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Dealing with the heat on board the trains of London’s nearly 150-year-old Underground system has been a problem, especially in summer. The problem is that heat generated by conventional air-conditioning has to go somewhere.
Transport for London is working on multiple solutions, including improving existing ventilation shafts; tapping into underground aquifers to create water-based heat-exchange systems, and “hydro cooling,” using ice reservoirs and fan units.
The Keighley & Worth Valley Steam Railway (West Yorkshire, England; phone 01535 645214, www.kwvr.co.uk) is offering a “Super Luxury All Day Guided Tour” from Keighley through Brontë Country for £350 (near $509) per person for up to 12 people.
Free sightseeing and free activities are among suggestions from Switzerland Tourism (New York, NY; 212/757-5944, www.myswitzerland.com).
• When purchasing an adult Swiss Pass, Swiss Card or Swiss Transfer Ticket, you can ask for a free Swiss Family Card, which allows children under 16 to travel for free when accompanied by at least one parent. The pass allows travel throughout the rail, bus and boat Swiss Travel System network as well as on trams and buses in 37 cities.
Travelers using the Zürich Tourism website, www.zuerich.com, now can book city tours and day excursions through its Web Shop section. Bike, bus, cruise and Segway tours are available. Day tours that depart from Zürich for other areas of Switzerland also can be booked, such as a 2½-hour visit to the 150-meter-wide Rhine Falls that includes a stop at the Zürich airport on the return trip (CHF46, or near $40).
The free online booking service Rentalo.com (www.rentalo.com) lists more than 120,000 rental properties in nearly 15,000 destinations worldwide — B&Bs, hotels, villas, condos and vacation homes.
The website provides a photo slide show and complete description of each property plus a map, contact information and an availability calendar. You can search for the area you wish to stay in and compare properties, then book one on the website or e-mail the property owner or manager directly.
Austrian Airlines Vacation Center (800/790-4682, www.austrianair-vacations.com) is offering a 6-day/5-night “New Year’s in Vienna” package, Dec. 28, 2009-Jan. 3, 2010.
At $3,999 per person, double occupancy, it includes tickets to the preview of the New Year’s Day Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic and a performance of Strauss’ opera “Die Fledermaus,” tickets to Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony” at the Konzerthaus, dinner at Hotel Sacher and a half-day tour in Vienna.
There are hundreds of free attractions during “Homecoming Scotland 2009” (www.homecomingscotland2009.com or www.cometoscotland.com).
• Hundreds of buildings that are rarely, if ever, open to the public may be visited for free every weekend this September during “Doors Open Days” with the Scottish Civic Trust (The Tobacco Merchants House, 42 Miller St., Glasgow G1 1DT, U.K.; phone 0141 221 1466, www.doorsopendays.org.uk).
The exhibition “Darwin 1809-2009,” celebrating the 200th anniversary of the naturalist’s birth, is being hosted through Oct. 25 in Milan at the museum Rotonda della Besana (Via Besana Enrico, 15-20122, Milan, Italy; phone 199 199 111 02 4335 3522, www.darwin2009.it/eng/Milan).
The French city of Chartres has temporarily reduced the price of its Chartres Pass. Admission to the city’s cathedral, the Fine Arts Museum, the International Stained-Glass Centre and two other attractions are included, with an admission discount at five more sites.
The pass costs €15 ($19) until Dec. 31, 2009, after which it will cost €24.50 ($32). Chartres Convention & Visitors Bureau (Place de la Cathédrale, BP 50289, 28000 Chartres, France; phone 02 37 18 26 26, fax 02 37 21 51 91, www.chartres-tourisme.com).
A 1,500-year-old Byzantine mosaic, which was found during an excavation in 1957 and has been undergoing restoration at Jerusalem’s Rockefeller Museum since 2006, was reinstalled at its original site this spring at the settlement of Ma’on-Nirim in Israel’s western Negev Desert.