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There are great bargains on transportation in London, as I learned in July 2015.
I purchased an Oyster card in a Tube station. Available from machines or cashiers, Oyster cards can be used for any public transportation in London. I paid £10 (near $15.50), and four days later at a different station I got back the £5 that I hadn’t used. Visitors can also buy Oyster cards online at https://visitorshop.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/london-visitor-oyster-card.
My letter about the best day on which to book certain domestic flights on United Airlines was printed under the title “Wednesday’s Fares” (Aug. ’15, pg. 50).
In Macau, more than 200 pieces of antique sound and video equipment are displayed in the Museum of Vintage Sound Machines (No. 13-15 Rua das Estalagens, Macau SAR, China; phone +853 2892 1389), located within Tai Peng Electronics & Appliances.
Exhibits include gramophones and phonographs that play original cylinders and records, hand-cranked music boxes, manual telephones and tube radios.
Book a visit at least one day in advance by phone or by emailing antique@tai-peng.com. Closed Saturday and Sunday. Admission, MOP30 (near $3.75).
In western Germany, the country’s longest rope suspension bridge, a pedestrian bridge spanning Geierlay Canyon between the towns of Mörsdorf and Sosberg, opened Oct. 3, 2015. The 1,200-foot-long, 298-foot-high bridge is free to cross as part of a series of hiking trails. For photos and video, visit www.geierlay.de/haengeseilbrueck (in German only).
A nearly 1,000-foot-long, 590-foot-high glass-bottomed bridge, called Haohan Qiao (Brave Man’s Bridge), opened in September at Shiniuzhai National Geological Park in southeastern China’s Hunan Province. Entry to the park costs CNY98 (near $15.50).
Shortly after opening, a glass panel on the bridge cracked, reportedly due to a dropped cup. Officials said the cracked panel would be replaced and that visitors were in no danger. Each panel (a few feet by a few feet) is made up of three layers of 24-millimeter-thick glass, can hold up to 1,763 pounds and is encased in steel.
Purported to be the seamless garment that Jesus Christ wore before he hung on the cross, the Holy Tunic of Argenteuil will be displayed at the Basilica Saint-Denys d’Argenteuil (17 rue des Ouches, 95100 Argenteuil, France; phone +33 01 39 61 03 29, www.catholique95.com/basilargenteuil [in French only]), March 25-April 10, 2016, in honor of the Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis.
Usually displayed only once every 50 years (last in 1984), the tunic has been kept in Argenteuil since around 800.
Drivers on the G4 Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau expressway near Hong Kong encountered a 50-lane traffic jam involving thousands of cars on Oct. 9. The jam occured when drivers returning home at the end of China’s “Golden Week” holiday (when an estimated 750 million drivers use China’s roads) encountered a newly installed toll plaza that reduced the number of lanes from 50 to 20.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has upgraded Nicaraguan carriers from Category 2 to Category 1 in their International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA), due to that nation’s compliance with the International Civil Aviation Authority’s regulations.
The Greek Archaeological Council decided on Oct. 14 to increase entry prices to some of Greece’s most popular tourist sites starting Jan. 1, 2016.
Among fee hikes are the following. In Athens, the entry fee to the Acropolis will rise from €12 to €20 (near $22), and the National Archaeological Museum will cost €10. The fee goes from €6 to €15 at the Knossos archaeological site in Crete and from €8 to €12 at the archaeological site and museum at Mycenae. The Archaeological Museum of Heraklion will cost €10.
