There's a few more exceptions than that, I think; the division is essentially between small countries (or small language areas, rather) and big countries. Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Flanders and to a somewhat lesser extent Portugal all encounter huge amounts of English. Switzerland and Luxembourg are special cases because they've both got so many languages that are important that English is merely one among several, and not necessarily the most important. When the average person watches, what is it, three hours of television a day?, and a very significant portion of the movies/programmes shown in *all* European countries is American or British, the factor of whether or those movies/programmes are dubbed or subtitled becomes rather important for the level of English spoken in a country.

And I had expected no less, re: your experience of being hampered in trying to learn Norwegian. It's much the same way with people trying to learn Dutch. Speaking English is easier and more efficient for everyone involved; the only reason to speak Norwegian would be to help you practice, so people really have to force themselves to think of that every time - or you have to keep asking them. Professional language teachers or those with experience in related issues will have that reflex of sticking with Norwegian, most other people won't.