Grand Hotel Oslo

Henrik Ibsen ate lunch at the Grand Hotel every single day for the last twenty years of his life: the same table, the same time, the same expression of profound Nordic inscrutability, according to those who dared to watch. The hotel has anchored Karl Johans Gate, Oslo's principal boulevard, since 1874, and its position squarely between the Royal Palace and the Parliament building means it has sat at the intersection of Norwegian power since before Norway was even fully independent of Sweden. 274 rooms, and the annual honour of housing the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Oslo's version of Stockholm's own December ritual.