Francisco Rosario

Pedro Luis Ferrer

Music
On May 10, Cuban bohemians young and old will crowd SOB’s nightclub to see Pedro Luis Ferrer, a controversial Havana folksinger blacklisted by the government for years for his tongue-in-cheek criticism of the revolution. In a country where the average monthly salary is around $20, and few Cubans can afford luxuries that tourists enjoy, his song “100% Cubano” has a deceptively comic tune and biting lyrics: “Since my Cuba is 100 percent Cuban…tomorrow I’ll reserve the best hotel in Havana…with this money of mine I earned cutting sugarcane.”

Although some U.S. musicians still have problems securing visas to Cuba, says SOB’s owner Larry Gold, these days it’s exponentially easier to bring Cuban acts to the United States. “It’s not like during the Clinton era,” Gold says, when Cuban musicians came after decades of isolation and “there was a real taste of the forbidden fruit.” Now, Gold says, “We consistently do all types of Cuban music, from son to timba to trova. Cuban music has the mother lode of rhythms — so many different rhythms within such a small country.”

Northern New Jersey is home to the largest Cuban-American population outside of Miami, but there are plenty of spots in New York City to grab a plate of ropa vieja (beef stew), tostones (fried green plantains), and black beans, tossed back with a mojito or Cuba Libre.

In the West Village, Havana Alma de Cuba has a $5 mojito happy hour Monday through Friday, and complimentary cigars for customers Tuesday and Wednesday evenings (though not the real deal from Havana). Another tasty option worth a trip — but just to Brooklyn, don’t worry — is Pilar Cuban Eatery in Clinton Hill, which serves a mean marinated roast pork pernil. 

Art
One of Fidel and Raul Castro’s biggest talking points is the island’s free education system, including art schools which have produced a wealth of edgy, often conceptual contemporary art. Through June 23, the Center for Cuban Studies celebrates its 40-year anniversary with a show of painting, sculpture, drawings and mixed-media pieces by 25 Cuban artists, including up-and-coming emerging creators and those who came of age during the 1970s and 1980s.

For collectors looking to do more than browse, Chelsea’s Magnan Metz Gallery represents big-name Cuban artists, such as Alexandre Arrechea, a former member of the installation collective Los Carpinteros.

History
After all the eating, dancing and mojitos, leave time for a quiet Sunday afternoon in Central Park, spending time with the father of Cuban nationhood, Jose Martí. (Or a statue of him, at least, at W 59^th Street and 6^th Avenue.) Exiled in 1880 after being sentenced to six years in prison for organizing against the Spanish, Martí fled to New York, where he penned some of his most esteemed essays and poems — of which every good Cuban can quote dozens by memory for any occasion.

The statue shows a proud Martí on his steed forging into the war for independence from Spain, where he died on the battlefield in 1895. 

Related stories

• Reporter’s notebook: Return to Cuba
• US loosens strictures on traveling to Cuba
• Video: American tourists quick to travel to Cuba 

Article source: http://itineraries.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/09/11604349-experience-cuba-without-leaving-nyc?lite

Kate Appleton

Originally built in 1922, Jane’s Carousel has 48 glass-eyed horses, with ornate saddles and gold-leaf detailing, that are housed in a pavilion in N.Y.’s Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Brooklyn’s waterfront has long been famous for its skyline view, but now there’s a new way to enjoy it: from the saddle of an ornately carved horse at Jane’s Carousel. Built in 1922, the restored carousel spins within a modern glass shed below the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.

Slideshow: See where America’s best carousels are

It took exceptional devotion to complete the 27-year restoration of Jane’s Carousel, but most of us can easily relate to the nostalgic appeal of a merry-go-round: the sound of the organ, the whimsical wooden animals pumping up and down, the lights reflected in the mirrors. And while carousels aren’t likely to be the reason you travel, they’re often placed somewhere iconic (Boston Common) or beautiful (Santa Monica pier), where you’d be drawn naturally. The ride is an added, affordable delight.

“The carousel was the first form of mechanical recreation and the original root of modern amusements,” says Bette Largent, president of the National Carousel Association. The earliest carousels date back to around A.D. 500, though you’d hardly recognize them: rather than lit-up spectacles, these were baskets hand-spun around a central pole. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that carousels as we know them came into existence.

Today, roughly 400 merry-go-rounds are in operation across America, whether in city parks or at kid-friendly attractions such as zoos. Michigan’s Grand Rapids Museum finds its own way to incorporate the wild: its carousel is housed in a glass building that juts over a river. With a little imagination, you’ll feel as if you’re about ready to gallop through the water.

If you want more of a tangible rush — as far as carousels go — swing by Cedar Downs Racing Derby in Sandusky, Ohio, where the mechanical horses reach speeds of up to 15 miles per hour and move back and forth as they vie for first place.

So what is in store for the future of carousels? Well, according to Largent, it’s a nod to the past. “The latest trend is a return of the wooden carousel,” says Largent. “We may indeed have as many woodcarvers today as during the height of the industry in the early 1900s.”

More from Travel + Leisure

• Best secret beaches on Earth
• America’s best and worst airports
• Europe travel: Best money-saving tips
• World’s most unusual hotels

Article source: http://itineraries.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/09/11374316-saddle-up-americas-best-carousels?lite

LONDON — It’s months before athletes hit the Olympic track, but time is running out for those in another fierce competition: The scramble for a place to stay in London.

Some innkeepers will be charging Ritz rates for Fawlty Towers rooms — and they will get away with it.

A limited hotel supply and unprecedented demand from almost a million tourists, media and businesspeople tied to the London Games means that accommodation in the British capital — never a bargain to start with — is more expensive than ever this summer.

That guarantees a bumper year for London’s hotel and rental sectors, but a nightmare for those who have been dragging their feet on making sleeping arrangements.

Already, many central London hotels are fully booked from mid-July to mid-August, and those that still have rooms available now charge anything from double to four times more than their normal rates.

Related: Heathrow feels the heat as Olympics approach

“It’s almost too late now to get into central London,” said Miles Quest, a spokesman for the British Hospitality Association. “(Visitors) need to look outside the central area, where rooms will clearly be cheaper.”

It’s too good a business opportunity to miss, and hoteliers aren’t the only ones cashing in. Vacation rental agencies and websites have reported a massive boom in business, with many homeowners planning to stay with friends or go abroad so they can rent out their homes.

“There was a massive increase in traffic as soon as 2012 turned — it was overnight. It was really crazy,” said Matthew Parker, who is doing a brisk trade on his website Londonrentmyhouse.com, a matchmaking service for enterprising people looking to rent out their homes and visitors seeking a short-term stay.

“The site is taking adverts (ads) everyday, we’re into the thousands now and many more to come. Homeowners are really grabbing the idea and running with it,” he added.

It’s easy to see why. London tourism officials expect about 900,000 Olympics-related visitors — including athletes, their families, staff, journalists, and tourists — to London this summer, all needing a bed. That’s on top of the 1.5 million tourists London typically sees every August.

1. 1. 
      

      
      Alamy
      

      
      LaGuardia, LAX ranked America’s worst airports
      
      

      
      Minneapolis-St. Paul International (pictured), meanwhile, took top honors in Travel + Leisure magazine’s rankings of America’s 22 major airports.
      

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      Welcome to America? For foreigners, not so much
      
      

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      Frommer’s introduces interactive guides for iPad
      
      

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      Delta buys oil refinery but travelers still pay high prices
      
      

   5. 
      

      
      
      Video: Discover Channel crashes jet for science
      
      

Even with many new hotels springing up all over the capital, there are only about 110,000 hotel rooms in the London area — and almost a third of those have been allocated to Olympic personnel.

Tourism officials have brushed off the shortage, insisting that London has more rooms and a bigger range of sleeping options than any other Olympic host city has been able to offer. They have also been encouraging visitors to research alternatives like hostels, bed-and-breakfast inns and university dorm rooms.

Still, they acknowledge they are not in a position to do anything about what Tessa Jowell, an opposition lawmaker, has called a “scandal of extortionate price rises.”

A recent survey by London-based international booking website Hotels.com suggested that the average London hotel room rate has doubled for the Olympic period compared to last year, but it’s clear in many cases the jump is much steeper.

At the Travelodge in Stratford, the budget chain’s property next to the Olympic Stadium, room prices have shot up from a modest 50 pounds ($80) per night to 274 pounds ($436) in late July.

“The prices aren’t going to come down,” said Hotels.com president David Roche. It’s not that hoteliers are all greedy, he added — some owners are just looking to the Olympics to recover losses amid a sluggish British economy.

“Many hoteliers are looking at the Olympics to save them,” he said. “They’re wondering when the good times are going to roll again.”

Prices in the vacation rental market can be lower, since more and more flats and houses are coming onto the market as more homeowners and landlords realize the potential to make some quick cash.

Rental costs vary wildly: As low as 75 pounds ($120) for a room in someone’s flat, to 20,000 pounds (nearly $32,000) a week for a luxury central London townhouse. Many people are asking four times more than the normal rent, Parker said.

There’s evidently demand to sustain such high prices.

“I’m booked for the entire Olympic period,” said Marina Usher Mazur, who is renting her 3-bedroom second home in Notting Hill to two American families for 6,000 pounds ($9,550) a week. That’s more than double her normal rate, but she still received more than 30 responses.

“I had a couple people say, you’re crazy. But it went pretty easily,” she said. “I was amazed at how many people were interested.”

It’s not impossible to find budget options, though, as long as visitors are prepared to commute. Kent and Essex, for example, are to the east in the Greater London area, and have good connections to the Olympic Park. Events will be taking part across all corners of the capital, so taking the time to research transport links will help determine which suburb to choose from.

“Many events are held outside east London,” Roche said. “If you know where you’re going, there’s no need to stay in central London.”

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Article source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47335914/ns/travel-news/

/

San Francisco’s iconic Golden Gate Bridge turns 75 this month. Look back at the history of the bridge in our slideshow.

Launch slideshow

What is 1.7 miles long, is painted a fetching shade of international orange and turns 75 this month?

California’s Golden Gate Bridge, of course.

Referred to by the San Francisco Chronicle as a “$35 million steel harp” when it first opened to automobile traffic on May 28, 1937, the Golden Gate is one of the world’s most well-known suspension bridges and is a classic “must-do” experience for visitors to San Francisco.

“It’s a giant piece of Art Deco architecture, an engineering marvel and an international icon that has a lot of meaning and memories for a lot of people in a lot of different ways,” said David Shaw, director of communications for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservatory, a nonprofit group.

On Tuesday, in preparation for a year-long Golden Gate Bridge anniversary celebration, a new 3,500 square-foot Bridge Pavilion opens to the public.

Located in the southeast plaza on the San Francisco side of the bridge, the pavilion houses interpretive exhibits about bridge-related history, engineering and innovations and will serve as a welcome center for a wide variety of bridge-related activities.

Also opening Tuesday is the renovated historic Round House, which will be the staging area for new 45- and 60-minute daily public tours of the bridge (including the first night-time bridge tours), and the site of a photo booth that uses “green screen” technology to provide backdrops of bridge locations, such as the top of the tower, that are inaccessible to the public. “It will allow visitors to get photos of themselves on the bridge on those days when the bridge pulls its disappearing act and hides in the fog,” said Shaw.

The year-long celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge officially kicks off May 27 with a full day of events throughout San Francisco. Events include displays of bridge-related memorabilia and educational exhibits, a display with at least one car from each year from 1937 to the present, a parade of historic boats, music and dance performances and art installations. The day will end with a grand fireworks display. 

“For the 50th anniversary of the bridge, in 1987, they closed the bridge to automobiles and opened it just to pedestrians. Thousands more people than they imagined showed up,” said Shaw. “Homeland Security is now much tighter, so we won’t be doing a bridge walk. But the bridge sidewalks will be open and the bridge will also be open to automobiles and bicycles.”

Visitors who can’t make it to San Francisco for the Memorial Day weekend event can still join the party. Seventy-five tributes to the Golden Gate Bridge are planned, consisting of a series of public arts, cultural and history events, and are being presented by Bay Area museums, cultural centers, arts organizations and children’s groups throughout the year.

“It’s said that the East Coast has the Statue of Liberty and the West Coast has the Golden Gate Bridge,” said Shaw. “And while the Statue of Liberty has a clear message, the message of the bridge is a bit more personal: It’s the gateway to San Francisco and to the Pacific, but everyone attaches their own meaning to it.”

More stories you might like:

• Heathrow feeling the heat as Olympics approach
• Woman ‘too fat to fly’ sues Southwest Airlines
• Video: Uniforms causing illness, airline employees claim

Find more by Harriet Baskas on StuckatTheAirport.com and follow her on Twitter. 

Article source: http://itineraries.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/08/11583185-golden-gate-bridge-readies-for-75th-anniversary-celebration?lite

LONDON — It’s months before athletes hit the Olympic track, but time is running out for those in another fierce competition: The scramble for a place to stay in London.

Some innkeepers will be charging Ritz rates for Fawlty Towers rooms — and they will get away with it.

A limited hotel supply and unprecedented demand from almost a million tourists, media and businesspeople tied to the London Games means that accommodation in the British capital — never a bargain to start with — is more expensive than ever this summer.

That guarantees a bumper year for London’s hotel and rental sectors, but a nightmare for those who have been dragging their feet on making sleeping arrangements.

Already, many central London hotels are fully booked from mid-July to mid-August, and those that still have rooms available now charge anything from double to four times more than their normal rates.

Related: Heathrow feels the heat as Olympics approach

“It’s almost too late now to get into central London,” said Miles Quest, a spokesman for the British Hospitality Association. “(Visitors) need to look outside the central area, where rooms will clearly be cheaper.”

It’s too good a business opportunity to miss, and hoteliers aren’t the only ones cashing in. Vacation rental agencies and websites have reported a massive boom in business, with many homeowners planning to stay with friends or go abroad so they can rent out their homes.

“There was a massive increase in traffic as soon as 2012 turned — it was overnight. It was really crazy,” said Matthew Parker, who is doing a brisk trade on his website Londonrentmyhouse.com, a matchmaking service for enterprising people looking to rent out their homes and visitors seeking a short-term stay.

“The site is taking adverts (ads) everyday, we’re into the thousands now and many more to come. Homeowners are really grabbing the idea and running with it,” he added.

It’s easy to see why. London tourism officials expect about 900,000 Olympics-related visitors — including athletes, their families, staff, journalists, and tourists — to London this summer, all needing a bed. That’s on top of the 1.5 million tourists London typically sees every August.

1. 1. 
      

      
      Alamy
      

      
      LaGuardia, LAX ranked America’s worst airports
      
      

      
      Minneapolis-St. Paul International (pictured), meanwhile, took top honors in Travel + Leisure magazine’s rankings of America’s 22 major airports.
      

   2. 
      Welcome to America? For foreigners, not so much
      
      

   3. 
      Frommer’s introduces interactive guides for iPad
      
      

   4. 
      Delta buys oil refinery but travelers still pay high prices
      
      

   5. 
      

      
      
      Video: Discover Channel crashes jet for science
      
      

Even with many new hotels springing up all over the capital, there are only about 110,000 hotel rooms in the London area — and almost a third of those have been allocated to Olympic personnel.

Tourism officials have brushed off the shortage, insisting that London has more rooms and a bigger range of sleeping options than any other Olympic host city has been able to offer. They have also been encouraging visitors to research alternatives like hostels, bed-and-breakfast inns and university dorm rooms.

Still, they acknowledge they are not in a position to do anything about what Tessa Jowell, an opposition lawmaker, has called a “scandal of extortionate price rises.”

A recent survey by London-based international booking website Hotels.com suggested that the average London hotel room rate has doubled for the Olympic period compared to last year, but it’s clear in many cases the jump is much steeper.

At the Travelodge in Stratford, the budget chain’s property next to the Olympic Stadium, room prices have shot up from a modest 50 pounds ($80) per night to 274 pounds ($436) in late July.

“The prices aren’t going to come down,” said Hotels.com president David Roche. It’s not that hoteliers are all greedy, he added — some owners are just looking to the Olympics to recover losses amid a sluggish British economy.

“Many hoteliers are looking at the Olympics to save them,” he said. “They’re wondering when the good times are going to roll again.”

Prices in the vacation rental market can be lower, since more and more flats and houses are coming onto the market as more homeowners and landlords realize the potential to make some quick cash.

Rental costs vary wildly: As low as 75 pounds ($120) for a room in someone’s flat, to 20,000 pounds (nearly $32,000) a week for a luxury central London townhouse. Many people are asking four times more than the normal rent, Parker said.

There’s evidently demand to sustain such high prices.

“I’m booked for the entire Olympic period,” said Marina Usher Mazur, who is renting her 3-bedroom second home in Notting Hill to two American families for 6,000 pounds ($9,550) a week. That’s more than double her normal rate, but she still received more than 30 responses.

“I had a couple people say, you’re crazy. But it went pretty easily,” she said. “I was amazed at how many people were interested.”

It’s not impossible to find budget options, though, as long as visitors are prepared to commute. Kent and Essex, for example, are to the east in the Greater London area, and have good connections to the Olympic Park. Events will be taking part across all corners of the capital, so taking the time to research transport links will help determine which suburb to choose from.

“Many events are held outside east London,” Roche said. “If you know where you’re going, there’s no need to stay in central London.”

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Article source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47335914/ns/travel-news/

Kieren Messenger

Food safety is a point of pride at the Djemaa el-Fna, Marrakesh’s central square, where there are frequent inspections and leftover food is disposed of nightly.

What’s a trip to Ho Chi Minh City without a steaming bowl of pho eaten curbside, while perched on a tiny plastic stool? Or a stroll through Mexico City without a stop for tacos al pastor, dished up from a wheeled cart? For connoisseurs of local cuisine, streetside dining is a way to explore delicious foods, many of which are unavailable in restaurants, prepared by dedicated specialists. But it has its risks: of the 70 million Americans who travel abroad each year, it is approximated that 46 percent report varying degrees of food- or water-borne illness. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in fact, advises against consuming street food in developing countries. That’s why it’s as important as ever to be armed with some street-food savvy when you’re on the road.

Slideshow: See where to go and what to order

Follow the locals
In a busy marketplace, you can often tell if a stall is reputable based on the line. But pay attention: Mexico City street-food guide Lesley Téllez avoids stalls that draw a primarily young — and less cautious — clientele. Instead, she looks for “a mix of workers, policemen and older customers.” And knowing local mealtimes means you can beat the crowds to get the freshest foods.

Cleanliness counts
“Keep an eye out for signs of cross-contamination,” says Douglas Powell, professor of food safety at Kansas State University. Check that prep surfaces look clean, cold foods are kept on ice, and raw foods are stored separately from cooked. Téllez prefers stands where vendors who handle food don’t touch money.

Bring your own utensils
There’s no way to tell if chopsticks or forks have been given more than a quick rinse.

If possible, watch your food being cooked
And avoid precooked seafood in particular, advises Jeff Koehler, author of the forthcoming cookbook “Morocco” (Chronicle Books; $29.95). Dishes containing raw meat, and ice-based drinks or desserts such as ice cream that may have been made with unfiltered water, are off-limits. Reheated rice is also a breeding ground for bacteria.

Look for cooking methods that reduce microbes
Pickling vegetables and using citrus juices can reduce the levels of dangerous microorganisms, Powell points out, but they won’t remove your risk entirely. Some spices, such as chiles, turmeric and epazote, a pungent Mexican herb, also have antibacterial properties.

More from Travel + Leisure

• Best secret beaches on Earth
• America’s best and worst airports
• Europe travel: Best money-saving tips
• World’s most unusual hotels

Article source: http://itineraries.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/24/11373917-worlds-most-delicious-street-food?lite

Andy Rain / EPA file

Passengers are pictured at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 in March. Reports suggest that the UK’s flagship airport may struggle with passenger traffic during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

With the London 2012 Summer Games less than three months away, Heathrow, the event’s host airport, is already under fire for the Olympic-sized lines that have been greeting arriving passengers in the immigration halls.

Customs checks for illegally smuggled drugs and arms have been reduced at UK airports in an effort to combat long lines and wait times, according to a weekend report in The Guardian, citing “senior immigration officers and border force unions.”

Last week, UK Immigration Minister Damian Green told the BBC that while “there is a problem,” improvements were being made. “For the Olympic period, we are guaranteeing that there will be, at peak times, full manning” of border control desks.

BAA owns Heathrow and five other airports that serve the UK, but is not responsible for immigration wait times.

The 2012 Summer Games just months away, the British fleet squeezed up the Thames Rivers in London in a show of military might. NBC’s Stephanie Gosk reports.

Heathrow claims it is the world’s busiest airport in terms of international traffic. It served nearly 70 million passengers in 2011 and is currently operating at capacity. It will be the entry point for at least 80 percent of Olympics-bound passengers, and an estimated 59,000 athletes, family members and spectators.

An experienced Border Agency immigration worker says waits of up to three hours have left staff facing public order problems at Heathrow Airport.

Msnbc.com spoke with Colin Matthews and John Holland-Kaye, BAA’s chief executive and commercial director, respectively.

Q: When did Heathrow begin planning for Olympic Games traffic and how did you go about it?

A: Colin Matthews: Heathrow’s planning for the London 2012 Games began during the bid process for London about five years ago. Since then the Heathrow team has been in Beijing in 2008 and Vancouver in 2010 to observe the operational challenges created by both Summer and Winter Games. Heathrow also met with the airport operators who successfully delivered Games transport in Athens and Sydney.

Related: Uh oh Heathrow! Long lines, waits hit travelers months ahead of Olympics

Q: The news has been full of stories lately about arriving passengers having to wait for more than two hours in the immigration halls. Is that what visitors will encounter when they arrive for the Olympics?

A: CM: Immigration is controlled by the Home Office [the UK government agency that oversees immigration and passports]. Immigration waiting times during peak periods at Heathrow recently have been unacceptable, but the good news is that the government recently announced it is going to devote more resources in that area.

Q: The airport is really the front door to the city. It’s the first — and last — place visitors will see. What are you doing to insure Heathrow will make a good impression?

A: John Holland-Kaye: Our strategy involves best practices and recommendations from prior host airports, construction of the temporary terminal for Olympic athletes departing from the Games and investment in additional facilities for Paralympians in the existing terminals. We’ve also been working in collaboration with other airport stakeholders and rehearsing and testing our facilities at their capacity.

Oda / Getty Images

From Wimbledon to Wembley Stadium to The Dome, a look at the venues for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Launch slideshow

Q:  How much is Heathrow spending to make the airport games ready? Where do the funds come from?

A: JHK: Heathrow has invested over £20 million [about $32.4 million] in providing a great experience for athletes and regular passengers during the Games period. These funds are entirely Heathrow’s contribution.

Q: What special amenities, exhibits or temporary services will be in place?

A: JHK: We’ll be dressing up the airport. There will be Olympic-themed art exhibits and each passenger terminal will feature theatre and celebrations to surprise and delight passengers.  For example, one walkway is going to look like a swimming pool and you’ll feel as if you’re walking on water. There will places where passengers can take photos standing on podiums, next to images of athletes. And we’ll do things like set up a 100 meter track so kids can race against each other.

Dan Kitwood / Getty Images

From Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square, the venerable old town oozes history and Dickens.

Launch slideshow

Q: Everyone loves Olympics-related souvenirs. Will passengers be able to shop for those at the airport?

A: JHK: Yes, there are special souvenir shops set up for Olympics souvenirs.  It’s also the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee [marking 60 years of the Queen’s reign], so we’re selling a lot of souvenirs for that. And, royal wedding souvenirs are still very popular.

Q: What are some insider tips about Heathrow you can offer to travelers, Olympics-bound or not?

A: JHK: A few quick ones: There’s an Olympic-themed art exhibit land-side in Terminal 5; there are two family security lanes in each terminal [look for the rainbows] and kids get a sticker when they go through; and at the duty free cosmetic shops in each terminal, you can get a facial or a hand massage for free.

More stories you might like:

• Woman ‘too fat to fly’ sues Southwest Airlines
• Spirit Airlines reverses course, refunds dying veteran
• Flight attendants claim new uniforms make them sick

Find more by Harriet Baskas on StuckatTheAirport.com and follow her on Twitter. 

Article source: http://itineraries.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/07/11566192-heathrow-airport-feeling-the-heat-with-2012-london-olympics-rapidly-approaching?lite

Andy Rain / EPA file

Passengers are pictured at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 in March. Reports suggest that the UK’s flagship airport may struggle with passenger traffic during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

With the London 2012 Summer Games less than three months away, Heathrow, the event’s host airport, is already under fire for the Olympic-sized lines that have been greeting arriving passengers in the immigration halls.

Customs checks for illegally smuggled drugs and arms have been reduced at UK airports in an effort to combat long lines and wait times, according to a weekend report in The Guardian, citing “senior immigration officers and border force unions.”

Last week, UK Immigration Minister Damian Green told the BBC that while “there is a problem,” improvements were being made. “For the Olympic period, we are guaranteeing that there will be, at peak times, full manning” of border control desks.

BAA owns Heathrow and five other airports that serve the UK, but is not responsible for immigration wait times.

Related: Uh oh Heathrow! Long lines, waits hit travelers months ahead of Olympics

Heathrow claims it is the world’s busiest airport in terms of international traffic. It served nearly 70 million passengers in 2011 and is currently operating at capacity. It will be the entry point for at least 80 percent of Olympics-bound passengers, and an estimated 59,000 athletes, family members and spectators.

Oda / Getty Images

From Wimbledon to Wembley Stadium to The Dome, a look at the venues for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Launch slideshow

Q:  How much is Heathrow spending to make the airport games ready? Where do the funds come from?

A: JHK: Heathrow has invested over £20 million [about $32.4 million] in providing a great experience for athletes and regular passengers during the Games period. These funds are entirely Heathrow’s contribution.

Q: What special amenities, exhibits or temporary services will be in place?

A: JHK: We’ll be dressing up the airport. There will be Olympic-themed art exhibits and each passenger terminal will feature theatre and celebrations to surprise and delight passengers.  For example, one walkway is going to look like a swimming pool and you’ll feel as if you’re walking on water. There will places where passengers can take photos standing on podiums, next to images of athletes. And we’ll do things like set up a 100 meter track so kids can race against each other.

Dan Kitwood / Getty Images

From Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square, the venerable old town oozes history and Dickens.

Launch slideshow

Q: Everyone loves Olympics-related souvenirs. Will passengers be able to shop for those at the airport?

A: JHK: Yes, there are special souvenir shops set up for Olympics souvenirs.  It’s also the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee [marking 60 years of the Queen’s reign], so we’re selling a lot of souvenirs for that. And, royal wedding souvenirs are still very popular.

Q: What are some insider tips about Heathrow you can offer to travelers, Olympics-bound or not?

A: JHK: A few quick ones: There’s an Olympic-themed art exhibit land-side in Terminal 5; there are two family security lanes in each terminal [look for the rainbows] and kids get a sticker when they go through; and at the duty free cosmetic shops in each terminal, you can get a facial or a hand massage for free.

More stories you might like:

• Woman ‘too fat to fly’ sues Southwest Airlines
• Spirit Airlines reverses course, refunds dying veteran
• Flight attendants claim new uniforms make them sick

Find more by Harriet Baskas on StuckatTheAirport.com and follow her on Twitter. 

Article source: http://itineraries.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/07/11566192-heathrow-airport-feeling-the-heat-with-2012-london-olympics-rapidly-approaching?lite

Reuters file

A “ring of fire” glows around the dark moon on Jan. 26, 2009, as seen from Bandar Lampung in Indonesia during an annular solar eclipse.

Eclipse-chasers have been known to plan their expeditions months or even years in advance, but if you can get to the western United States, there’s still plenty of time to plan your party for this month’s solar eclipse. If the skies are clear, essentially all you have to do is look up.

The May 20 event won’t be quite as spectacular as a total solar eclipse, but if you can make it to a 200-mile-strip of territory that extends from the Oregon-California coast to northwestern Texas, you just might see a rare “Ring of Fire” eclipse near sunset. And that zone of annularity runs through some of the most picturesque parts of the country, including the Grand Canyon and 32 other national parks.

Outside the strip, Westerners will see a partial solar eclipse for the first time in seven years.

“Think of Pac-Man taking a bite out of the sun,” Jonathan Jarvis, director of the National Park Service, said in a news release. “That ‘bite’ will take out 55 to 80 percent of the disk of the sun, depending on where you are, and that’s still a very special experience.”

The park service has put together an interactive website that shows you where the eclipse will be visible, lists events tied to the eclipse and provides more online resources about the phenomenon. Don’t dawdle over your travel plans: Some of the park events, such as a viewing session from New Mexico’s Petroglyph National Monument, are already sold out.

This eclipse will be an international spectacle that’s not to be missed. Over the course of three and a half hours, the moon will blot out at least part of the sun, as seen from earthly locales stretching from Southeast Asia through China and the Pacific to North America and Greenland. Because of the moon’s position with relation to Earth, the lunar disk will never block the sun completely, but will leave at least an edge of the solar disk exposed.

Safety first
For that reason, it’s important to use eye protection when gazing at the eclipse, even if you’re seeing the “Ring of Fire.” You can buy safety glasses for less than a buck each from Telescopes.net, with all of the proceeds going to support Astronomers Without Borders. Eclipse shades are available as well from Rainbow Symphony and lots of other online vendors.

You can also put a solar filter on your telescope or binoculars — but regular sunglasses won’t do the trick. The filters should be specially designed for solar viewing. Same goes for your camera: Unless you know what you’re doing, taking a picture of the sun without the proper filter is a good way to ruin your point-and-shoot. NASA’s top eclipse expert, Fred Espenak, offers a guide to photographing any kind of solar eclipse easily and safely.

National Park Service

A graphic shows U.S. national parks within the zone of annularity for the May 20 solar eclipse. A partial solar eclipse can be seen from parks outside the zone that are marked in orange. Click on the interactive map.

Another way to view the eclipse is to fashion a “pinhole camera” from a box, aluminum foil and a sheet of white paper — or even from just two squares of cardboard. This Exploratorium webpage shows you how. The simplest way to get a sense of the eclipse is to find a semi-shady spot and watch the circles of sunlight falling through tree leaves. During a partial eclipse, the circles will turn into half-moons or crescents. If the sun goes annular, you’ll see bright rings on the ground.

If you’re in the Western states, the best time to look will be in the late afternoon of the 20th. NASA has put a clickable map online that shows you when the different stages of the eclipse occur for the locality you click. One caveat: The times are listed as Universal Time, so you’ll have to subtract seven hours for Pacific Daylight Time, six hours for Mountain Time, or five hours for Central Time.

Where to go
You can track eclipse visibility using the maps available from NASA or the National Park Service, but how do you pick just the right place? Paul Doherty, senior staff scientist for the Exploratorium in San Francisco, advises matching up the maps with places that are accessible and tend to have clear skies. Eclipser’s Forecast Desk provides long-term projections of global sky conditions for the hard-core eclipse-chaser, and when you get within 48 hours of the event, the Clear Sky Chart can give you a better idea what to expect.

It’s a good idea to scout out your location in advance if you can, and it’s also a good idea to retain some flexibiliity in your itinerary, just in case you have to shift your base of operations to find a clear patch of sky. I’m planning to head for Crescent City, Calif., to see a close-to-sunset eclipse over the Pacific, but from what I’ve been hearing about the fogginess on the coast, it’d be prudent for me to check out some vantage points farther inland.

Make sure you’ve got good western exposure, though. “You don’t want mountains to be in the way,” Doherty said. The farther east you go, the later the eclipse occurs — and the closer the sun will be to the western horizon. Some observers have dubbed Albuquerque, N.M., as the prime urban spot for seeing this eclipse, but the “Ring of Fire” will flash there just four minutes before sunset. That means you’ll need a clear line of sight to the far horizon.

Jan. 15, 2010: Astronomers believe a solar eclipse seen across Africa, Asia and the Indian Ocean may be the longest annular eclipse in more than 1,000 years. Msnbc.com’s Dara Brown reports.

Hang onto those glasses
After the eclipse, you can put your sun-viewing glasses through another tryout during the transit of Venus on June 5. Over the course of several hours, the planet Venus will be visible as a tiny speck of black, making its way across the sun’s disk for what Doherty calls a “micro-eclipse.” This map from NASA shows that the transit will be visible from most of North America in the hours leading up to sunset (although Alaskans will be out of luck this time around).

The same eclipse safety rules apply to the transit: Don’t gaze directly at the sun with your naked eye. Use the proper solar filters on your telescope, binoculars or camera. Feel free to make a pinhole projector, although Venus’ tiny speck will be much harder to track than the effects of a solar eclipse.

Looking even farther ahead, there’s a total solar eclipse on tap for Nov. 13, with the track of totality running across the northern tip of Australia and a wide expanse of the Pacific. That’s the year’s big prize for eclipse-chasers, but time is running out to make arrangements for a trip to Cairns or a Pacific cruise.

“A year or two is the rule for getting to a total solar eclipse,” Doherty said. “But there’s always this tradeoff between time ahead and money spent. If you want to go the less expensive way, plan early. If you’re willing to pay a little bit more, go late.”

The good news is that Americans have plenty of time to plan for a convenient total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017. On that day, the path of totality will stretch diagonally across the United States, from Oregon to North Carolina. 

“That eclipse, you’re just going to be able to drive to,” Doherty said. “So if you miss this one, start planning now for 2017.”

Tune us in online
To hear more tales of eclipses past, present and future, join us tonight for “Virtually Speaking Science,” an hourlong talk show that plays out on BlogTalkRadio and in the Second Life virtual world. Doherty (a.k.a. Patio Plasma) and I will be at the StellaNova Small Auditorium, courtesy of the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics, starting at 9 p.m. ET (6 p.m. PT/SLT).

If you miss the live event, don’t worry: It’ll be archived by “Virtually Speaking” on BlogTalkRadio as well as iTunes.

On Friday, head on over to the Cosmic Log Facebook page for our weekly “Where in the Cosmos” picture puzzle. If you’re the first to solve the riddle, you’ll be eligible to receive a pair of sun-viewing safety glasses for this month’s eclipse and next month’s transit. In the meantime, check out these podcasts from previous episodes of “Virtually Speaking Science,” plus links to eclipse-related resources:

• Get set to chase a solar eclipse
• Photo gallery: Greatest hits from solar eclipses
• Interactive graphic: What causes a solar eclipse?
• 12 must-see skywatching events in 2012
• All about solar eclipses on msnbc.com
• Podcasts: Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto on Yuri’s Night
• JPL’s Dave Beaty on the search for life on Mars
• Shawn Lawrence Otto on science and politics
• Ig Nobel impresario Marc Abrahams on silly science
• Rocket scientist Robert Zubrin on Mars exploration
• Propulsion expert Marc Millis on interstellar spaceflight
• Sean Carroll on the puzzling frontiers of physics
• Rand Simberg on the private-enterprise vision for spaceflight
• Martin Hoffert on the future of energy policy
• George Djorgovski on science in virtual worlds
• Alan Stern on suborbital research and NASA’s mission to Pluto
• Col. ‘Coyote’ Smith on the outlook for space solar power
• Tim Pickens on rocket ventures and the Google Lunar X Prize

Alan Boyle is msnbc.com’s science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by “liking” the log’s Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log’s Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out “The Case for Pluto,” my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

Article source: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/02/11507518-where-and-how-to-see-the-eclipse?lite

The initially controversial “Forever Marilyn” statue unveiled last July will be removed from her temporary home. WMAQ’s LeeAnn Trotter reports.

The late filmmaker Colin Clark may have had his “week with Marilyn,” but travelers to Chicago will likely have to settle for one last weekend fling.

On Monday, the city will begin removing Forever Marilyn, the 26-foot outdoor sculpture of the iconic actress, ending her run as one of the city’s most controversial pieces of public art.

The sculpture, created by Seward Johnson and located on Michigan Avenue, recreates the famous scene from the movie “The Seven Year Itch” in which Monroe stands over a New York subway grate as a passing train sends her skirt billowing up around her thighs. In that scene, the actor Tom Ewell stands next to Monroe with a bemused look of longing and wistfulness.

In Chicago, the reaction has often been more bawdy than bemused. “There are people standing between her legs, making obscene gestures, taking pictures up her legs,” said Andrea Cordts, a local communications manager who blogs at Chicago Quirk.

“The scene in the movie was so iconic — she’s so bashful and coy — but this one, it’s no, there’s her underwear,” she told msnbc.com.

“Everybody’s entitled to an opinion,” countered Melissa Farrell, executive assistant at the Zeller Realty Group, which commissioned the piece and owns Pioneer Court, where it’s currently located. “Art is supposed to start a conversation and we like providing public art that does that.”

The installation, says Farrell, has been among the site’s most popular installations, drawing foot traffic in excess of 40,000 people per day. “We have crowds of people 24 hours a day — people taking photographs of her and with her, wedding parties, Marilyn impersonators …”

As for Marilyn’s pending departure, Farrell notes that the installation was always meant to be temporary and was scheduled to be removed this month even as it was being unveiled last July.

“People call me all the time to ask how long she’ll be up,” she told msnbc.com, “because they want to plan a trip to Chicago and don’t want to miss it.”

If you’re among that cohort, you’d better hurry — or shift your travel plans a few thousand miles west. Marilyn, it seems, is moving to Palm Springs, Calif., where she’s expected to reassume her iconic pose on May 24.

Hey, whatever blows your skirt up, right?

More on Itineraries

• Photos of Marilyn Monroe, six weeks before death, headed for auction
• Marilyn Monroe statue unveiled in Chicago
• Best affordable city hotels in the US
• Neighborhood tours show different side of a city

Rob Lovitt is a longtime travel writer who still believes the journey is as important as the destination. Follow him at Twitter.

Article source: http://itineraries.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/02/11507995-goodbye-norma-jean-chicagos-26-foot-marilyn-monroe-sculpture-moving-west?lite