Travel Briefs

Brussels hosts the 3-day Ommegang Pageant annually in the first week of July. Reenacting the spectacular entry of Charles V into Brussels in 1549, 1,400-plus Belgians take part. Dressed as nobles, guildsmen and jesters, they move on horseback or on foot in a procession from the Sablon to the Grand Place.

The pageant and a sound-and-light show at the Grand Place take place on two evenings (tickets required). There are also jousting tournaments at the Place du Sablon on certain afternoons (free).

In Brussels, the antique market at Place du Grand Sablon is open 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and 9-2 Sunday. For info, contact Marché des Antiquaires du Sablon (32, rue Remi Soetens, 1090 Brussels, Belgium; phone/fax [02] 478 23 16, www.sablonantiques market.com).

The 54th annual Brussels Antiques & Art Fair (Tour & Taxis building, avenue du Port 86 C/ B - 1000, Brussels, Belgium; phone 32 02 513 48 31, fax 32 02 502 06 86, www.brafa.be) will be held Jan. 23-Feb. 1, 2009. Entry, €20 ($25). Catalog, €10. Guided tours daily at 3.

The Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte was inspired by the bizarre and absurd. The new Magritte Museum (Place Royale, 1-100 Brussels, Belgium; phone +32 2 508 31 11, www.montdesarts.be) is set to open in the Mont des Arts (Museum Quarter) of Brussels, June 2, 2009. It will hold 200 works — the largest collection of Magritte paintings, plus archival material, letters written by the painter, photographs and drawings. Open 10-5, Tuesday-Sunday. €5.

In Treviso, Italy, the gallery Casa dei Carraresi (Via Palestro 33, 31100 Treviso, Italy; phone 0422 410886, fax 0422 303890 or visit, in Italian only, www.artematica.tv) is holding a retrospective on the work of the 18th-century, Venetian, large-scale-landscape painter Giovanni Antonio Canal, best known as Canaletto, until April 5, 2009. A hundred of his works plus those of other artists. Closed Monday. With audiotape, €12 ($15) adult or €9 senior.

In Amsterdam, the Van Gogh Museum (P.O. Box 75366, 1070 AJ Amsterdam, Netherlands; phone +31 020 570 5200, fax 570 5222) will exhibit the artist’s evening and nighttime scenes, Feb. 13-June 7, 2009.

There will be 32 paintings (including “Starry Night,” on loan from the MoMA in New York), 19 works on paper and five sketches. Tickets cost €18.50 (near $23) and may be purchased online.

2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of “On the Origin of Species.” For event info, visit www.darwin200.org. Here are some events.

• Darwin exhibition through April 19 at Natural History Museum in London (www.nhm.ac.uk). 10-5:30 daily. £9 adult, £4.50 child. Commissioned artwork to be unveiled on his birthday, Feb. 12.

Devastating seasonal fires that raged from mid-September through October 2008 destroyed thousands of square kilometers of the Central Kalahari Game Preserve in Botswana. However, an initial report that the 2-million-year-old Gcwihaba Caves were destroyed in the fire has proved to be false.

Although the fire scorched the veldt around Gcwihaba, a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site for its natural beauty and value to Paleolithic studies, the interiors of the caves were undamaged.

US Customs & Border Protection has added more airports to the Global Entry program for travelers coming back into the US. Airports with kiosks that offer registered members a speedier alternative to the passport control lines include Miami Int’l, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, George Bush (Houston), Washington Dulles, JFK-New York, Chicago O’Hare and Los Angeles.

A one-hour drive from London, the Historic Dockyard Chatham (Chatham, Kent, ME4 4TZ, England; phone info line +44 [0] 1634 823807 or Trust office 823800, fax 823801, www.chdt.org.uk) is an 80-acre complex with historic warships, historic buildings and museum galleries. Among displays are a WWII destroyer, a Cold War submarine and a Victorian naval sloop.

It is signposted from the A2/M2 (junction 1). An entry fee of £13.50 (near $24) adult or £11 senior is valid for one year, excluding two events in April and September.

Kenilworth Castle, one of the most spectacular castle ruins in England, is re-creating one of the greatest gardens of the Elizabethan age. It will be fully open to the public in May 2009, with carved arbors, a bejeweled aviary and an 18-foot-high fountain.

Sneak-preview guided tours are offered at 2 and 3 p.m. each Friday through March 31. Kenilworth Castle & Gardens (www.english-heritage.org.uk/kenilworthcastle) is open 10-5 daily. £6.20 adult, £3.10 child.