What’s new in Britain, Ireland, France and Switzerland
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I’ve gathered these new items for your 2018 travel planning.
Museum
Cape Town highlights
I am a longtime resident of Cape Town, South Africa, and have the following suggestions for places to visit.
The V&A Waterfront (www.waterfront.co.za) is certainly worth a visit, and it now boasts the new Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (https://zeitzmocaa.museum), topped by an exceptional hotel, all in a redevelopment of what used to be grain silos — spectacular architecture.
Return to Keflavík
My friend Dan and I went to Iceland in August of both 2016 and 2017, flying Delta from Minneapolis, with connections in Albany, New York.
For our last night in Iceland, we went to Keflavík, the town next to the airport. We took the airport bus for a round trip (about $42) and then at the airport took a taxi to Hotel Grasteinn (Bolafótur 11; hotel grasteinn.is/en/location), a nice, new hotel on the north end of town.
Anesthesia museum, London
Covering the history of anesthesia from the first demonstration of ether in 1846 to the machines and equipment being used today, London’s Anaesthesia Heritage Centre (21 Portland Pl., London, England, W1B 1PY, U.K.; phone +44 20 7631 1650, ext. 7, www.aagbi.org/education/heritage-centre) was founded in 1932.
Housing over 4,500 objects, it comprises the archives of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain & Ireland (AAGBI), the Anaesthesia Museum and a rare- book collection. Open 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Mon.-Fri. Admission is free.
Winnie-the-Pooh, London
Until April 8, 2018, the exhibit “Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic” is being held at the Victoria & Albert Museum (Cromwell Rd., London, England; phone +44 20 7942 2000, www.vam.ac.uk) in Gallery 38. The largest Pooh collection ever shown in the UK, it has more than 200 objects from 1920 to today, including original drawings, branded products and even A.A. Milne’s original manuscript.
The museum is open 10 a.m.-5:45 p.m. Sat.-Thurs. and 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Fri. Entry to the permanent collection is free, but entry to Gallery 38 costs £8 (near $10.50).
New Olduvai museum
A more modern anthropological Olduvai Gorge Museum opened at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania on Oct. 3, replacing a smaller museum at the site. The museum is home to the archaeological and anthropological findings at Olduvai and sits at one of the excavation sites of Drs. Louis and Mary Leakey, who discovered the 1.75-million- year-old Zinjanthropus boisei skull in 1959.
The museum will also display re-creations of archaeological finds from neighboring countries.
Modern-European-history museum
The European Union (EU) opened the House of European History (Rue Belliard 135, 1000 Brussels, Belgium; www.europarl.europa.eu/visiting/en/
brussels/house-of-european-history) in May 2017.
Located in Brussels’ Parc Léopold, just north of the European Parliament, the museum’s 1,500 exhibits chart how European countries have interacted, covering the late 19th century, 20th-century wars, the formation of the European Union, efforts at continental cooperation and the outlook of the EU’s future.
Cold War museum, Lithuania
In Kaunas, Lithuania, a bunker that was built 20 feet underneath a factory during the Soviet era became a private museum in 2014. It holds more than 1,200 items relating to the Cold War, many of them still functioning, including gas masks, radiation detectors, medical equipment and KGB spying devices.
Visits to the KGB Atominis Bunkeris (Raudondvario Pl., 164 A, Kaunas, Lithuania; phone +370 8 682 66666, www.atominisbunkeris.lt/en) must be arranged in advance. €6 (near $8).