Things we didn't know about Norway

Fact finding about your destination happens for any trip and we have been finding out about Norway!

• Norway’s formal name is Kongeriket Norge

• The people of Oslo, Norway donate the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree in London every year in gratitude to the people of London for their assistance during WWII

• In 2008, Norway knighted a penguin now known as Sir Nils Olav

• The archipelago of Lofoten in Norway is north of the Arctic Circle. Yet because of the largest positive temperature anomaly in the world relative to latitude, it is teeming with life and has the largest deep water coral reef in the word

• Norway gets 98-99% of its electricity from hydroelectric power, more than any other country

• Beerenberg, at 7,306 feet (2,227 m), on Jan Mayen Island in the Norwegian Sea, is the Norway’s only active volcano

• Norway is not a formal member of the European Union, having opted out during a referendum in November 1994

• In 1895, Alfred Nobel, the Swedish founder of the Nobel Prizes, stipulated that the Peace Prize was to be awarded by a committee appointed by the Storting, the Norwegian governing body. The Norwegian Peace Prize Selection Committee selects a Peace Prize winner every year. The award ceremony takes place each year on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, and celebrations are held on that date both in Stockholm and Oslo

• Norway’s flag is red with a blue cross outlined in white that extends to the ends of the flag. The vertical part of the flag is shifted to the hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag). The colors recall Norway’s past political unions with Denmark (red and white) and Sweden (blue)