यूरोप – Page 74 – आवारा मुसाफिर

Pandemic tames Airbnb in tourist hotspots – for now

March 10, 20211954 Views

The COVID-19 pandemic has achieved what many mayors across Europe have tried and failed to do: wipe out tens of thousands of Airbnbs from city centres and so help lower rental costs for locals, in some places by as much as 15%. While Europe’s cities have long welcomed tourists, critics say the surge of properties listed on short-lettings site Airbnb in recent years had priced many locals out of their own housing markets, turning historic neighbourhoods into soulless spaces. Property management companies and landlords contacted by Reuters in cities including Lisbon, Barcelona, Prague, and Venice said the collapse of tourism in the pandemic meant some hosts had now replaced holidaymakers with mid- to long-term tenants, moved in themselves, or given up properties altogether. FILE PH...

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Greece to welcome vaccinated and COVID-negative tourists from May

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March 9, 20211188 Views

People who are vaccinated against COVID-19, have antibodies or test negative can travel to Greece this summer, Tourism Minister Harry Theocharis said on Tuesday. Tourism is a major income earner for Greece, which has led calls for an EU-wide vaccination certificate to help unlock travel. The industry accounts for about a fifth of the Greek economy and employs one in five workers, but arrivals collapsed last year because of the pandemic. FILE PHOTO: Greek presidential guards, wearing protective face masks, perform their sentry duty in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Athens, Greece, March 3, 2021. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis Greece is aiming to kick off its vital summer season by mid-May, said Theocharis as he addre...

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Poles go underground for COVID treatment in UNESCO-listed salt mine

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March 1, 2021608 Views

A UNESCO World Heritage site in Poland is being used to help people recover from COVID-19, with patients going deep underground in the Wieliczka salt mine to a therapeutic centre dealing with respiratory illness. Famous for its ornate underground chapels carved from salt, the Wieliczka mine, located just outside the southern city of Krakow, is one of Poland’s biggest tourist attractions, drawing around 1.8 million visitors in 2019. But doctors say the micro-climate in the mine, which stretches as far as 327 metres underground, also helps people with pulmunory problems. Magdalena Kostrzon, a doctor working at the mine, told Reuters that patients with respiratory illnesses have been coming there since the 19th century. “The underground micro-climate is, above all, characteri...

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Last songs – Paris to close its historical bird market

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February 27, 2021838 Views

Canaries, parakeets and zebra finches will no longer chirp from small cages in the shadow of Notre Dame cathedral, after Paris voted to close its 19th-century bird market, deeming it inappropriate for this day and age. Held on Sundays, the market on the Ile de la Cite island in the Seine river has been a magnet for tourists and Parisians with children for decades, but an animal rights group’s campaign against it and plans to renovate the site led to a city council decision to close it. “The market had become the epicentre of bird trafficking in the Paris region, including of endangered birds,” Paris deputy mayor Christophe Najdovksi told Reuters. “A second reason for closing it is that the conditions in which the birds are presented are no longer acceptable,” he said. ...

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Polar bear male Nord has moved to Ranua Zoo

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February 26, 2021547 Views

15-year-old polar bear male, called Nord, has moved to Ranua Zoo in Finland on Monday February 22nd, 2021 Nord came from Denmark, Skandinavisk Dyrepark. Nord was born in Moscow Zoo and the transfer was performed due to recommendation from EAZA´s (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria) polar bear coordinator. Nord left Denmark on Friday, February 19th, and he arrived to his new home on Monday morning. The transportation went well and Nord had a good appetite the moment he got to his new den. Nord will spend first days in his new home by getting used to his surroundings and his new keepers, and he might be hiding in the den occasionally. If all goes well, he will meet the female, Venus, later this spring. So far they will live in their own enclosures, and cubs are not expect...

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Holiday bookings soar as Britons hope for travel restart

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February 24, 2021728 Views

Britons rushed to book foreign holidays after the government laid out plans to gradually relax coronavirus restrictions, giving battered airlines and tour operators hope that a bumper summer could come to their rescue. Bookings flooded in on Monday evening and Tuesday following the government’s announcement on Monday that travel could restart from mid-May, with Spain and Greece the most popular destinations, airlines and holiday companies said. However, travel industry is yet not happy with the announced plans, as it feels that delaying the return of international travel until at least mid-May, could mean the Travel & Tourism sector simply won’t survive and struggling SMEs will just disappear. EasyJet said that bookings on its flights from Britain for this summer had jumped b...

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One of the world’s largest church won’t allow more than 15 at a time for mass

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February 23, 2021888 Views

Brussels’ cavernous basilica is one of the largest churches in the world but COVID-19 rules allow only 15 people at a time to attend mass there, the same limit applied to much smaller religious venues in Belgium. Dozens of worshippers of different religions and clergy demonstrated in the centre of the Belgian capital on Sunday calling for a change to the rules. Parishioners, who can only gather in a group of maximum of 15 people at the same time in the building, attend a mass in the Belgium's national Koekelberg basilica, one of the largest churches in the world, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Brussels, Belgium February 21, 2021. REUTERS/Johnny Cotton “Here, more than in any other building in Belgium, this law is an incredible absurdity,” said the Catholic ba...

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Russia opens tourist route reconstructing Romanov family’s last journey

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February 22, 20211057 Views

Tourists curious about Russia’s imperial past can now ride on a special train running through the Ural mountains along the route travelled by some members of the royal family before their execution in 1918. The train making the three-hour journey between Yekaterinburg and Alapayevsk is equipped with a royal family-themed wagon where tourists can try on clothing similar to that worn by Russian nobility in the early 20th century. Upon arriving in the town, tourists are taken by bus to places of importance in the lives of the royal family members who were killed there. “On the night of July 18, 1918, eight people were thrown in here alive,” priest Father Serafim said, pointing to a snow-covered mineshaft. “These included Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fyodorovna (Romanova)”. ...

खबरनामाघटनाएंयूक्रेन

Swans bask in warm waters from nuclear plant during winter freeze

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February 21, 2021857 Views

Dozens of swans have flocked to a reservoir in western Ukraine this winter, evading snow and ice to enjoy the warm waters discharged from a nearby nuclear power plant. Scientists say the birds migrate from all over Ukraine and elsewhere in eastern Europe to the reservoir, which the Khmelnytskyi plant uses for cooling and thus never freezes over. “There is no need to make an extra effort to get to the Black Sea as the birds feel comfortable here,” Oksana Holovko, head of the science and research department at a nearby national nature park, told Reuters. Since the water temperature does not drop lower than 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit), the reservoir is also rich in crustaceans and pondweed which the swans can eat. !function(e,t,c,a){if(!e.fwn&&(a="fwn_sc...

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Houseboats in high demand as Germans book holidays close to home

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February 17, 2021400 Views

As arctic temperature froze rivers and lakes in northern Germany, workers at houseboat charter companies were already gearing up for what they expect to be a busy summer season. Cross-border travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic last summer prompted a run on domestic tourism, including on floating accommodation. Many expect that 2021 will be no different. FILE PHOTO: Kormoran boats lie in icy water at the dock from the houseboat rental company Kuhnle Tours on lake Claassee near Rechlin, Germany, February 4, 2021. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/ “I think that big trips abroad and flying will still not be the dominant type of vacation for people this summer,” Dagmar Kuhnle, spokeswoman at the Kuhnle Tour houseboat charter company in the northeastern Mecklenburg lake district,...