History

16 days, 14 nights, Sept. 14-29, 2015. Lodging in historic country houses, inns. Highlights: In Edinburgh, city tour, whisky-tasting lesson/Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness/in Glasgow, Stirling Castle, Glengoyne distillery/Belfast tour/Glenveagh National Park/Cliffs of Moher/Ring of Kerry, Killarney National Park/in Kenmare, Bronze Age stone circle/Blarney Castle. From Boston or New York, $6,599 per person, double occupancy (ppdo). Single supp., $1,064. Olde Ipswich Tours (Ipswich, MA; 877/356-5163, www.ipswichtours.com).

The trip to Portugal that my wife, Yuki, and I took in August 2014 might not have been as exotic as some of our past vacations, but we met some really nice folks and ate some interesting food.

Until Sept. 20, 2015, a 3,500-square-meter, 1:1 ratio, 360-degree panorama of the Battle of the Nations in Leipzig is open. The panorama is painted on the interior walls of the Leipzig Panometer, a 161-foot-tall, 187-feet-in-diameter gasometer (gas storage building) built in 1909. Visitors can view it from the ground or on levels of a 50-foot-tall platform.

In October 1813, 550,000 soldiers fought in the battle, with Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against French forces led by Napoleon. 

The Baraccia fountain, at the foot of the Spanish Steps in Rome, was damaged on Feb. 19 by Dutch soccer fans rioting before a Europa League match. 

The fountain — which was built in 1627, depicts a sinking boat and had recently been restored — had pieces chipped off, some as large as 8x3cm, and garbage was thrown into the pool.

Police arrested 23 people. The Embassy of the Netherlands blamed the incident on a subset of particularly disorderly fans. 

The monument shown in the photo in the December 2014 issue is located in Panama City's Plaza de Francia (French Park), at the tip of Casco Viejo, the city's colonial neighborhood. At the top of the obelisk, built in commemoration of those who died during construction of the Panama Canal, is a rooster, France's national symbol. Smaller monuments, each topped by a bust of a prominent French explorer, surround the obelisk.