Travel News Round-Up: October 4 - 10
Source: By Elizabeth Haggarty, AOL Travel
Posted: 10/06/09 1:18PM
Filed Under: Travel
The French are in an uproar over the prospect of a McDonalds opening in the Louvre. Read the Guardian's list of surprising fast food outlet locations around the world, including a Pizza Hut, on top of a Kentucky Fried Chicken, with a view of the Great Pyramid and a Starbucks on China's Great Wall.
Got money to blow on one special day out next vacation? The Times has compiled a list of 20 frivolous but fun ways to truly set your days of relaxation apart from your normal life. Suggestions include 'hashing' in Hong Kong, where runners chase a human hare along scenic routes before tucking into a luxury meal, and hang-gliding over Rio.
Enter a world of scientific research and lots of bugs, in fact 17 million of them. Tourists in London can now visit the second phase of the Darwin Centre at London's Natural History Museum. Housed in an eight-storey cocoon the New York Times reports that visitors pass through an array of hi-tech installations and interactive experiences; including glass display cases full of specimens from butterflies to tarantulas as well as areas where viewers can watch scientists at work. Entrance is free and tickets can be ordered in advance.
Travel Photos of the Week
A tourist observes a 'Pendet' dance during the opening of Bali's 7th annual International event - Kuta Karnival, at Kuta beach in Denpasar on September 19, 2009. The Kuta Karnival is a "Community" and "Recovery" initiative of the Kuta Small Business Association (KSBA) for the island of Bali, and will be held until September 27, 2009.
SONNY TUMBELAKA/AFP/Getty Images
Police stand guard at the entrance of the Oktoberfest beer festival on September 29, 2009 at in Munich, southern Germany, one day after the police had taken two suspected Islamists into custody after video warnings by extremists. The world famous Oktoberfest takes place from September 19 to October 4, 2009. Security at the festival which attracts millions of visitors from around the world, has been tightened because of fears it would be a target for an attack, along with other tourist hotspots around Germany.
OERG KOCH/AFP/Getty Images
Canadian space tourist and founder of Cirque du Soleil Guy Laliberte jokes with his wife Claudia Barilla during a press conference at Kazakhstan's Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome on September 29, 2009. The crew of Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev, US astronaut Jeff Williams and Laliberte will travel from Baikonur in a Russian Soyuz TMA-16 rocket to the International Space Station (ISS) on September 30.
ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images
An assortment of magnets, including some with the "Oba Mao" design by entrepreneur Liu Mingjie, in which he superimposed the face of US President Barack Obama over that of China's late revolutionary leader Mao Zedong for sale at his shop in the tourist Houhai district of Beijing on September 23, 2009. The shopowner who goes by the English name Stefan is a former engineer who worked for Germany's Siemens AG and US-based Cisco Systems before starting his business three years ago, according to state media, introduced the Oba Mao design bags and t-shirts, including coin purses, earlier this summer and says the shirts have been selling well. Also depicted are revolutionary images on the bottom and on top, former and current Chineese leaders Deng Xiaoping (L) and Hu Jintao (2/R), beside three Oba Mao magnets with English translations of phrases by Chairman Mao.
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images
Young girls dance for tourists along the beach where volunteers picked up garbage in San Juan, 150 kms northeast of Managua, on September 19, 2009. Some 9,000 people participated in Nicaragua in the International Coastal Cleanup that took place simultaneously in about 100 countries around the world, ahead of the Enviromental Week.
ELMER MARTINEZ/AFP/Getty Images
A tourist takes a photograph of the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge as it peeks out from a blanket of fog September 21, 2009 in the Marin Headlands of Sausalito, California. After a cooling from a blanket of coastal morning fog, the San Francisco Bay Area will heat up today with temperatures reaching the 70s near the ocean, 80s to lower 90s near the Bay, and nearly 101degrees in the inland areas.
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
A waitress carries beer mugs at the Hofbraeuhausbeer tent on September 19, 2009 in Munich, Germany. Oktoberfest is Germany's and the world largest fair. About six million people attend the sixteen-day festival during late September and early October.
Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images
Participants take part in the Regatta Storica on The Grand Canal on September 06, 2009 in Venice, Italy. Competitors come from all around the world to participate in the historical race, which is Venice's biggest annual boating event.
Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Swan shaped paddle boats wait for visitors on one of the six lakes that make up Band-E-Amir National Park September 6, 2009 in Band-E-Amir, Afghanistan. Located in central Afghanistan, the park was declared Afghanistan's first National Park on April 22, 2009. Located in the province of the Bamiyan Buddhas, Band-e-Amir draws tourists from across Afghanistan. Its designation as a National Park will allow Afghanistan to apply for international recognition of Band-e-Amir as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Band-e-Amir has been a destination for Afghan tourists since at least the early 1950's, but tourism significantly declined during the 20 years of wars and Taliban rule. Tourism has since resumed with summer tourism seeing estimates of a few thousand visitors, mostly Afghans and a limited number of international aid workers, during 2006 and 2007.
Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
A participant of the fashion show throws a ball during the Mudflat Olympic Games on August 30, 2009 in Brunsbuttel, Germany.
Photo by Krafft Angerer/Bongarts/Getty Images
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