On top of the world

Following maintenance and renovation works, there is now a lookout platform. A lift takes tourists to the top, where they have a grand view of the Praca do Comercio square, the old town centre Baixa, the cathedral, the Castelo de Sao Jorge castle, and the Tejo River. The platform is open from 9am to 9pm daily, with tickets costing 2.50 euros (Bt100). Inside the monument there is the Sala do Relogio room with an exhibition on the history of the arch. It shows how planning for it began shortly after the devastating earthquake of 1755. Construction began only in 1783 and was completed two years later.

 

When the fish sleep

Visitors to Key West, USA’s Florida are now able to explore the underwater sea life at night. NightboardingTM offers stand-up paddleboards and see-through kayaks. LED lights illuminate the water below, enabling people to see nocturnal fish and colourful coral reefs, tourism officials say. The night tours, lasting two and a half hours, are offered by a hotel chain and start at sundown. The tours cost US$45 (Bt1,400) and must be reserved in advance. Visit www.IbisBayResort.com.

 

Open, sesame 

The largest cave in the world is soon to be opened to tourists in Vietnam. The Son Doong Cave, discovered just 20 years ago, will be opened up on a test basis to visitors between February and August of next year, with small expeditionary groups of up to eight persons permitted entry. Tours must be booked via the Vietnamese tour operator Oxalis. Already, the company says it has more requests than it has capacity for in the coming year. Oxalis says a total of just 220 visitors to the cave are planned for 2014. Dubbed “Mountain River cave" in Vietnamese, the cave is located near the Laos-Vietnam border. Inside is a large, fast-flowing underground river.

 

Honouring Flight 93

The Flight 93 National Memorial is to get a new visitors’ centre, to be opened in September 2015.The 6,800-square-metre facility will include a learning centre. Shanksville is the town near where United Airlines Flight 93, which had been hijacked by terrorists on a flight from Newark to San Francisco on September 11, 2001, crashed and killed 40 passengers and crew and the four hijackers. It was believed that the plane was to be crashed into a target – likely the US Capitol building – in Washington, DC that day. Last year some 320,000 people visited the site, which now chiefly consists of Memorial Plaza with its platform for viewing the crash site.

 

Paintings in parallel

The anniversary exhibition “Van Gogh at Work” at Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum brings together works which are rarely seen next to each other, such as two versions of “Sunflowers”. For the first time in years, two of the three works with the title “The Bedroom” and painted between 1888 and 1889 will also be on show together. The museum owns one of the works while the other is on loan from the Art Institute in Chicago. The exhibition runs until January 12. Visit http://dpaq.de/dDWbC.