages like (almost) free health care, free education (including college and Uni), a (still) fairly decent social safety net for those who have a streak of bad luck, good child care services and half-decent public pension plans are worth the tax we pay. Or what Septima said. But just like any other Western country, there’s a continual political discussion where the right wants to lower taxes and the left doesn’t.
About as many as you are, I guess. The current King’s paternal grandfather (King Haakon) was originally a Danish prince (Prince Carl), and his paternal grandmother (Maud) was a British princess. The King’s mother (Märtha) was of Swedish royal heritage.
Pretty good, in fact. Principally, I’m slightly Republican, but we’ve been lucky with our royal family. They’re generally sensible people, and the King is highly respected. His son, the Crown Prince, doesn’t seem to bad either. And there are a few advantages to having a totally non-partisan head of state, especially in difficult times (like on the 22. of July last year, or after the great hurricane of 1992).
Other alternative energy sources make sense, since we don’t have many unexploited hydro resources left.
Generally, there hasn’t been very much research into wave power in Norway since the 90s, even if the work is staring to ick up these days with the energy crisis and everything. Why it wasn’t realized? I guess that the money for R&D were put to other uses in the 90s, and we haven’t overcome the technological challenges fully yet. Remember that we’re still on the development/pilot stage WRT to offshore windpower. And an offshore windpower park - something we have put a bit of money into developmet of lately - has to handle the same type of hard conditions that a wavepower plant will have to handle.
Do you support Manchester City, and if so, were you at a match in Manchester in late January? We met a huge gang of Norwegians in a tiny pub after a match.
I guess that’s an error in Wikipedia. You can use a motorized boat in many lakes, I’ve done that myself. And motorized boating is popular in the inland, especially on the larger lakes. But I guess that there may be restrictions, and we generally have a ban on motorized transport off road (snowmobiles, AWDs etc.). Some Norwegians go to Sweden to drive their snowmobiles for fun, because you generally can only get a permit for necessary transport on special occasions.
Very few Norwegians eat whale meat. It’s a niche product. I’m not to fond of it myself, just like seal meat which I’ve also tried. But many Norwegians think that as long as the whaling doesn’t threaten the whale population - as is the case for minke whales - and the animals aren’t killed in a more brutal and painful way than the average cow or pig, what’s the problem? To many Norwegians the OMG! Whaling!!!111!!! seems like a “Bambi” reaction to the killing and eating of an animal which probably isn’t more intelligent than the average cow.
I have no interest whatsoever in football/soccer. I guess I’m a rather atypical Norwegian in that respect.
In that case, Norweigan tax is in fact lower than UK tax, income tax wise anyway. What rate is capital gains? Are there tax breaks on investments made towards retirement (e.g. pensions)? Actually, is it the norm to have a private pension?
I wonder where I am getting my 100% thing from - fairly sure it was from the Guiness book of Records.
What in the mind of the average Norweigan (or yerself :D) most differentiates Norway from the other Scandinavian/Nordic countries?
Um, capital gains aren’t very relevant for me, so I wouldn’t know for sure. For some reason, I’m thinking of the number 27%, but take that with a ton of salt. But I’m fairly certain that capital gains are taxed flatter than ordinary income, our capital gains tax has been criticized as one of our tax loopholes.
ETA: Private pension, yes. Generally, the higher your income the lower your pension, percentage-wise. The major part is public pension, then there’s the mandatory employer financed pension plan, and more and more Norwegians buy an additional pension or save in funds to alleviate parts of the gap that still exists. And savings to pensions funds are exempt from tax, but you pay income tax when you take out those money.
I remember a claim that previously, in Sweden, your total tax (income plus wealth) could exceed 100% of your income in some special occasions. But AFAIK, that’s not the case neither here nor there nowadays.
I’ll have to come back to that one 
Who is Norway’s version of Apocalyptica? Silly Finns…
Why are you guys down on the Swedes? I remember an old Norwegian song: "“Thirty swedes ran through the reeds, persued by one Norwegian”.
Have you ever been to Svalbard?
Ah, sorry then. I assumed you were American, that’s were those question usually come from.