The Norwegian Constitution Day is the National Day of Norway and is an official national holiday each year.

All over Norway, children's parades with an abundance of flags form the central elements of the celebration. Each elementary school district arranges its own parade with marching bands between schools.

The longest parade is in Oslo, where some 100,000 people travel to the city centre to participate in the main festivities. Be sure to call in a Norwegian city on a May 17 – it’ll be an experience for both passengers and crew.

Cruise Baltic in Oslo

Oslo hosted the Cruise Baltic network meeting last week. 30 port- and destination representatives from 10 countries in the Baltic region gathered in Oslo to discuss port development and environmental issues in the cruise business.

Cruise Baltic is a co-operation forum among 10 countries, 26 destinations and 44 partners in the Baltic Sea Region. The aim of the cooperation is to exchange knowledge and information, to develop joint standards and to develop and promote the Baltic Sea Region as a cruise destination. Cruise Baltic was in 2007 voted ‘Destination of the year’ by Seatrade Insider. Representatives from Costa Crociere, RCCL and Carnival contributed to the interesting discussions on these important subjects. One of the highlights of the network meeting was a tour of Vision of the Seas back stage when she called at Oslo on one of her eight short cruises using the Norwegian capital as a home port.

Oslo in Dover

Oslo will be at the Cruise Baltic stand at the UK Cruise Convention in Dover, June 17-18.
The Norwegian representatives will be

• Port of Oslo, market manager cruise, Mrs. Margrethe Austad and
• Oslo Cruise Network co-ordinator, Mrs. Eva Britt Kornfeldt.
• VisitOslo, director marketing and sales, Mrs. Heidi Thon