Travel Briefs | International Travel News

June 2011 issue

International art fest in Venice

“La Venice Biennale 2011,” the 54th International Art Exhibition in Venice, Italy, June 4-Nov. 27, 2011, has 89 countries participating at 12 venues. In addition to contemporary visual arts, it includes a film festival (Aug. 31-Sept. 10), a theater festival (Oct. 10-16) and a music festival (Sept. 24-Oct. 1). Tickets and events calendar at www.labiennale.org.

Visual arts are at Giardini Park and Arsenale, and one entry to both sites costs €20. At Giardini Park, 30 countries have permanent pavilions; this year’s show at the Indian pavilion is titled “Everyone Agrees: It’s About to...

June 2011 issue

Swiss steam trains

The Furka Pass train route, which runs past the Rhone Glacier in Switzerland, was to be shut down with the opening of the Furka Base Tunnel in 1982, which made the route obsolete. Thanks to a private initiative, restored steam locomotives and reassembled original carriages from the early 1900s are traveling the route. The steam trains stopped running in 1968 and began again in 1999.

From late June to early October, travelers can take a two-hour trip from the Realp station (in Uri canton) through tunnels and across bridges to Gletsch (in Valais canton). From Gletsch, yellow PostBuses...

August 2011 issue

Beijing rodeo

Rodeo China (1 Apple Orchard Ln., Clover, SC 29710), along with the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, will be holding a Western-style rodeo in Beijing, Oct. 3-10, 2011.

The event will be held in the National Stadium, the “Bird’s Nest,” with over 150 horses, bulls and livestock. 105 competitors will attempt to win $8 million in prize money.

July 2011 issue

Check a wine bottle

A bottle of wine, perfume, etc., can be transported in checked baggage with a JetBag (Lathrup Village, MI; 248/891 8939). At 18 inches tall and 0.3 ounces, it easily holds a wine bottle. The bag, lined with absorbent fibers in the event of bottle breakage, closes with a reusable zip seal. A pack of three JetBags costs $15 plus $2.99 shipping.

September 2011 issue

Narrow gauge in Latvia

Travelers to Latvia’s northern Vidzeme Province can ride the only functioning narrow-gauge diesel-engine train in the Baltics. The line was originally built in 1903 and covered 212 kilometers, but only 33 kilometers of the original track remain, connecting the towns of Gulbene and Aluksne.

Three restored diesel-engine locomotives, built in the 1920s, 1960s and 1980s, as well as several restored passenger carriages are used on the one-hour-and-25-minute route. There are two departures per day from both Gulbene (1 and 6 p.m.) and Aluksne (3:25 and 7:55 p.m.). The basic fare is 2...

December 2011 issue

Masters in Barcelona

Two painters from the Romantic Period — an exhibit of 100-plus works of Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), the largest retrospective of his art in nearly 50 years, will be held Feb. 15-May 20, 2012, and nearly 100 works of Francisco Goya (1746-1828) will be shown March 16-June 24 at CaixaForum Barcelona (Av. de Francesc Ferrar I Guàrdia 6-8, 08038 Barcelona, Spain; phone +34 93 476 86 00). Open 10-8 Mon.-Sun., 10-10 Sat. Free.

June 2011 issue

Happy 150th, Italy!

2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy. Through November, special events are planned in Turin (the country’s first capital) at the Officine Grandi Riparazioni, a complex of workshops, and La Venaria Reale, a royal palace.

Among the offerings are exhibitions on 150 years of Italian fashion and the history of Italy since its unification.

And once a month until November, Royal Dinners will be held in the Great Gallery of the Reggia di Venaria, each featuring different regional specialties. Dinner tables seat eight to 10 people each. €60 (near $89) per...

August 2011 issue

Titanic exhibit

“TITANICa: The Exhibition,” on display in the Transport Galleries at Northern Ireland’s Ulster Folk & Transport Museum (phone +44 [0] 28 9042 8428) — on the main Belfast-to-Bangor road [A2], near Holywood — features 500 artifacts, including items from the Titanic’s parent company, White Star Line, as well as objects recovered from the wreck site of the ill-fated ship.

The museum’s outdoor Folk Museum transports visitors to the streets of Belfast in the past, with trains and trams that shipyard workers would have traveled on to the shipyard where the Titanic was built.

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