Celebrating the art of Jean Michel Folon, exhibits are planned throughout Belgium, until Sept. 28, 2008, including a major outdoor sculpture exhibition in Solvay Park at the Château de La Hulpe (Folon Foundation, Dreve de la Ramee 6A, 1310 La Hulpe, Belgium; phone +32 0 2 653 34 56, www.foundationfolon.be), 10-6 Tuesday-Sunday (€7.50 adult).
Several major chains are offering hotel packages.
At the restaurant ’s Bagger’s in Nuremburg, Germany, the food is sent to you directly from the kitchen without waiters. It comes stashed in large pots which slide down 15-foot steel spiral ramps, slowing to a stop at your table.
You order and pay on a touch screen at your table. Entrées, salads, desserts and drinks are sold à la carte and cost €3-€8 (near $4.50-$12). Busboys clean up, but no waiters hover and recite the “daily special.”
At the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew (Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AB, UK; phone 02 8332 5655, visit www.kew.org), in Greater London, two new installations open May 24, 2008.
• At the Rhizotron, an underground display, visitors will enter through a “crack” in the earth and watch a changing LED light mosaic that depicts the interactions between tree roots and soil microorganisms such as fungi. Animated wall displays further carry out the theme.
The Hassler Roma hotel’s “Roman Skyline Package” includes a helicopter ride in Rome over the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica, the Colosseum and the Pantheon.
Until Dec. 31, 2008, the package cost of €6,570 (near $9,800) per room, double occupancy, includes three nights in a Classic Suite, airport/hotel private transfer (a charge of €50 applies 9 p.m.-7 a.m.), dinners (excluding beverages), buffet breakfasts, a 30-minute helicopter ride (additional time with supplement), hotel/heliport limo transfer and more.
After six years’ closure, the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, over 1,100 miles WNW of Honolulu, once again is admitting visitors. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is allowing Oceanic Society, a nonprofit marine conservation organization, to offer educational tours during the months November to July.
The Ashford Castle hotel (800/346-7007, www.ashford.ie), near Galway City in Ireland’s west country, offers the program “How to Drive on the Left.”
Including an hour of instruction and an hour of behind-the-wheel training in a manual or automatic car, the class focuses on concentration, navigating roundabouts and judging distances plus offers info on remote road signs in Gaelic.
In yet another crackdown in Venice, Italy’s, St. Mark’s Square, the sale of pigeon food has been banned, this against the objections of vendors of bird seed and corn in the piazza.
Officials hope to drive the birds out of the city. Not only are the birds’ droppings a health risk, particularly during periods of high water, but they are etching away at monuments and flagstones.
Several European cities prohibit people from feeding pigeons.
Visit London is hosting links to free podcasts about the city. For example, if you want to visit “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age,” at the hall O2 in Greenwich through Aug. 30, 2008, you can download a 14-minute commentary featuring interviews with an Egyptologist, the exhibit’s designer and actor Omar Sharif.
For fans of theater, art, outdoor activities, children’s attractions or exploring London by bicycle, there are specialized podcasts as well as links to maps and detailed information. Visit www.london.com/maps/podcasts.
Hapag-Lloyd (East Meadow, NY; 877/445-7447, www.hl-cruises.com) is offering free airfare from New York City on one of the line’s 15-day golf-and-cruise packages on the 408-passenger MS Europa.
The Nov. 25-Dec. 9, 2008, sailing from the Indian Ocean’s Mauritius to South Africa includes play on courses such as Richards Bay Country Club on the shores of Mzingazi Lake and Humewood Golf Course near Cape Town. Prices range from $11,735 to $21,510 per person, double.
Value World Tours (Fountain Valley, CA; 800/795-1633, www.valuecruises.net) is building the colonial-style ship RV Indochine to sail between Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam, and Siem Reap, Cambodia. “Mekong Delta Cruise” voyages start Oct. 10, 2008.
For the cruise only, per-person prices range from $1,999 (category C) to $2,398 (category A). For a 15-day/13-night land/cruise package, per-person prices are $2,499 (C cabin) to $2,898 (A cabin); with air from the West Coast, add $1,000. Add $120 in port charges and $130 for visas.