December 2020

One hundred and twenty years after the founding of the city of Novosibirsk in Siberia, Russia, a bronze statue of a mouse appeared in front of the city's Institute of Cytology & Genetics. At first glance, the spectacled mouse might be mistaken for a cartoon character, but the sculpture is actually a monument to all animals who have given their lives in the name of science.

The “knitting project” in the 28-inch-tall mouse's hands is a double helix strand of DNA. Including the pedestal on which the sculpture stands, the monument stands slightly over 8 feet tall.

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 537th issue of your monthly worldwide travel magazine. Though featuring fewer pages than in previous years, and despite all that’s happened since the coronavirus showed up, ITN is still in production. We appreciate the continuing support of those who have felt moved to respond to Evenyl Roemmich’s “Travel Resource Challenge” (July ’20, pg. 26). It truly helps. Thank you.

I was blissfully ignorant of what my travel future held for me when I boarded a plane in Memphis, Tennessee, on Feb. 15, 2020, headed (via Toronto and Frankfurt) to Tunis, Tunisia.

My plan was to spend six days in each of two North African countries, Tunisia and Algeria.

"I certainly empathize with Mrs. Zent’s experience of being disembarked unexpectedly from her cruise. My husband, Bob, and I have been disembarked unexpectedly not once but twice from cruises.

"The first time was in October 2018 while traveling on a Panama Canal trip aboard the Volendam of Holland America Line (877/932-4259; www.hollandamerica.com). ... At every step, I felt support from the ship's staff. ..."

"My wife, Debbie, and I had fully paid for a “Pearls of Dalmatia” tour (mostly Croatia) with Odysseys Unlimited (Newton, MA; 888/370-6765, odysseys-unlimited.com). The tour was to be April 16-May 3, 2020, and cost just over $9,000 for the two of us, including extensions but not airfare.

"On March 16, Odysseys called to say they were canceling the tour and offered either a credit for a future booking or a full refund. We chose the full refund, and the money was returned to our credit card while we were still on the phone. ..."

I think we all have a grandmother who had some incredible recipes. My Hungarian grandmother made the best pie crusts. The secret? Lard, preferably home-cured.

Many Hungarian recipes call for lard, and, it turns out, there is a reason for that. The extensive use of pork and lard originates from when the Ottomans occupied Hungary (1541 to 1699). The official religion of the Ottoman Empire was Islam, which forbade the eating of pork, so the occupying forces confiscated all of the domestic animals for themselves except for pigs.

Due to the excellent response, we continue to share readers’ On-the-Road Travel Tips during this continuing period of international travel downtime. (Each is followed by my own comments.) It’s exciting to see just how creative travelers can be! In submitting your own suggestion for something that makes the travel experience work better for you while actually traveling, try to keep it to 125 words or fewer; my email is at the end of this column.

At press time, COVID-19 infections had been confirmed in 189 countries and territories to date, with more than 44 million cases and, resulting from those, more than 1.17 million deaths.

On Oct. 29, the Marshall Islands reported the first cases of COVID detected in that country. The infections were not the result of community transmission; they were detected in two workers at a US military base who were in quarantine after arriving from Hawaii.