Dublin, Ireland, walking tour audio guides by historian Pat Liddy can be downloaded free to iPods or MP3 players from the Dublin Tourism website (www.visitdublin.com/multimedia/dublinpodcasts/iwalk.aspx?id=275).
Each podcast lasts 26 to 44 minutes and is accompanied by a printable PDF booklet with details on each site plus a map of the route. Tours include “Croke Park Museum,” “Castles and Cathedrals,” “Temple Bar to the Docklands,” etc.
Every New Year’s Eve in Zürich, 150,000 people attend an open-air festival with food stalls, bars and music. Fireworks at midnight. Contact Zürich Tourism (P.O. Box CH-8021 Zürich, Switzerland; www.zuerich.com).
Peter Deilmann Cruises (Alexandria, VA) announced that after October 2009, due to insolvency in its river cruise division, it would no longer be operating river cruises in Europe and will sell its eight river vessels. However, it plans to continue operating ocean cruises on its 513-passenger Deutschland.
The Shroud of Turin, revered by many Christians as the cloth Jesus was wrapped in when placed in his tomb, will be on display at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, April 4-May 20, 2010 — the first time on public display in over 10 years. It was restored in 2002.
Tickets will be in demand for pilgrimage tours. Independent travelers can prebook beginning in December 2009 through Museo della Sindone (Via San Domenico 28, 10122, Turin, Italy; phone 011 436 5832, www.sindone.org).
The exhibit “Turner and the Masters” at the Tate Britain (Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG, U.K.; phone +44 20 7887 8888, www.tate.org.uk/britain/information) pairs some of JMW Turner’s greatest paintings with works by old masters such as Canaletto, Rembrandt and Rubens as well as contemporaries such as Constable and Bonington.
10-5 daily, Sept. 23, 2009-Jan. 31, 2010. Entry to the Tate is free but to the special exhibit, €12.50 adult or €10.50 senior.
The later works of Pierre-Auguste Renoir will be on display in “Renoir in the 20th Century” at Paris’ National Galleries of the Grand Palais (3, ave. du Général-Eisenhower, 75008, Paris; phone 01 44 13 17 17, www.grandpalais.fr), Sept. 23, 2009-Jan. 4, 2010. €12 (near $17) adult, €9 senior/student.
When the Neues Museum opens in Berlin on Oct. 16, 2009, after an 11-year, $255-million restoration, it will be the first time in 70 years that all five museums on Museum Island will be open to the public.
The new, 3-story Acropolis Museum, 1,000 feet southeast of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, opened June 20. Hundreds of statues and artifacts from the old museum and around the Acropolis are displayed in one building for the first time.
The top floor holds the Athens fragments of the Parthenon Frieze, with white plaster copies in the spaces left for the rest of the fragments, the “Elgin Marbles,” currently and controversially in the British Museum in London.
A reader reported having been informed on June 12 that their June 17-24 Dalmatian Coast cruise with Elegant Cruises & Tours (Port Washington, NY; www.elegantcruises.com) had been canceled. ITN called the company and was told that all May, June and July cruises of the Monet had been canceled “due to a lack of bookings and interest” but that cruises would be running August to November.
Aurora Expeditions (Level 2, 88 George St., The Rocks, NSW 2000, Australia; phone +61 2 9252 1033, fax 9252 1373, www.auroraexpeditions.com.au), on selected Antarctic cruises, allows passengers to camp under the stars on the ice at no extra cost. Among cruises that offer this is the 12-day “Climbers and Kayakers” cruise, Dec. 7-18, at $6,090-$10,390.