Holiday News - Archive 2003 (page 3)
Easy card in Valencia
A visit to Valencia – Spain's third city – has got easier with the launch of the Valencia Card which offers free public transport and lots of discounts. Stunning botanical gardens, the Museum of Fine Arts, Planetarium and Europe's largest aquarium, the L'Oceanografic, are just some of the attractions of the city, which has a vibrant social scene and rich gastronomy.
The 1, 2 or 3 day cards cost €6, €10, or €12. Discounts of up to 50% are available in more than 30 museums and other places of interest, shops, restaurants, cinema etc. British Airways and Iberia offer direct flights to the city, with many more airlines flying to Alicante just an hour away. The card can be bought in over 70 places across the city, including tourist information points and hotels.
Oaks threatened by plastic
Many travellers admire the magical cork oak forests of southern Portugal and Spain. But now plastic and metal wine bottle stoppers are putting them under threat.
How? Some winemakers say cork can taint wine – a claim disputed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in its Cork Report, as well as other conservationists. The society warns that if demand for cork drops, cork producers – and the forests – face disaster.
Covering wide swathes of land, cork oak woods are not only central to stunning landscapes like those of the Alantejo, but home to a huge range of plants, insects, birds and animals – including the threatened Iberian lynx. If cork harvesting stops, they and a centuries-old way of life will vanish, warns Jose Pedro Tavares of the RSPB.
He says: "The cork oak landscape – montado in Portugal, dehesa in Spain – is a rare example of an environment where people can live in harmony with nature profitably."
Supermarket chain Tesco predicts at least half its wine will be screw-capped by 2005. "By the end of the decade, traditional cork closures will be seen as period pieces," says its head of wine, Anne-Marie Bostock.
TCA taint – caused by the chemical 2,4,6 -Trichloroasinol – is the most common reason given for not using cork stoppers. But the Cork Report claims there is "strong evidence that the cork itself is in many cases not to blame."
So if you come across a cork oak forest on your holidays, enjoy it while you can and, if you want to save it, only buy wine with a cork stopper.
Shorts
WEIRD AND WEIGHTLESS ...
You'll be able to experience the weirdness of weightlessness from December,
when a new attraction opens at Disney's Epcot Centre in Orlando. It promises
to be a must for all budding astronauts. Called Mission: Space, the attraction
will apparently give you a fantastic, if scary, lift-off sensation as
you're 'blasted into space' followed by a floating feeling. The Florida
theme park's 'international space training centre of the future' was designed
with help from former NASA advisers.
BE MY MANCHESTER BABY
News from Manchester Airport ...
Firstly, budget airline bmibaby has added four more European destinations from its newest operating base, Manchester. They are: Alicante, Malaga and Murcia in mainland Spain and Palma in Mallorca.
And for travellers, the airport's Terminal 1 has undergone a revamp. Hugo Boss and Ted Baker are two of the big names in the Fashion Gallery, while Harry Ramsden and Burger King are joined by Est Bar – under a domed skylight.
Finally, the last commercial aircraft built in the UK – the Avro RJX-100, built by BAe Systems in Woodford – is proving a big attraction at Manchester airport's viewing park.
STAN & VIC LINK
An Italian bus company is running a new coach service linking Stansted
airport and Victoria bus and railway station in London. Terravision
runs ten trips – timed to meet Rome and Milan flights – from
Stansted to Victoria and nine in the opposite direction daily. Open to
all travellers, they cost £8.50 (single) and £13.50 return,
15% less than the National Express service on the same route and significantly
cheaper than the Stansted Express train to Liverpool Street (£13
single, £23 return). Terravision also runs coach links at Milan
and Rome airports.