Destination: Europe
U.S. Issues Travel Alert for Americans in Europe
by Michael Yessis | 10.04.10 | 11:16 AM ET
The State Department alerted U.S. citizens in Europe yesterday to “the potential for terrorist attacks.” From the alert:
Current information suggests that al-Qa’ida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks. European governments have taken action to guard against a terrorist attack and some have spoken publicly about the heightened threat conditions.
The government suggests U.S. travelers in Europe register their travel plans, but not cancel them. The Under Secretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy added some context in a teleconference:
We are not, repeat not, advising Americans not to go to Europe. That is not - this is an alert, and we put out an alert, as you said - as I’ve said, and I think you’ve noted, to ensure that American citizens are aware of the possible incidents.
Now, we tell them that - basically, to use common sense if they see unattended packages or they hear loud noises or they see something beginning to happen that they should quickly move away from them. These are common sense precautions that people ought to take - don’t have lots of baggage tags on your luggage that directly identify you as an American, know how to use the pay telephone, know how to contact the American embassy if you need help.
And very importantly, as it says in the Travel Alert that we put out today, register - and you can do that online and the website tells you how to do it - register with the American embassy or consulate in the location you’re visiting so that if you need help, we might be able to find you, and if anyone inquires about your welfare and whereabouts, should there be, tragically, an incident, we would know how to reach out to you.
The vagueness of the alert has baffled and frustrated some travelers.
In follow up stories, however, some news organizations are noting specifics. CNN points to intelligence chatter about “Mumbai-style attacks,” referring to the “commando like attack featuring small units and small firearms” across the Indian city in 2008. ABC reports several European airports are among potential targets.
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Yahoo! BuzzThe Art of Digital Travel Panorama Photography
by Jeff Pflueger | 10.04.10 | 10:50 AM ET
Jeff Pflueger Like many places, Istanbul chuckles at efforts to capture it in a photo. Here's one way to get the last laugh.
For Sale: Britain’s ‘Most Remote Pub’
by Eva Holland | 10.01.10 | 1:15 PM ET
The Guardian’s Andrew Gilchrist reports that the Old Forge, a pub in Western Scotland reachable only by a long hike or by boat, is in need of new ownership—and that the current owners “won’t be selling to anyone who won’t keep its spirit alive.” Here’s Gilchrist’s take on that spirit:
From hikers to yachties to locals, anyone who has ever been to the Old Forge will tell you it’s a special place. It’s not just the food, from its Skye crab to its haggis lasagne, that’s fantastic; it’s not just the fact that its local ales, such as Red Cuillin, go down a treat after a day out on some of west coast’s finest peaks; nor is it just the ravishing view out across the bay at dusk, to those giant knuckles of rock encircling the still waters. No: it’s the whole party spirit that seems to affect the place as the sun goes down. Drums, guitars and fiddles line the walls - and they are not there for show.
“Your pals are no bad on the guitars,” the barman told me one night, after an evening of everything from Burns to the Proclaimers, from Biffy Clyro to George Michael. “You know, if they keep the place going, we’ll no shut.”
Expat Pleasures: Jimmy Buffett, Live in Paris
by Eva Holland | 09.29.10 | 12:56 PM ET
Jim Manzi is living in Paris, where a recent Buffett concert has him reflecting on the expat experience:
One of the many great things about living here is the fun of having typically American experiences completely out-of-context. The annual late-September Buffett concert in Paris has become, like the seven-a-sides in Hong Kong, a ritual gathering point for expats for thousands of miles around. This created a hilarious Anglophone bubble in the middle of Paris. About the only French I heard came from Jimmy at the mic (who, having lived here years ago, still seems to have pretty passable French).
A surprising number of his songs reference the city. In fact, he closed the concert with a great acoustic version of He Went to Paris, which is a song that Bob Dylan cited as one of his favorite tunes by one of his favorite songwriters. Though not many of us here are living a Lost Generation literary life, it still felt very bonding.
I can relate. One of my favorite weekends, during the year I lived in England, was spent preparing a makeshift Thanksgiving dinner and tossing a football around the backyard with other North American students—funny, since pigskin and pumpkin pie are no part of my life at home, however “typical” they are supposed to be. As Manzi points out, context is everything when you’re living abroad.
World Travel Watch: Second Bomb Threat at the Eiffel Tower, Rabies in Bali and More
by Larry Habegger | 09.29.10 | 11:38 AM ET
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World Travel Watch: Commonwealth Games Concerns in India, Elections in Cuzco and More
by Larry Habegger | 09.22.10 | 12:46 PM ET
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Paris Offers Free Sparkling Water
by Michael Yessis | 09.22.10 | 11:52 AM ET
In one public water fountain, in a wooden hut, in the Jardin de Reuilly. The Guardian explains:
France’s addiction to bottled sparkling water is up there with its penchant for bike racing, foie gras and Johnny Hallyday. Now, authorities in Paris are attempting to fight back against the national dependence by unveiling a public water fountain that gushes with chilled bubbles.
La Pétillante - literally, she who sparkles - is the first fountain in France to inject carbon dioxide into tap water before cooling it and serving it up to passers-by. Inaugurated today in the Jardin de Reuilly in south-east Paris, it is expected to prove a user-friendly means of weaning the French off the bottle.
France pinched the idea from Italy, which already has 215 sparkling water fountains.
Are the Olympics ‘Toxic’ for Tourism?
by Eva Holland | 09.21.10 | 2:20 PM ET
That’s the concern in London, where a report from the European Tour Operators Association suggests that host cities routinely overestimate the visitor bounce they’ll receive from the Games. Here’s the Guardian’s Owen Gibson:
Lord Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, has talked of 1 million “extra” visitors coming to the UK for the games.
But the ETOA report claimed that the perception that the host city would be crowded and prices expensive was likely to tarnish the view of the country as a whole.
It said its members were already dealing with the perception that the UK would be crowded and so best avoided in 2012.
For what it’s worth, London, I’m hoping to be there.
World Travel Watch: Turmoil in Kashmir, Criminal Gangs in El Salvador and More
by Larry Habegger | 09.16.10 | 10:46 AM ET
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World Travel Watch: Mudslides in Guatemala, Bombing in Cancun and More
by Larry Habegger | 09.08.10 | 1:41 PM ET
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Interview with Michael Scott Moore: ‘Sweetness and Blood’
by Jim Benning | 09.08.10 | 12:32 PM ET
Jim Benning talks with the author of a new travel book about the spread of surfing around the globe
Europe: East vs. West, or North vs. South?
by Eva Holland | 09.07.10 | 4:21 PM ET
Anne Applebaum thinks the continent’s axis is changing, from the East-West divide of the Cold War era to a new, and more fluid, North-South split. She writes in Slate:
North and South: Not everybody is going to like that concept, especially not the new South, some of whose members are not necessarily in the southern half of the continent. For these are not geographical designations, but political terms of art. The South contains all those countries whose political classes have not been able to balance their national budgets, whose bureaucrats have not been able to reduce their numbers, whose voters have not learned to approve of austerity: Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, and—at the moment—Ireland.
The North contains the budget hawks: Germany, Poland, Estonia, Scandinavia, the Czechs, and the Slovaks. Britain’s new government, with its austerity budget, aims to return to the North, following its recent experience of life in the South. France floats somewhere in between. Wealth, as such, isn’t northern: Much of the South is very rich. But in the North, private wealth has grown more or less in tandem with the public sector. Private wealth and public squalor are more typical of the South.
Photo You Must See: Shooting Star Over Stonehenge
by World Hum | 09.07.10 | 4:19 PM ET
REUTERS/Kieran Doherty A meteor drops through the starry sky above Stonehenge, in southern England, during the annual Perseid meteor shower
Travels in a Troubled Greece
by Rick Steves | 09.07.10 | 12:59 PM ET
The country's economic problems are deep and real. So does Greece remain an enjoyable place to travel?
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by Larry Habegger | 09.02.10 | 12:09 PM ET
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