Volcano

To the moon or to the center of the earth

Fun Stuff, Kids, Kids travel, , , , ,

I’m sure I’ll have to update this come Sunday morning, but long before April 1, 2012 rolled around in my time zone, I made a few April Fools’ Day sightings.

From the Republic of Vanuatu comes word that Richard Branson has launched “Virgin Volacanic” in order to take travelers to the center of the earth

“Using patented carbon-carbon materials pioneered for deep space exploration, Virgin is proud to announce a revolutionary new vehicle, VVS1, which will be capable of plunging three people into the molten lava core of an active volcano.”

First up (or should I say down) is Etna – Sicily, Italy, followed by:
• Stromboli – Aeolian Islands
• Yasur – Republic of Vanuatu
• Ambrym – Republic of Vanuatu
• Tinakula – Solomon Islands

The first trips are scheduled for 2015. More details here.

Also, we have news from WestJet about a kids-free flying experience:

Details of Kargo Kids, including booking information and a simple, easy-to-understand demonstration video, is available on the WestJet website

Air New Zealand announced “STRAIGHTUP Fares” for those willing to fly while standing in the aisle holding onto a hand bar.

And Spirit Airlines, ever the prankster, announced $9 (each way) flights to the moon.

Tidbits for travelers: Volcano underwear at Schiphol

Food, free Wi-Fi, Fun Stuff, Volcano, , ,

I spent a morning touring Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in search of new amenities and services to share.

Along the way my tour guide, Marianne de Bie (who reminded me that she’d been my tour guide almost ten years ago!) shared some stories about what the Schiphol staff did to try to make stranded people more comfortable during the “the ash cloud.”

The airport brought in shower trucks (the kind you see at festivals)  and after a few days asked the First and Business class lounges with on-site showers to open them to passengers; which they did.   Stranded passengers were also treated to sandwiches, free Wi-Fi, movies and offered toothpaste, socks, and underwear that the airport had quickly purchased to hand out.

“We have dollar stores like anyplace else,” de Bie told me, “But the underwear supplier made a mistake and included 500 pairs of expensive brand-name boxer shorts for men.  Those turned out to be very popular.”

Ripple effect of the volcano: airport parking bills

Parking, ,

Having paid a small fortune recently to park in an airport garage for a few days, I was wondering about the bills some of those volcano-delayed folks would be facing when they finally got home and went to retrieve their cars.

So I was pleased to read Roger Yu’s USATODAY Airport Check-in column last night and learn that some U.S. airports are offering to refund the additional parking charges for passengers whose flights home got waylaid by the volcano.

So far, says Yu, JFK, Newark Liberty, and airports in Las Vegas and Denver have offered to refund the extra parking fees.  I bet other airports will do the same.  Good for those that do.

Let’s hope some British airports offer a parking refund as well. According to an article in The Independent, “[a]s many as 50,000 British travellers remain stranded abroad this weekend because of the volcanic ash crisis, some being told they face delays of up to a month before they can return home.”

Yikes!

Tidbits for travelers: free buffets at JFK; free flights to nowhere

Air Travel, Airlines, Airplanes, aviation, Delays, Volcano, , ,

Volcano-delayed flights to and from Europe and beyond are resuming, but airport closures and flight cancellations may continue on-and-off for weeks. So this NYT tracking map may be handy for a while longer.

NYT volcano cancellation map

In the meantime, people have been opening their homes to stranded passengers and theaters, museums and restaurants have been offering discounted and free entertainment and meals to folks who found themselves stuck at the airport.  At JFK, the company that operates all the restaurants and fast-food outlets in Terminal 4 – SSP America – organized a free buffet meal for about 300 on Monday night. Breakfast for 300 was served Tuesday morning as well.

And no doubt because I spent so much time learning about the ins and outs of some very tiny and unusual airports for a Bing story titled: Easy Flier: 10 airports that reduce the hassle, I was extremely interested in this story on CNN, which discusses some other small airports around the country that end up having to offer free flights in order to maintain federal funding.

Stuck at JFK? Free buffet for volcano-delayed passengers

Air Travel, Delays, Food, Free Stuff, , ,

Many travelers stranded New York’s JFK airport due to volcano-canceled flights have been stuck at the airport’s International Terminal: Terminal 4.  Travelers stuck in other terminals have been bused over to Terminal 4 as well, in part because that’s the only terminal with food concessions located pre-security.

According to SSP America spokesperson Darleen Nascimento, “Many of the stranded passengers do not have the means to buy food at the restaurants and quick service outlets.”  (SSP America is the company that operates all the restaurants and fast-food outlets in Terminal 4.)

So today at 6 pm, SSP America will be offering a free buffet for about 300 stranded passengers. The airport chapel has donated its conference room for the meal.

The menu:

Pasta with marinara, perogies, mixed green salad, toasted garlic flat bread, braised beef in brown sauce, baked chicken wings with citrus and herbs.

If the travel restrictions continue, SSP America may also serve breakfast to stranded passengers tomorrow.

Kudos to them for doing this!

Stuck at the airport: British Navy to the rescue

Transportation, Volcano, , , ,

This closing-the-airports-because-of-the -volcano, for the fifth day now, is getting to be too much for a lot of travelers and now, for the British government.

That’s why, says this article, “Royal Navy ships may be joined by commandeered civilian vessels to bring home British citizens, who have now been stuck since last Thursday across Europe and around the world.

It is possible that Spain, which is largely unaffected by the giant ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano, allowing aircraft to fly in its air space, may be used as the “hub” of the operation for people who are stranded outside Europe, principally in Africa and North America.”

And, as long as we’re all focused on volcanoes, take a look at this round-up of volcano images and information from around the world, courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution, including this stereograph labeled “Gazing through sulphurous vapors into the crater’s frightful depths Aso-San, Japan. 1904 or earlier.”

The Smithsonian archivist who gathered up these images notes that there is descriptive text on the back of the stereograph that includes this passage:

“You are in the province of Higo on the island of Kyushu, near the southwestern end of the Mikado’s island empire. This is the largest active volcano in the world. You come over from Kumamoto and get coolie guides like these bare-legged fellows, to show you the way up here to the rim of the crater. It is like the open door of the infernal regions. Those vapors are sulphur smoke and scalding steam; if you were to wait awhile, great tongues of fiery flame might very likely shoot up, lapping with hideous suggestiveness these very lips of volcanic rock on which you are dizzily perched. Horrid cracklings and roarings rise continually out of that bottomless pit into which the men are peering – there are sounds of ooiling and bubblings as of the Evil One’s own caldron, and every little while the crash of a thunderous explosion fills all this upper air.”

Volcano closes airports; but doors are open in Denver

Air Travel, Architecture, Cancellations, Events, Exhibits, , , , , ,

If I could fly somewhere this weekend, I’d choose Iceland for the chance to see for myself what that volcano is doing. But since the ash has caused the worst disruption in air travel since 9/11, that’s not going to happen.

Photo courtesy Craig Murphy, via Flickr

OK, so Iceland, and pretty much everyplace else in Europe, is out.

But if I could fly anywhere in the United States this weekend, I’d choose Denver.

There’s no volcano erupting there, but this weekend the city is hosting Doors Open Denver – a free event that offers a look inside dozens of buildings around town that are usually closed to the public.  My column on msnbc.com this week, Welcome! The Door is open, includes a run-down of half a dozen cities that host this sort of event, but here’s a preview, along with some photos that didn’t make it into the posted story.

(Photo by Gregory Thow)

Billed as a celebration of the city’s built environment and design, the 6th annual Doors Open Denver takes place April 17-18 and includes 80 to 90 buildings around town that are usually off-limits to the public. This year’s theme is adaptive re-use so you’ll get to see many old buildings being used in creative new ways.

This year, participating sites include the city’s old main post office, which has been turned into a high-security federal courthouse; a restored mansion that serves as the Colorado Governor’s Residence; a theater in a former mortuary; a Yellow Cab garage that now houses businesses and residential units; and the Historic Sugar Building, which was built in 1906 as the headquarters for the Great Western Sugar Company and now houses office and retail space, and two original Otis cage elevators.

One sure-to-be-popular site is the Daniels & Fisher Tower, which was once the tallest building in Denver. The Italian Renaissance Tower has a restored lobby with marble floors and walls and a 17th floor boasting a giant clock-face and a balcony that offers great 360-degree views of the city, the surrounding plains and the mountains.

(Courtesy: Gregory Thow)

More doors opened
If you can’t make it to Denver this weekend, don’t worry. Doors at many other usually off-limits locations will soon be opening in cities throughout North America, including Toronto, New York, Chicago, and in Lowell, Mass.

May 13-15 are the dates for the 9th annual Doors Open Lowell event, which will feature everything from reclaimed and restored mill buildings to a 1920’s classical revival Masonic Temple with curious chambers and meeting rooms, and the subterranean space that once housed giant turbines for a power plant that ran a local mill.

During Doors Open Toronto, held on May 29-30, 150 buildings of architectural, historic, cultural and/or social significance will be open to the public. Highlights include: Toronto’s City Hall, which offers self-guided tours of the Rotunda, the Council Chambers and the Observation Deck, and the five-story red brick Toronto Flatiron Building, which pre-dates New York City’s famous Flatiron building by about ten years. Also open to the public will be the Canada Life building, which has a weather beacon and a 17th floor tower room offering a panoramic view of downtown Toronto and Lake Ontario, as well as the restored circa-1920 Canon Theater — once the largest and most elegant vaudeville and motion picture palace in Canada.

Mark your calendars: New York hosts Open House New York on Oct. 9-10, with more than 200 sites participating throughout all five city boroughs, including the Woolworth Building, Radio City Music Hall and the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel, which is accessed not by a door, but by a manhole.

(Courtesy Jeffrey Donenfeld)