February 2012

On Nov. 11, 2011, 93 years after the Armistice was signed in Europe, marking the end of the First World War, Musée de la Grande Guerre du Pays de Meaux (rue Lazare Ponticelli, 77100, Meaux, France; phone +33 [1] 60 32 14 18) opened in Meaux, France.

The 75,000-square-foot museum houses 50,000 artifacts, including uniforms, weapons, art made from bullets, photographs, a Renault FT 17 tank, two aircraft and a 75mm field gun. Its emphasis is on life at home and on the front during WWI and on the war’s legacy.

Vue Zone wireless video-monitoring systems allow people to check on their home or pets while traveling. Through cameras placed in your home, video images (live or recordings) can be accessed over the Internet with a laptop or smartphone (iPhone, BlackBerry or Android).

Priced $150-$240, the various packages include cameras, wall mounts and a base unit. Each system can handle up to 50 extra cameras (plain camera, $79.95, and motion-activated, $99.95).

Unique Home Stays (Lantern Cottage, Trebudannon, Newquay, Cornwall, TR8 4LP, U.K.; phone +44 [0] 1637 881942) manages B&B rentals plus rentals of private homes — self-catering houses, manor houses, castles, etc. — in 11 countries (mostly in Europe plus Morocco, South Africa and Canada).

Prices range from £40 to £50 ($52-$65) per person per night at a luxury B&B in Suffolk, England (two nights minimum), to €50,000 for a week in a villa at Lake Como, Italy (with manager, waiters, chef and maid).

In Switzerland, the Valais SkiCard (phone +41 [0] 27 775 25 82) offers guests the ability to skip ticket lines at the 54 ski areas and four thermal baths covered by the pass.

In increments of 100, points are added to the card at a rate of one point per Swiss franc, with discounts of up to 10 percent for adding larger balances. Points are valid for two years and can be extended with a deposit of CHF100 ($106).

At London Heathrow Airport, bus service between Terminal 5 Business Car Park and the main terminal was replaced by driverless electric “pod cars” in September. Each of the 21 pods can carry four passengers and their luggage. There is room for no more than one wheelchair per pod.

MapsWithMe, a free app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, allows you to download maps of destinations worldwide for offline use, avoiding costly data-roaming fees. Some countries, like Germany and France, have maps broken down by state.

The maps used by the application are from community-created OpenStreetMap data, which may be less accurate in rural areas than commercial maps. Download MapsWithMe from the App Store.

At Singapore’s Maritime Experiential Museum & Aquarium (8 Sentosa Gateway, Sentosa Island, Singapore 098269; phone +65 6577 8899), visitors can explore five floating, full-size replicas of historic ships, including a Han Dynasty-era Chinese junk and an eighth-century Indonesian sailing ship.

Other exhibits include a replica of one of Admiral Zheng He’s 15th-century treasure ships, a gallery of maritime artifacts and objects from historic Asian trade routes.

Queen Margrethe II, celebrating 40 years on the throne of Denmark in 2012, is a respected artist, textile designer and book illustrator (she illustrated two Danish editions of Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”).

Works of hers — oil paintings, watercolors, church textile designs, décopage, scenography and embroidery — can be seen in the exhibit “Essence of Colour,” Jan. 28-July 1, 2012, at the Arken Museum of Modern Art (Skovvej 100, Ishøj Municipality; phone 43 54 02 22), 15 minutes south of Copenhagen.

The exhibit “Gustav Klimt: Up Close and Personal” is being held in Vienna, Feb. 24-Aug. 27, 2012, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the birth of the painter (1862-1918).

As of Jan. 1, Slovakia is covered by Eurail’s Global Pass, which allows unlimited rail travel in (now) 23 European countries within specific time periods.