NorwayLargeFormat_Bundle_thumb“Did you know that Oslo is the only capital city in Europe where you can go cross-country skiing? Just take your skis on the metro to the suburbs and ski off from the platform across the frozen, snowy landscape. Stretching so far from north to south, and from west to east – the country reaches further east than St Petersburg – Norway has a larger number of different habitats than almost any other European country. It has Scandinavia’s most spectacular fjords, steep mountains, pretty fishing villages, beautiful beaches – and continental Europe’s largest glacier. From remote settlements within the Arctic Circle to Oslo’s lively city life, from the northern lights to white nights when the sun never sets, from sculpture gardens to immense bridges linking the country’s many islands, Norway is a fascinating exploration of this increasingly popular tourist destination. With captions explaining the story behind each entry, Norway is a stunning collection of images celebrating this striking country.“

My Review

This was another gorgeous travel book from Amber Books, those publishers who keep tempting me and other bookbloggers with their fab nonfiction books on NetGalley.

As always there were amazing photos with short text to explain what you’re looking at, making it easy to read. The book is split up into six chapters including an Introduction, Glaciers and Fjords, The Islands, Provinces and Towns, Oslo, plus of course the ever important Picture Credits.

I think my favourite photos were of the fjords, mountains and glaciers. They were amazing and I imagine are even more breathtaking to see in real life.

I didn’t realise that Norway is made up of 55,000 islands! How did I not know that?! One thing I did know was that the global seed vault is in Norway, in Spitsbergen to be precise. It was opened in 2008 and provides secure backup storage for seeds held in 1706 gene banks worldwide, holding up 2.5 billion individual seeds! Apparently it situated there because of the permafrost and the distinct lack of earthquake activity.

I thoroughly enjoyed my armchair visit to Norway and would love to go there on holiday sometime. In fact we almost went a few years ago, but the flight and travel times were so awkward for where we wanted to stay that we decided not to go in the end. Who knows maybe one day it might happen?

Highly recommended if you enjoy travel books.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and AmberBooks for my digital copy via the NetGalley app.

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