May 2013

Riga, Latvia, has more Art Nouveau, or Jugendstil, architecture (about 40% of the buildings in its city center) than any other city.

At the Art Noveau Museum (Alberta Street 12, Riga; phone +371 67181465), located in the architect Konstantīns Pēkšēns’ self-designed house, visitors can see rooms as they looked in Peksens’ time, with dishes, furniture and items chosen to match the Art Nouveau theme.

Admission costs 3.5 lats (near $6.40) May-September or 2.5 lats ($4.60) October-April.

In China’s Heilongjiang Province, 800 miles northeast of Beijing, the Ice & Snow World Theme Park is open every year from late December through February in the capital, Harbin. It features ice carvings and sculptures by artists from around the world. Among structures built from ice and/or snow for 2012-2013 were a 157-foot-high palace, an ice maze, an ice hotel and an ice bar.

Visitors also can enjoy rock (ice) climbing, skating, skiing, ice golf and ice archery. At night, multicolored lights illuminate the park.

The tour company China Travel Guide has launched a new free app for iPhone, China Trains, which allows users to check China’s train schedules, plan trips to many cities, look up trains by number and check ticket availability, all in English.

Tickets cannot be purchased from the app, but the schedules can be downloaded for offline use. The app is available on the Apple App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

The surprising discovery of the remains of infamous King Richard III (1452-1485) in Leicester, England, in early 2013 has resulted in a popular exhibition of the artifacts found during the dig plus information about his reign. Admission is free to the Guildhall (in the town center, by the Cathedral). Open 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily.

The temporary Guildhall exhibition may find a permanent home elsewhere in Leicester in 2014. For info, visit www.sociallyleicestershire.co.uk.

On the website www.hostelworld.com, a traveler can book accommodations at any of 24,000 hostels in 180 countries. Hostelworld is the only online hostel-reservation site to offer a money-back Service Guarantee.

This interactive crossword puzzle is no longer available online.

With 440 rooms, France’s Château de Chambord is one of the Loire Valley’s most impressive châteaux.

JACK & YVONNE PREVO

McKinney, TX

(First of three parts)

In Christchurch, New Zealand, the Canterbury Museum (99 Cashel St) has an exhibit about the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that hit the city in February 2011. “Quake City” explores the seismic activity in the region, runs films and displays objects damaged in the quake, notably the fallen spire of the ChristChurch Cathedral. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily. Entry, NZD10 (near $8.40).

(Second of two parts on Italy)