They never feel more themselves than while skiing or chopping wood at the family hytte, or cabin, which is usually kept deliberately primitive. Even downtown Oslo, the focus of cosmopolitan life, is only a few minutes' drive from the cherished wilderness. More than a quarter of Norwegians live in and around the capital, located at the innermost reach of the Oslo Fjord in southeastern Norway. Norwegians have always been seafarers, and all their major cities are coastal. Though there is a trend toward urbanization, the government provides strong incentives for city slickers to consider a tour of duty in remote districts and for rural residents to stay put.
Farms tend to stay in the family.
One in Oppland County has been passed from father to first-born son without interruption for 25 generations. From space, Norway is seen as a rugged, rocky outcrop jutting from the sea. More than 50,000 islands dot the coast. Through geologic time, cascading rivers carved out deep valleys and gorges, which eventually bore glaciers down from the interior mountains. This monumental swelling of ice 2.5 million years ago gouged out the U-shaped fjords.