Location Oslo, Norway

Some twelve thousand years ago, the glacial ice sheet that has covered the northern territories for millenniums , starts receding and the landscape of mountains and fjords is slowly revealed. Vast forests and thousands of rivers and lakes will provide irrigation for fertile soil as this new region of continental Europe, that will be known as Norway, is gradually populated.

Much later at the turn of the ninth century AD, the diverse regions spanning nearly three thousand kilometers from the north to the south, are unified by the Viking king Harald, and the kingdom and nation of Norway is born. From a being a small viking village populated by only a few hundred families, - the city of Oslo and the greater metropolitan area of the capital now counts nearly one million inhabitants.

Oslo is the home to world citizens like the playwright Henrik Ibsen, the painter Edvard Munch, the explorer Thor Heyerdahl as well as familiar names of contemporary culture such as Liv Ullman and A-ha.

In Norway you’re away from the crowds, the scorching heat, the summer draughts, the floods, and the fires as well as regional unrest and political instability. 

In a country slightly bigger than Italy with its sixty million inhabitants, Norway has less than ten percent of that populace. Privacy and safety are much sought after values that most Norwegians take for granted in a liberal democracy where civil rights and gender equality are respected virtues protected by law and where same sex marriages are blessed by the church. 

The Norwegian economy relying on energy, seafood and tourism is thriving. Norway is an affiliated member of the European Union through the EEA treaty. By 2023 Oslo is one of the fastest growing capitals in Europe.