Travel Briefs
Nohi Bus
Nohi Bus (www.nouhibus.co.jp/english), which serves Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Takayama, Japan, has translated its website into English. The line runs express buses from city to city and regional buses to smaller towns and tourist attractions. The website shows route maps, timetables and fares.
Agatha Christie
Mystery novelist Agatha Christie’s summer home in southwest England, Greenway, is open to visitors following a 2-year, £5.4-million restoration that returned it to its condition during the time she lived there, including many contents. Admission, £7.45.
Rome carriage ban
The City Council of Rome voted March 4 to ban horse-drawn carriages on streets in the city center except on weekends. Monday to Friday, the city’s 44 botticelle (carriages) will be permitted to work in public parks such as the Borghese Gardens.
Entry fee (non) changes
ITN reported on new entry fees being imposed by Argentina (Dec. ’08, pg. 19 & Feb. ’09, pg. 83) and Costa Rica (Feb. ’09, pg. 84, with correction April ’09, pg.
Orient-Express in UK
Orient-Express (20 Upper Ground, London SE1 9PF, U.K.; phone +44 20 7960 0500) offers train trips and tours in England.
Travel toesocks
The Travel Performance Toesock from Injinji provides light compression (to prevent deep-vein thrombosis) and has antimicrobial silver microfibers to prevent odor and a moisture-wicking fiber to keep feet dry.
Don’t feed the baboons!
An estimated 350 chacma baboons, a protected species under South African law, live in and around Cape Town. After years of being fed by tourists and tour operators interested in photo ops, the baboons have become dangerously aggressive, snatching snacks from people and even breaking into cars to steal food.
Feejee Experience
In Fiji, the tour company Feejee Experience (Fiji International Airport, Nadi, Fiji; phone +679 672 5950 or 672 3311, fax 672 0097, www.feejeeexperience.com) offers hop-on, hop-off bus itineraries to take at one’s own pace.
Concerts in Germany
The organization Perlen der Klassik, or Pearls of the Classical (Berlin; info phone +49 030 43 60 53 90 or ticket phone +49 030 41 74 44 14 or visit www.berliner-schlosskonzerte.de [in German]), stages performances of classical music in ancient buildings in Germany.
Deals in Germany
In Berlin, admission to museums is free on Thursdays four hours before closing. In Düsseldorf, you can take a one-hour Rhine cruise for $8; visit http://stadtfuehrungen.duesseldorf-tourismus.de.
Middle Ages manuscripts
“Masterly Manuscripts,” an exhibition of more than 100 manuscripts produced in Utrecht in the Middle Ages, is running at Museum Catharijneconvent (Lange Nieuwstraat 38, 3512 PH, Utrecht, Netherlands; phone +31 [0] 30 231 38 35, fax 231 78 96, www.catharijneconvent.nl), May 16-Aug. 23, 2009.
Coke machines in Venice
The cash-strapped city of Venice, Italy, has signed a €2.1 million ($2.7 million) deal with Coca-Cola to place soda and snack vending machines around the city.
Eurostar & city transit tix
Travelers who ride Eurostar (phone +44 0 1233 617 575, www.eurostar.com) now can purchase, on board the train, tickets for public transit within Paris, London or Brussels. Pounds or euros are accepted. For Paris, 10 Métro tickets cost £12.
Saga Rose’s farewell
The Saga Rose, built in 1965 (as the Sagafjord), will depart Southampton, England, for its 44th and final cruise, a 37-night voyage through the Mediterranean, on Oct. 30, 2009. The 587-passenger ship will visit Barcelona, Venice, Rome, Corfu, Dubrovnik, Rhodes, Alexandria and Casablanca.
John Calvin at 500
In Geneva, the International Museum of the Reformation (4, rue du Cloitre, CH-1204, Geneva, Switzerland; phone +41 22 310 24 31, fax 310 74 45, www.musee-reforme.ch) will hold an exhibition honoring the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin.
Travel with Spirit
Looking at travel from a Christian perspective, the magazine Travel with Spirit (Box 1318, Sunset Beach, CA 90742; 888/518-7571, www.travelwithspirit.com) was launched in January. Published by Travel Network Group, LLC, it offers faith-based travel, mission and ministry articles.
Costa Rica fee
CORRECTION — ITN incorrectly reported (Feb. ’09, pg. 84) that Costa Rica had dropped its 3% hotel tax and was to replace it with a flat fee of $15 to be added to air tickets.
Berlin Philharmonic
The Berlin Philharmonic orchestra (Simon Rattle, conducting) will perform an open-air concert at Berlin’s Waldbühne Amphitheater on June 21, 2009, at 8:15 p.m. The program includes works by Aram Khachaturian, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Igor Stravinsky.
RMS St. Helena
The last Royal Mail ship — which sails the South Atlantic between St. Helena, Ascension Island, Walvis Bay, Cape Town and Tenerife (and the UK twice a year) — will reach the end of its working life in 2010.