In Amsterdam, the Over the Edge swing, the highest in Europe at more than 300 feet off the ground, opened in August 2016 on the Lookout observation deck atop the A’DAM Tower (Overhoeksplein 5, 1031 KS, Amsterdam, Netherlands; phone +31 20 242 01 00, www.adamlookout.com).
Each swing holds two riders and takes them over the edge of the building, with views of the city under their feet.
In Bristol, England, visitors can visit street art by local guerrilla artist Banksy on a 2-hour walking tour offered by Where the Wall (phone +44 7748 632 663, www.wherethe wall.com/tours). Participants will see Banksy art dating back to his beginnings, 30 years ago, plus the work of other graffiti artists.
The tours, which include lessons in Bristol history and architecture as well as entry to the Bristol Museum and M Shed, start at 2 p.m. and usually run every Mon., Wed. and Fri. £9.20 (near $11.50). Book online.
In Heidelberg, Germany, at 10:15 on a night in June, July and September each year, fireworks light up Heidelberg Castle.
The castle is first lit up in red, mimicking the fire that reduced most of the castle to ruins in the 17th century, then there is a fireworks display over the Neckar River. The best views are from the river’s south side, opposite the castle.
The dates are June 3, July 6 and Sept. 2 in 2017 and June 2, July 14 and Sept. 1 in 2018.
Mount Logan, Canada’s highest mountain, located in Yukon territory’s southwest, was named for Sir William Logan, founder of the Geological Survey of Canada.
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Visitors to the emirate of Dubai, UAE, can “buy one and get one free” on selected activities and at selected attractions with the City Card Dubai. Among activities honoring card discounts are a desert safari, scuba diving and a show dinner cruise.
City Cards must be purchased in advance and can be shipped to the buyer’s home or retrieved upon hotel check-in. At a cost of $45 or, with a Burj Khalifa tour, $65, it is good through the calendar year and includes a guidebook and city map. Visit citycarddubai.com or call +971 50 410 4470.
My taxi awaited below the tall column topped with the gilded statue of St. George slaying the dragon in Tbilisi’s Freedom Square.
In May 2013, a friend and I had just completed a wonderful trip to Uzbekistan. Before coming back to the USA, we continued on to beautiful Kyrgyzstan, where we stayed at a lovely small hotel in the capital, Bishkek.
The hotel had individual cottages, and ours was quite nice and clean, but the shower continuously leaked. After each shower, one would have to use towels to sop up the water that accumulated on the floor.
In his article on Nova Scotia, Stephen Addison mentions Waterfront Park in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, as a good place to observe the tides in the Bay of Fundy (Dec. ’16, pg. 6).
For those with an interest in unusual natural phenomena, the Bay of Fundy has the world’s highest tidal range, over 52 feet (although Ungava Bay in northern Québec claims a higher mean tidal range), but what might be more interesting are the tidal bores seen on most of the rivers draining into the upper Bay of Fundy.
