The Price of European Indifference

BAGHDAD – Europe's migration debate has taken a disturbing turn.

It began with the creation of the catch-all concept (a legal freak) of a "migrant," which obscures the difference, central to the law, between economic and political migration, between people escaping poverty and those driven from their homes by war. Unlike economic migrants, those fleeing oppression, terror, and massacre have an inalienable right to asylum, which entails an unconditional obligation by the international community to provide shelter.

Even when the distinction is acknowledged, it is often as part of another sleight of hand, an attempt to convince credulous minds that the men, women, and children who paid thousands of dollars to travel on one of the rickety boats washing up on the islands of Lampedusa or Kos are economic migrants. The reality, however, is that 80% of these people are refugees, attempting to escape despotism, terror, and religious extremism in countries like Syria, Eritrea, and Afghanistan. That is why international law requires that the cases of asylum-seekers are examined not in bulk, but one by one.

And even when that is accepted, when the sheer number of people clamoring to get to Europe's shores makes it all but impossible to deny the barbarity driving them to flee, a third smokescreen goes up. Some, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, claim that the conflicts generating these refugees rage only in Arab countries that are being bombed by the West.

Here again, the figures do not lie. The top source of refugees is Syria, where the international community has refused to conduct the kinds of military operations required by the "responsibility to protect" – even though international law demands intervention when a mad despot, having killed 240,000 of his people, undertakes to empty his country. The West also is not bombing Eritrea, another major source of refugees.

Yet another damaging myth, perpetuated by shocking images of refugees swarming through border fences or attempting to climb onto trains in Calais, is that "Fortress Europe" is under assault by waves of barbarians. This is wrong on two levels.

First, Europe is far from being the migrants' primary destination. Nearly two million refugees from Syria alone have headed to Turkey, and one million have fled to Lebanon, whose population amounts to just 3.5 million. Jordan, with a population of 6.5 million, has taken in nearly 700,000. Meanwhile, Europe, in a display of united selfishness, has scuttled a plan to relocate a mere 40,000 asylum-seekers from their cities of refuge in Italy and Greece.

Second, the minority who do choose Germany, France, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, or Hungary are not enemies who have come to destroy us or even to sponge off of European taxpayers. They are applicants for freedom, lovers of our promised land, our social model, and our values. They are people who cry out "Europe! Europe!" the way millions of Europeans, arriving a century ago on Ellis Island, learned to sing "America the Beautiful."

Then there is the ugly rumor that this imaginary assault has been clandestinely orchestrated by the strategists of a "great replacement," with foreigners supplanting native Europeans, or, worse, by agents of an international jihad, in which today's migrants are tomorrow's terrorists on bullet trains. It should go without saying that this is nonsense.

Taken together, these distortions and delusions have had serious consequences. For starters, the Mediterranean Sea has been all but abandoned to human smugglers. The Mare Nostrum is gradually becoming the kind of vast and watery mass grave described by a faraway poet. Some 2,350 people have drowned already this year.

But, for most Europeans, these people are little more than statistics, just as the women and men who have survived the journey remain unidentified and indistinguishable, a threatening anonymous mass. Our society of the spectacle, normally so quick to manufacture an instant celebrity to serve as the "face" of the crisis du jour (anything from swine flu to a truckers' strike), has not taken an interest in the fate of a single one of the "migrants."

These individuals – whose course to Europe resembles that of the Phoenician Princess Europa, who arrived from Tyre on Zeus's back several millennia ago – are being wholly rejected; indeed, walls are being constructed to keep them out. The result is another group of people being denied basic rights. Such people, as Hannah Arendt once observed, will ultimately come to see in the commission of a crime their only path into the world of law and of those who enjoy the rights the law confers.

Europe, harassed by its xenophobes and consumed by self-doubt, has turned its back on its values. Indeed, it has forgotten what it is. The bell tolls not only for the migrants, but also for a Europe whose humanistic patrimony is crumbling before our very eyes.

Source: The Price of European Indifference

Europe must assume its responsibility for refugees

All summer, citizens of the European Union have been either enraged or wringing their hands with grief as refugees from some of the world's worst conflicts have arrived in their countries on a scale not seen since the Second World War.

People fleeing the destruction in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq continue to land on European Union shores by boat. They line the shoulders of highways on their long march towards northern and western Europe, crowd public transport and fill public parks.

It's a desperate bid to find somewhere safe for them and their families while European governments are turning their plight into a political football, doing very little to address the core problems or alleviate the situation.

Some anti-immigration and nationalist politicians are trying to create a "fortress Europe" that makes the journey for refugees as difficult as possible. More liberal-minded politicians have focused on how to distribute people across the EU, as if they were cargo, in a bid to stem rising panic from their citizens who are now coming face-to-face with a global political reality.

But Europe's governments are not willing to recognise their own responsibility in creating this crisis or take meaningful steps to deal with it.

For the past few weeks, I have been travelling a main route that people forcibly displaced from the Middle East and Central Asia are taking – from the shores of the Greek island of Lesbos towards Germany, France, the UK and Scandinavia.

I have watched families with infants narrowly escape death in overcrowded rafts on dangerous crossings from Turkey to Greece, only to have to march dozens of kilometres in baking heat to reach transit centres that are drastically underfunded and overcrowded. Many can be found sleeping on the shoulder of the road because local laws forbid them from taking public transport until they register their arrival.

The decrepit and unmanaged Greek camps have few toilets and the closest thing to showers are taps hanging from fences out in the open, where everyone can see you bathe. There are a few donated army tents, but many asylum seekers are forced to buy camping equipment at inflated prices from local profiteers who sit outside the camp gates.

Other people just sleep in the dirt with no privacy from the thousands crammed into the small space. It is unnecessary squalor and makes the harsh conditions in refugees camps I have seen on the Syrian-Turkish border and in northern Iraq look plush by comparison.       

Having reached these so-called resting places, people use their smartphones to plan routes to circumvent the borders of Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary, because they are forced to travel illegally out of the EU only to have to sneak back into it to get to their intended destination. They also call relatives, asking them to send thousands of euros to pay people smugglers to help them get from the Balkans back into the EU via Hungary.

Every government knows that the horrors these people are fleeing places them among the clearest cases for refugee status, yet asylum seekers are still forced to continue a clandestine journey once in Europe, exposed to violence while funding criminal enterprises.

There is no political will to allow people to claim refugee status at an EU member embassy in Athens and then book a flight, train or bus to their intended destination. It would be a fraction of the cost for people pouring millions of euros in Europe on their journey, but this is not a logical, security-minded or economic decision.

Anti-immigrant politicians continue to argue that tough restrictions, forcing people to take unnecessary risks, and sealed borders will slow the tide of people coming to Europe. That is simply not true.

Politicians in Macedonia learnt this the hard way recently. After they lined their Greek border with riot police, they were shown that firing tear gas and rubber bullets at thousands of people camped out on train tracks wouldn't stop those who were determined to cross.

Pregnant mothers in transit camps who have fled the wreckage of Kobane have told me that they would do whatever it takes to raise their children in safety.

Afghan couples standing in line in an Athens park, waiting for food handouts by Greek volunteers, describe how being caught between a resurgent Taliban and government forces has finally forced them to give up on a future in their homeland. Young Iraqi men fleeing ISIL's bloody rule of Mosul after their relatives were executed describe multiple near-death experiences while escaping. They scoff at the notion of fences or border guards getting in the way of their desire to live in freedom.

As European xenophobia continues to exacerbate these disturbing scenes of destitution, governments and citizens alike are so consumed with whether to crackdown, futilely, on their borders or accept the status quo that they have ignored their role in bringing all this about. Most of these refugees are fleeing conflicts that EU members and the US are responsible for creating or exacerbating.

The situation in Syria may have been instigated by Bashar Al Assad's brutal crack down but the entrenched civil war is also the product of foreign weapons and interference that has turned the conflict into a regional proxy war. The devastation in Afghanistan is the product of America and Europe's war, while the implosion in Iraq is the result of the country's invasion and occupation by the US and the European allies that joined it.

I have spent many years reporting from the Middle East on the conflicts that are ripping the region apart. Now as I travel through Europe with those whose lives have been uprooted by these wars, I watch as they arrive on the doorsteps of those who dispossessed them only to be left out in the cold again.     

Jesse Rosenfeld is a Canadian journalist who has been in the Middle East since 2007

On Twitter: @jrosyfield

Source: Europe must assume its responsibility for refugees

Spain Experiencing Record Tourism in 2015

PHOTO: Madrid's Plaza Mayor. (courtesy of the Spanish Tourist Office)

Visitors to Spain are spending a record amount of money, based on data revealed in the latest Tourist Expenditure Survey, the Local reported. 

Tourists have spent €37.1 billion ($41.5 billion) in Spain through the first seven months of 2015. The figure signals a hefty 7.7 percent increase over the same period in 2014.

The 37.9 million visitors to Spain between January and July is also a new record.

The survey also found that those visitors spent an average of €978 ($1,094) during their stay in the popular European destination, with a majority of that money being spent in Spain's Catalonia region. Nearly a quarter (23.1 percent) of the €37.1 billion was spent there. 

Interestingly, one in four tourists to the country over the first seven months of the year were British, but those British visitors only accounted for one-fifth of the money spent in Spain.

American visitors spent the most money in Spain, averaging €161 ($180) per day.

Despite the influx of tourism dollars that in turn propel the country's economy, government officials have taken several steps to crack down on visitors.

For example, earlier this year, newly-elected Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau Ballano expressed interest in adopting policy to limit the number of tourists to the city, one of the most visited in Europe. 

What's more, Catalan authorities announced limits on Airbnb rentals for tourists last month.

Other efforts include new rules and additional patrol in specific parts of the country in order to manage the growing number of tourists. 

Given these recent efforts, it will be interesting to see whether Spain's tourism continues to smash records the remainder of the year and into 2016. 

Source: Spain Experiencing Record Tourism in 2015

European states to create anti-trafficking taskforce

Geneva (AFP) - Switzerland, Germany and Italy are preparing to launch a joint taskforce to detect and dismantle networks smuggling refugees and migrants into Europe, Swiss authorities said on Friday.

The taskforce, which has been in the planning stage for months, will begin working next month, federal police spokeswoman Cathy Maret told AFP.

The announcement came as Europe was reeling from the discovery on Thursday of 71 decomposing bodies in an abandoned truck in Austria -- in a grim reminder of the ruthlessness of human traffickers.

Meanwhile, Libyan rescue workers recovered 76 bodies from yet another capsized boat crammed with people trying to flee across the Mediterranean amid fears the toll could rise as high as 200.

In Switzerland, the fight against human trafficking is handled at a regional level, and it is the canton of Ticino, which borders Italy, which is in charge of the tri-national taskforce, Maret said, although Swiss federal authorit ies were also supporting the project.

The taskforce will be based in the small Swiss town of Chiasso on the Italian border, and will be manned by Swiss border guards and German and Italian police.

"It will be tasked with detecting, pursuing and dismantling the smuggling networks," she said.

Switzerland is both a destination point for migrants as well as an important transit point, with two main routes passing through the country.

One stretches from Ticino, where Chiasso is located, and leads through Basel in the far north then on to Germany, and the other goes Italy to towards France.

The number of people arriving in Chiasso by train from Italy -- and often immediately sent back there -- has been steadily climbing in recent months.

Switzerland officially registered 7,384 asylum requests in the second quarter of this year, marking a 64-percent increase over the first three months of this year and a 47-percent rise from the same period a year ago.< /p>

Eritreans make up the largest group of asylum seekers in Switzerland, with 3,238 requests in the second quarter, followed by Somalis, Sri Lankans and Syrians.

Singapore International News

Society & Culture

Switzerland

Source: European states to create anti-trafficking taskforce

ISIS Veterans Seek to Target Israelis in Europe, Israel

(Photo: Mattes/ Wiki Commons)

A travel advisory issued by the Counterterrorism Bureau of Israel's National Security Council ahead of the Jewish New Year warns Israelis that Islamic State (ISIS) militants returning to their home countries in Europe may seek to target them.

The NSC issues travel advisories twice a year, in advance of the popular travel times of the Jewish New Year and Passover. These travel warnings are based on assessments of the situations in countries and areas considered risky destinations for Israelis, and on open-source and classified intelligence information.

"The upcoming holiday season could be targeted by terrorist organizations to attack Israelis and Jews abroad," the NSC said in a statement. "Travel warnings are issued as a service to the public ahead of the fall-winter tourist season. It is important to note that these warnings reflect nothing new, rather represent the current situation while citing the gravity of the travel warning to each country or region. The travel warnings issued by the Counterterrorism Bureau are based on concrete and reliable information which reflect a substantial threat."

According to the NSC: "The string of radical Islamic terrorist attacks during the past year in Belgium, Canada, Australia, France and Denmark raises concerns over additional attacks against western targets, among them Israeli and Jewish targets as well."

Of particular concern to the NSC are western and northern Europe, which the NSC says may be targeted by global jihadis, including ISIS "graduates" returning from the battlefields of Iraq and Syria and those locals who have not themselves fought, "but are inspired by terrorist groups."

ISIS followers are not the only source of concern for the NSC. "The campaign of terror waged by Iran and Hezbollah continues to pose a threat to Israeli and Jewish targets across the globe, with an emphasis on Israeli tourist destinations and Jewish symbols, Jewish community leaders and Chabad houses."

41 countries and eight regions, such as the Sinai Peninsula, made the travel advisory list. Turkey remains on the list, with a general warning to avoid unnecessary visits there.

Source: ISIS Veterans Seek to Target Israelis in Europe, Israel

8 Must-See Cities of Eastern Europe

Surprisingly modern, thrillingly packed with people, and budget-friendly as can be, Eastern Europe should be on your list this year. Not only will fall flights be cheaper, but the U.S. dollar is strong against many Eastern European currencies. Aside from all that, you can expect to see some top-notch art, nibble some of the world's best snacks, and experience a swath of Europe still largely undiscovered by American travelers.

To get you started, here are 8 must-see cities in Eastern Europe, courtesy of the expert travel team at Hopper.

Ljubljana, SloveniaLjubljana is old. Ancient, even. This 2,000-year-old Roman outpost is now an unbelievably green city, compact and traveler-friendly and filled with life. Find the cobbled streets, castles and squares you would expect, sure, but don't be surprised to uncover a buzzing nightlife (locals like to party hard) as well as one of Europe's most progressive modern-art scenes.

Reasons we love it:

The city center: With heavily restricted car traffic, Ljubljana's city center is exceptionally green and filled with pedestrian-friendly paths

The savings: Ljubljana is a university town beloved by backpackers, which means that bars, restaurants, cafes and attractions are budget-friendly

The art scene: With the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova and a number of modern galleries, Slovenia is a surprising capital of modern art

Tallinn, EstoniaAlthough it's achieved fame for its cozy Christmas market, Tallinn is truly a great visit year-round. Yes, Tallinn has all the fairy-tale charms you'd expect, but with surprising twists by way of shiny new skyscrapers and appealingly modern eateries, it stands out from other Baltic cities. Artsy and energetic, filled with young backpackers, Tallinn is a great (and budget-friendly) escape.

Reasons we love it:

The Old Town: This UNESCO-approved medieval walled city is straight out of a fairy tale, complete with cobbled streets and rebuilt homes dating back to the 11th century

The nightlife: Despite its compact size, Tallinn has the party spots of a much larger city, especially in its Bohemian-flavored bars and cafes

The antiques: Tallinn has more than a few curiosity shops specializing in unique Soviet-era trinkets (they make for fun souvenirs)

Dubrovnik, CroatiaOn the southern tip of Croatia, situated along the bluer-than-blue Adriatic Sea, is Dubrovnik, a holiday town famed the world over. Although its winding streets and ancient city walls see countless tourists (mainly of the yachting type) in warmer months, it's still an incredible destination, packed with art and history museums, picturesque views and some of Europe's best beaches.

Reasons we love it:

Banje Beach: The closest beach to the Old Town, this strand is the perfect place to catch a sunset as you face the Adriatic

The cable car: Take this sky-high ride up to the top of Srd Hill for excellent views in all directions of both Dubrovnik and the sea

The bars: While still relatively undiscovered, Croatia's wine scene is best explored at one of Dubrovnik's many hip (and affordable) wine bars

Krakow, PolandKrakow manages to be simultaneously one of Europe's most exciting and active city centers as well as Poland's most somber historical spot. Museums, the Schindler factory and the remnants of the Jewish Quarter tell Poland's history, while at the same time, the Old Town and Main Market Square overflow with modern cafes, clubs and shops. Truly Krakow has history and entertainment in spades.

Reasons we love it:

The Old Town: Anything but boring, Krakow's Old Town is brimming with decidedly modern boutiques, restaurants, cafes and bars

The parks: Krakow is extremely walkable and its public spaces along the Vistula River have plenty of walking and biking paths to enjoy

The history: Explore the somber history of the city (and especially its Jewish population) at a number of museums, memorials and the Schindler Factory

Kotor, MontenegroThis Montenegrin city, already well-loved by Europeans, is at once romantic and exciting. From the perimeter of its ancient city walls to the medieval homes and historical monuments within, Kotor's attractions are incomparable, best enhanced by a backdrop of a wide blue bay. Take a walk or guided tour of the ancient labyrinth-like streets or embark on a vigorous hike up the steep mountainsides.

Reasons we love it:

The scenery: With steep mountains to one side and a wide expanse of blue gulf waters to the other, Kotor's surroundings are among the most spectacular in all of Europe

The town walls: Built between the 9th and 14th centuries, these old fortifications, forming a protective loop around the city, are a great excursion for the (very) active

The cuisine: Surprisingly, Kotor's food scene is influenced mostly by Italy and other Mediterranean regions, heavy on seafood and best accompanied by the excellent local wine

Budapest, HungaryThe so-called Pearl of the Danube is actually two cities in one. Linked across the rolling Danube River via an iconic bridge, both sides to this city offer incredible cultural discovery. Restaurants serving up traditional takes on Hungarian cuisine, hot-springs-fed bathhouses relaxing the masses, and untold numbers of churches, monuments and museums all await in this gem of an Eastern European city.

Reasons we love it:

The food and wine: Take a cooking course or tuck into one of Budapest's many bistros for traditional eats and affordable local wine

The sweets: Hungarian desserts are world-famous and Budapest's cafes are the best places to sample rich cakes, crepes and tortes

The Chain Bridge: One of Budapest's most iconic sights, this 19th century bridge and its stone lions prettily connect Buda and Pest (and is well worth a walk)

Bratislava, SlovakiaOften compared to Vienna but with a charm all its own, Bratislava is a criminally under-visited destination in Eastern Europe. The Danube River winds through the city and a small but bustling Old Town is filled with tourist sights, from red-roofed homes to pleasant sidewalk cafes in shaded art nouveau plazas. Elsewhere, find even more to like about the city, including (surprisingly) some of Europe's best modern art galleries.

Reasons we love it:

The Blue Church: This art nouveau church is very blue indeed, right up to its blue-glazed roof, and is one of the most visited sigh ts in Bratislava

The beer: A number of modern brewpubs and traditional bars serve up both Slovakian and international beers for very budget-minded travelers

The markets: Bratislava's old-style outdoor markets have been around for years, offering goods from local farms and orchards as well as clothing, flowers and even wine

Riga, LatviaAmong the many Eastern European cities that tout their unique architecture, Riga perhaps reigns supreme, with a glorious combination of gargoyle-topped gothic buildings, shaded plazas and gingerbread homes. But it's not all about architecture in this fairy-tale-like cultural capital. Markets, museums, churches and expansive parks make up the rest, with much for travelers to uncover.

Reasons we love it:

The water: With the River Daugava and the Baltic Sea at hand, it's no surprise that boating, swimming and other aquatic activities are popular in Riga

The architecture: With a UNESCO-approved art nouveau town center and gothic churches that have been around for centuries, Riga's architecture is a highlight even for non-enthusiasts

The saunas: Latvia's steam-bath culture is deeply ingrained and travelers should experience the unique jet-lag cure firsthand

- Dara Continenza

This article originally appeared on Hopper.com, home of the flight-prediction app that tells you where to go and when to fly and buy.

Source: 8 Must-See Cities of Eastern Europe

How one of Europe’s most incredible cities was built with… salt

Salt used to be extraordinarily valuable and the mountains around Salzburg are full of the stuff.

Walking through Salzburg's cathedral, a masterpiece of beautifully-defined baroque decoration, a thought strikes. "This must have cost a fair amount."

The same thought comes to mind while lapping up the ridiculously  over-the-top decoration in the Residenz cross the square, or while clocking any number of the palaces dotted around the city. Salzburg's opulence is totally out of context with its historic importance.

Salzburg was never the seat of a massive empire, or even a state that people anywhere else would really pay attention to. Until Napoleon came along and brought everything tumbling down in the 19th century, it was ruled by autocratic Prince Archbishops as an ecclesiastic microstate.

They had no gold, no silver, no major port and no crucial status on an unavoidable trade route. So how did they afford to make the place look so spectacular?

Well, the clue is in the name. Salt may seem humdrum to us – something added in pinches to cooking or sat largely untouched on the kitchen table – but historically it has been extraordinarily valuable. Before refrigeration came along, covering food with salt was the best way of preserving it. Huge amounts of it were required to stop meat from going off - and it just so happens that the mountains around Salzburg are full of the stuff.

Deep below the surface of the area around Salzburg is an ancient underground sea,  from whi ch the water has long since evaporated. But tectonic activity has lifted parts of the terrain up, forming mountains and making those salt deposits much easier to get at.

The Celtic tribes living in the area 2500 years ago were the first to mine it – and the amount of gold, ivory and amber found in their graves suggests doing so made them wealthy. First they took what could be found from natural salt water springs, but then they started digging tunnels into the mountainside.

The Salzach River played a crucial role in the city's salt trade.

Over the years, those tunnels were made larger and became an extraordinary underground network that can be visited today. The Salzwelten mine at Bad Dürrnberg finally stopped operating in 1989, and has now been turned into a deeply weird tourist attraction. It starts with a ride on a rudimentary train through one of the tunnels, continues down to the lower levels via giant wooden slides and culminates in a boat ride across an underground lake amidst a frankly bonkers light and sound show. On the way through, the tour crosses the border into Germany – centuries old treaties have allowed the miners to dig on Bavarian territory as long as they enter from the Salzburg side. It is ludicrously good fun.

It's not all about silly novelty transport, though. Large projections on the way through take novice pseudo-miners through the history of salt mining in the region, using hammily-acted videos to tell it from key characters' point of view.

One of these is Archbishop Wolf-Dietrich, who is responsible for much of Salzburg's baroque makeover. And he freely admits that the taxes paid by his citizens don't bring nearly as much into the coffers as the salt from the mines.

But the secret ingredient is the Salzach River, by which Salzburg is divided. The salt was sent down it in barges, to the river Inn, then finally the Danube and the rest of Europe. But the water became crucial too.

In the 12th century, the miners worked out that instead of digging the salt out bit by bit, they could dig holes then fill them with water. That water, left for six or seven weeks, turned into brine which was then pumped out and boiled, leaving just the salt behind. This extraction-by-leaching managed to turn labour-intensive, back-breaking work into a scalable industry.

And the tons of "white gold" that resulted were turned into the real gold that dazzles in Salzburg's palaces today.

The salt mine tour can be booked online via salzwelten.at.

Ad Feedback

The writer was a guest of Salzburg Tourism. See Salzburg.info.

Source: How one of Europe's most incredible cities was built with… salt

Insight Vacations Introduces Three New Christmas Market Adventures to Poland, Austria and Italy

⌂Home

Mail

Search

News

Sports

Finance

Weather

Games

Answers

Screen

Flickr

Mobile

More⋁

Politics

Celebrity

Movies

Music

TV

Groups

Health

Style

Beauty

Food

Parenting

Makers

Tech

Shopping

Travel

Autos

Homes

Try Yahoo Finance on Firefox »

Skip to Navigation

Skip to Main content

Skip to Right rail

👤 Sign In

✉ Mail

⚙ Help

Account Info

Help

Suggestions

Source: Insight Vacations Introduces Three New Christmas Market Adventures to Poland, Austria and Italy

Save money on your next vacation by choosing an Off-Season destination

With the end of the summer season coming to a close, a majority of travelers are busy making arrangements for a last minute vacation getaway. Other individuals, however, are waiting for the off-peak season for savings on their travels.

With a great deal more individuals traveling than at any other time, it's becoming much more difficult to experience that special vacation that you have been planning for. Planning a vacation during the off-peak season has its rewards. First, you don't have to deal with the huge amount of crowds, and secondly, you can save a considerable amount of money.

For instance, Hawaii is one of the most popular vacation destinations offering the best discounts during the months of May and June, and September through mid-December. Another popular vacation destination is the Caribbean offering the best package discounts from April through June, and from September through November.

The best time to travel to Australia is during the spring when rates are much lower. Another hot spot for vacationers is Thailand with rates the lowest from March through September. For those considering a trip to Mexico should look into the month of April and October for additional discounts.

If you're planning a vacation to Europe, consider traveling in the fall when most of the crowds have disappeared and hotels are looking to fill their rooms. April in Paris is a well-known song that most of us are familiar with. This song has meaning for individuals looking to travel to the city. Visiting Paris in April allows travelers to a number of package deals including discounts to hotels, restaurants, and attractions.

Vacationers might possibly discover winter rates in some European countries to be much lower from November through January. Researching each country to determine their hotel rates as well as other discounts is always recommended.

One major drawback when traveling in the off-season is the possibility with certain hotels and museums closed. It's always a good idea to check the website of the city or country you're planning to visit for additional information. Before you pack for the trip, check the local weather of the area you will be traveling to. Depending on the destination and the time of year, it's recommended that individuals pack a light layer of clothing along with a few sweaters.

Taking advantage of off-season travel can provide an individual the opportunity to visit places only dreamed about and experience the local culture for an unforgettable vacation.

Source: Save money on your next vacation by choosing an Off-Season destination

The great east European road trip part three: hiking in Bulgaria

Maddy drinking at one of the many springs in Bulgaria's Rhodope mountains. All photographs by Kevin Rushby for the Guardian

We were high in the Rhodope mountains of southern Bulgaria, one of Europe's largest wildernesses, a place where wolves and bears can still be found, that is home to a scattering of hardy villages, mostly Turkish-influenced from the long presence of the Ottoman empire. The narrow valleys have tumbling rivers that carve deep gorges, inspiration for many stories, notably that of Orpheus, the divinely inspired musician. We had trekked up from the village of Yagodina, spotted a snake among the flowers, and now we were tired. We needed distractions. It was then that disaster struck, the sort of thing that can occur in myth-soaked mountains.

Bulgaria Rhodope mountains

It was my daughter Maddy (12) who roused the slumbering gods. She took out her phone and started playing music: Shakira to be precise, the one about hips. I leaped up on a rock and, egged on by the adoring jeers of my family, performed an inadvisable parody of the Colombian diva. The gods passed their judgement. Something in my lower back snapped.

By the time we had descended to our destination, the village of Trigrad, I knew I was going to suffer. Fortunately the Rhodope region is renowned for the longevity and good health of its inhabitants and, at the Triibria hotel, the owner, Nevse, brought out all the secrets of Rhodopean vitality: ironwort tea; mursalski, renowned for anti-inflammatory properties; then patatik, a potato-based Rhodopean favourite, filled with cheese and herbs collected on the mountain. Later came other balms, notably mavrud wine (Bulgaria's best red, grown on the lower slopes of the Rhodopes). Still I sat there, twisted and contrite, clutching my coccyx. Finally yoghurt was brought.

The Rhodopes' reputation for health is not new: back in 1905 a Russian researcher noted the unusually high incidence of centenarians and decided the secret was in the yoghurt. A bacteria, lactobacillus bulgaricus was isolated. Scientists went on to find that Bulgarian yoghurt helped increase bone density and reduce chloresterol. It was a wonder cure. The Rhodopeans, of course, knew their yoghurt was good, but the secret of long life? They kept quiet.

An old man chopping firewood for in Trigrad

I ate my yoghurt; I drank more ironwort tea. I staggered over to the bar and was shown dozens of proprietary spirits, none of which had any claim to healing. Finally, an unlabelled bottle of tawny liquid was produced and a tot poured. Ice was added. Two hours later I knew I had found Bulgaria's secret weapon in the war on decrepitude: rakia.

Next day, I was much better, and we strolled through the village towards Trigrad's famous gorge. Despite it only being early August the villagers were clearly preparing for winter: everyone appeared to be chopping or stacking firewood. The streets were lined with long walls of logs and the houses fortified by ramparts of kindling. Beyond the houses was the gorge, deep enough to swallow London's Shard. At its narrowest point there is a dark, savage hole into which the river plunges, the Devil's Throat. It was here that Orpheus supposedly descended to Hades in pursuit of his deceased beloved, Eurydice. We decided to follow. Fortunately someone has built a footpath into the cave which enters lower down so you pass into the bowels of Hades first, admiring some of the 35,000 bats who live there, then climbing through vast vaulted chambers towards daylight. At this point Orpheus made the fatal mistake of looking back, despite having been warned against it, thus losing Eurydice for ever. The moral is clear: once the right answer to a problem is found, do not look back.

The natural arches of Chudni Mostove in the Rhodope mountains

We spent the rest of the day climbing up on the crags, admiring some of Rhodope's 80 unique plant species. Clouds of butterflies went with us, hitching lifts on our shoulders. There were glorious panoramas of endless forests and mountains: one of the pleasures of the Rhodopes is the sense of vast wild spaces. At sunset part two of my cure commenced: ironwort, bean soup, yoghurt, and several medicinal shots of rakija.

Next day we walked a gorge near Devin village, soaked my back in renowned spa waters and ended the day higher up the valley in the village of Lyaskovo at the homestay of Rumen and Zacharina Rosenovi. After a superb dinner, our hosts' son, Boris, played the bagpipes and Zacharina got Sophie and Maddy dancing. Personally, I still felt some Shakira-inspired caution, something Rumen clearly understood, leaving me in the company of a rakia bottle that, bizarrely, contained three woodcarved musicians – a gift from another villager. Could it have been Orpheus? I lifted the bottle and I did not look back.

The Rosenovi family in Lyaskovo, bagpipes to the fore

Later, a group gathered and an impassioned discussion on the fragile legality of making rakia in modern Bulgaria ensued. "Anyone who has tried our mountain rakia," declared one man, "never wants anything else. Big business doesn't like that." Deeper into the evening, if I recall correctly, we debated the correct way to express Yes and No with your head. Ruman said the British shake for Yes and nod for No which, at that moment, seemed entirely accurate.

Rumen Rosenovi with his special bottle of rakia

Next day, we set off through Lyaskovo, calling greetings to all the people out chopping logs and admiring some venerable communist-era vehicles – Bulgaria could snatch the mantle of "ex-communist country with great vintage vehicles" from Cuba. Then we trekked upwards into the forests and collected handfuls of wild strawberries and raspberries, crossing the highest ridge at 1,900 metres, before dropping down to Chudni Mostove, a stirring sight where water has carved several massive arches in stone, the largest over 45 metres high and wide. I scrambled down steep gulches and leaped from rocks like a mountain goat.

Our last night we spent in Kosovo, a restored village, then next day stopped by Bachkovo, an 11th century monastery busy with little ceremonies and rituals, before returning to Plovdiv, an ancient city and a great base for any exploration of Bulgaria's southern mountains. The Rhodope had cured me, but I don't believe it was the yoghurt.

• Bulgarian roads are the most pot-holed we have yet encountered, but fuel is the cheapest. We are using the Bradt Guide to Bulgaria. I'm reading The Traveller's Literary Companion to Eastern and Central Europe, edited by James Naughton, which covers a lot of the countries we are visiting, including the next: Romania. Traventuria, provided Kevin and family's self-guided walking tour (In the Footsteps of Orpheus starts from £307 per person in a double room, including ground transfers, en suite halfboard accommodation, detailed route notes and maps).HomeAway provided self-catering accommodation in Plovdiv, from £75 per night. Kevin also stayed at Hotel Hebros, double rooms with breakfast from £56, +359 32 260180

Follow Kevin's journey on instagram.com/kevinrushby; contribute your tips on things for him to see and do on the way on twitter.com/kevin_rushby

Source: The great east European road trip part three: hiking in Bulgaria

Europe in fall: 10 must see destinations from Lisbon, Portugal to Krakow, Poland

The kids are almost back in school, and the annual summer tourism crush in Europe is subsiding. With the return of fall comes some of the best weather of the year, which makes this a great time to visit any number of top European destinations. In no particular order, here are 10 great spots both tried and new.

BRUSSELS: This might just be the most under-rated city in Europe. Grand Place is the most beautiful square with fantastic, gilded buildings dating back hundreds of years. The square in front of the church of St. Catherine is more of a locals spot, but is a great place to sip a Belgian beer or nibble on those famous pommes frites or Belgian mussels. The Cathedral of Sts. Michel et Gudule is tremendous. Don't Miss: The Magritte Museum traces the life and art work of the great Rene Magritte.

LISBON: This is a beautiful city, with gorgeous squares and hills and winding streets and an old fort with commanding views. You'll also find great beaches, and the water's still nice in fall. Portugal also happens to be one of the cheaper destinations in Europe; a big help given the value of the Canadian dollar. Don't Miss: The lovely village of Sintra features hilltop castles and fairy-tale architecture a short distance from town.

SLOVENIA: This is a small wedge of a nation sandwiched between Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia, with elements of each. Ljubljana has a beautiful river and small hilltop castle that makes it feel like Salzburg. The river rafting is tremendous, the alpine hiking sublime and the Adriatic coast a great place to soak up the sun. Don't Miss: A trip to Lake Bled, with its castles and glistening blue-green lake and a small island with a church. It's as pretty a spot as you'll find in Europe.

WALES: Scotland and England get all the attention, but Wales is a marvelous destination. Cardiff is a fun, lively town with a cool castle. The food scene has come a long way, with tremendous local cuisine. And there's great golf at links courses such as Nefyn and District and Royal St. David's. Don't Miss: The colourful coastal town of Portmeirion looks like an Italian mountain village.

SARDINIA: Sure, there are beautiful bays in the north of the island filled with yachts owned by Europe's pretty people. Nothing wrong with that. But you'll also find fantastic wine, mysterious mountain peaks and endless beaches fronting clear blue Mediterranean waters. The capital city of Cagliari ain't Rome or Florence, but it has its charms. Don't Miss: The hike up the hill from the beach at the Hotel Calamosca is short but beautiful, with the ruins of an old Spanish fort clinging to a cliff and great views of Cagliari.

ZURICH: You'll find narrow, winding streets in the old town with tons of sidewalk cafes and fun shops. Zurich also has a glorious lakefront, with beautiful parks and water warm enough for swimming in early fall. West Zurich features trendy restaurants and pounding, late night clubs that might surprise you. Don't Miss: The Marc Chagall windows at Fraumunster Church. Positively glorious.

STOCKHOLM: Truly one of the most scenic cities on the planet, littered with a series of canals and waterways snaking past old churches and stylish, new buildings. The coffee shops are great places to mix with locals. And there's plenty of nature all around, including the parks on the island of Djurgarden. Don't Miss: Gamla Stan is one of the prettiest and best preserved medieval city sections in all of Europe.

AIX-EN-PROVENCE: Easily one of the most lovely towns in France. You'll find small, winding streets filled with wonderful shops and nice public squares in a town founded by the Romans in 122 B.C. The farmer's markets in this part of France are wonderful, as are the Christmas markets. And you're only a few miles from the French Riviera. Don't Miss: A tour of the studio used by local artist Paul Cezanne is both educational and entertaining. There's also a lovely garden.

PAROS: Santorini and Mykonos get the lion's share of attention from folks heading to the Greek Islands. But Paros is a delight; small enough to be out of the way but big enough to offer a variety of activities. The beaches are marvellous and you'll also find those gorgeous, shady streets with bright blue doors and brilliant red or pink bougainvillea. Don't Miss: A moped ride around the island is a great way to see things on your own terms.

KRAKOW: I get magazine and travel website rankings crossing my desk all the time, and they almost always refer to this Polish city as one of the great values of Europe. A study by priceoftravel.com recently found you could spend a day in Krakow for just $52 U.S., including hotel, meals and entertainment. That compares to $180 per day in London. The churches and squares are exactly what most North Americans picture when they think of a grand European city. Don't Miss: Wawel Cathedral is basically Gothic in style, but the surrounding chapels are a glorious mishmash of styles. Tremendous Instagram material!

Source: Europe in fall: 10 must see destinations from Lisbon, Portugal to Krakow, Poland

Diamond Resorts -- Vacations for Life -- Rediscover Health Through Relaxation at Lake Tahoe

Diamond Resorts -- Vacations for Life -- Rediscover Health Through Relaxation at Lake Tahoe

LAS VEGAS, NV--(Marketwired - August 20, 2015) - Diamond Resorts International® has added a destination to their resort network that capitalizes on the fabulous year-round weather of Lake Tahoe, a perfect match for summer vacations with lake and nature activities, and plenty of ski options for the winter traveler. Diamond Resorts International® Lake Tahoe Resort gives vacationers the ability to re-connect with one another in a natural setting, regardless of the season. Nightlife seekers will have access to all the fun and festivities available just a mile away in the exciting casino district.

Travelers who are due for a vacation can take full advantage of the benefits of nature with a trip to Lake Tahoe Vacation Resort -- a paradise that is open year-round with activities and amenities that appeal to all inclinations. Summertime travelers enjoy swimming, boating, fishing, horseback riding, and hiking while wintertime adventurers revel in the world-class skiing and snowboarding available at the nearby Heavenly Mountain Resort -- some of the finest terrain in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Plus, the Diamond Resorts International® Lake Tahoe Resort is in proximity to a wide variety of area attractions, including the Reno and Carson City Nevada. Visitors can also experience city life of the Sacramento area. Whatever ones personal preference may be, there is no shortage of choices for the seasoned traveler, and experiencing the tranquility of nature with a touch of nightlife makes this the perfect destination for couples, families, or singles.

Breathtaking views of mountainside scenery offer a chance to become immersed mentally in the area's beauty, while the concerns of the nine to five world melt away. A hike through the woods or a few trips down the powdery slopes let loved ones reconnect with each other in settings that are not encumbered by day-to-day distractions. Diamond Resorts International® is proud to introduce new and existing clientele to this fabulous resort location. A fitness center, swimming pool, and sauna offer the overworked visitor the perfect setting to kick back and relax, have a refreshing dip, and then head out to experience the variety of entertainment options and natural surroundings.

About Diamond Resorts International®Diamond Resorts International®, with its network of more than 330 vacation destinations located in 34 countries throughout the continental United States, Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, Central America, Europe, Asia, Australasia and Africa, provides guests with choice and flexibility to let them create their dream vacation, whether they are traveling an hour away or around the world. Our relaxing vacations have the power to give guests an increased sense of happiness and satisfaction in their lives, while feeling healthier and more fulfilled in their relationships, by enjoying memorable and meaningful experiences that let them Stay Vacationed.™

Diamond Resorts International® manages vacation ownership resorts and sells vacation ownership points that provide members and owners with Vacations for Life® at over 330 managed and affiliated properties and cruise itineraries.

To learn more, visit: https://www.diamondresorts.com/Lake-Tahoe-Vacation-Resort

Diamond Resorts (@diamondresorts) - Twitter: https://twitter.com/diamondresorts

Diamond Resorts International - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/DiamondResorts

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2015/8/20/11G051368/Images/mw19t6i8i1j12bfokkt5pjov1sug2-349172064577.jpg

Source: Diamond Resorts -- Vacations for Life -- Rediscover Health Through Relaxation at Lake Tahoe

Russia’s Pitch to Vacationers: Crimea Is for Patriots

Photo On the waterfront in Sevastopol, Crimea. The number of visitors to the peninsula so far this year is still well below the six million who came in 2013. Credit Alexander Aksakov/Getty Images

SAKI, Crimea — Tamara Tsetlayana stood on a narrow stretch of gray beach, rinsing off a thick layer of the black, ostensibly therapeutic mud that has drawn visitors to the salty lake here for more than a century.

The dreary shoreline with its view of rusted dredging equipment was perhaps less appealing than previous holiday destinations in Turkey and Europe, she said, but patriotism drove her choice this summer.

"With all these sanctions, we decided to support our own," said Ms. Tsetlayana, expressing a sentiment that the Kremlin hoped would inspire a stampede of Russians eager to vacation in Crimea after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine last year, prompting Western sanctions.

Yet that tourist tidal wave never quite materialized.

It wasn't for lack of trying. Workers at state-run companies received subsidized travel packages, for example, while employees of the security services were barred from vacationing abroad. The storied military history of Crimea inspired an advertising effort — one billboard campaign featured a pointing paratrooper demanding to know if YOU had signed up to be a tourist in Crimea.

Photo A beach near Livadia, Crimea. Officials say the economic downturn in Russia has hurt tourism. Credit James Hill for The New York Times

President Vladimir V. Putin contributed his bit, too, taking a high-profile trip to Crimea this week. Past excursions have included exploits like bare-chested horseback riding or raising ancient amphorae planted on the seabed for him to "discover." This time he went underwater in a clear bathyscaph to look at the wreck of 10th-century ship, which he said proved Russia had ancient links to the area.

The prime minister of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, put a brave face on the overall season, telling a Western reporter that he was sorry "to disappoint" but that millions of Russian tourists actually were coming. "Everything is all right with the tourist season," he said. "Patriotically minded Russians gave special attention to Crimea."

The numbers tell a different story, still well below the six million annual visitors who came in 2013, before Russia's annexation of the peninsula. In perhaps a more telling sign, Mr. Aksyonov fired his tourism minister in June for incompetence.

Ordinary people living off tourism — guides, taxi drivers, bed-and-breakfast owners — described the season as anemic. A group of villagers along the southern "Crimean Riviera" wrote an open letter to Mr. Putin in late July saying that visitors this year amounted to just 10 percent of the number in 2013, grousing that they faced unemployment and hunger.

"People do not know how they will survive the winter," the letter said.

Residents across Crimea cited various reasons, including a weak economy throughout Russia, transportation problems and a lack of amenities.

About 33,000 vacationers used to arrive every day by train, but Ukraine now blocks the tracks. Ferry service to southern Russia was never great, and although better organization and more boats cut the waiting time from days to hours, the volume remains limited. (The prime minister also fired the transportation minister.)

Mr. Aksyonov said there had been a huge leap in the number of passenger planes, with 106 arriving around the clock, up from around 1 2, bringing some 15,000 people each day.

A prodigious construction effort at the Simferopol airport more than doubled the terminal space over the past six months. Yet the airport is still hard-pressed to absorb the traffic. Some planes circle for 30 minutes awaiting a landing spot. The arrivals hall is so jammed with incoming travelers, even at 2 a.m., that those greeting passengers must wait out in the street.

Many Crimeans noted that the tenor of tourism was changing. Ukrainians were happy to rent a room within walking distance of the beach and to cook their own meals. Russians prefer hotel packages. The supply in Crimea is extremely limited, unlike in Sochi, another Black Sea resort that was rebuilt for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

"Many people in Russia have been spoiled by all those fancy resorts in Turkey and Egypt with their all-inclusive vouchers," said Vera F. Basava, 67, a retired hospital worker hawking a rental apartment near the beach in the southern village of Gurzuf. "So they have doubts about coming here."

Before the crisis, Ms. Basava said she rented to all kinds of people, Ukrainians, Germans, Britons. In a good season she could earn 200,000 rubles, some $6,000, to supplement a monthly pension then worth $280 and now half that.

Mr. Putin did not help matters in one of his first statements on Crimea last year by describing its resorts as below Russian standards.

In 2014, 3.8 million tourists visited Crimea, according to government statistics.

Continue reading the main story Graphic Russia's Endgame in Ukraine

How Russia aims to achieve its goal of keeping Ukraine isolated from the West.

Down the street in Gurzuf, a guide named Lena, who did not want to use her last name, was sitting under a sprawling fig tree trying to sell excursion tickets to the wineries, the palaces and the natural wonders that once made southern Crimea the playground of the czars and then the Communist Party elite.

"Last year many Russians came out of curiosity, but this is a weak season," she said, before admonishing a visitor: "Why are you sober? You are in Crimea!"

Upscale resorts seem to be doing better than others. At the Sea Wellness Spa Hotel in Alushta, a sprawling, forested coastal property, the price o f rooms ranged from just over $100 a night for a studio to more than $2,000 a night for a six-room villa with its own pool. The hotel was running at 75 percent capacity, said Maria Boriy, its commercial director.

In Yalta, Lubov V. Gribokova, the chairman of the City Council's tourism committee, said the southern port had raked in an unexpected windfall from taxes and fees because so many Russians stayed in hotels this year.

Yalta decided to skip its usual spring beautification program, spending the money instead on the technical studies needed to snag federal road construction money, Ms. Gribokova said.

Poor infrastructure d iscourages tourism. Mr. Aksyonov said 80 percent of the road network needed replacing. But the Kremlin announced in June that auditors could not account for 60 percent of the money allocated for road construction last year.

During the Soviet era, many of the palaces and estates of the czarist aristocracy were nationalized and converted to health sanitariums. There are still 144 of them, and little has changed since Soviet times.

Many still offer the same menu of slightly weird science meant to improve your health: leeches to suck your blood, magnets that supposedly diminish pain, breathing in salt caves.

In Saki, the N. N. Budenko Sanitarium, a rehabilitation hospital, uses the famous local mud to treat people paralyzed in automobile accidents and other traumas, drawing visitors from across Russia and the former Soviet republics.

"Practically nothing has changed since Soviet times because it was all so effective that there was no need to tinker," said Snezhana Kotelevich, the deputy head of all the sanitarium's medical clinics.

The first treatment Dr. Kotelevich offered a visitor was a mud enema to address prostate problems. "All the women will be yours after that," she said.

Asked if the hospital treated the wounded from the war in southeastern Ukraine, Dr. Kotelevich responded, "That's a provocative question," before allowing that the wounded from the Donetsk People's Republic were treated at the facility. There was just one there at the time, she said, a man from the Nor th Caucasus who could not walk and also had intestinal problems because of his wounds.

Many Crimeans in the travel business expect the industry will recover only when the grandest infrastructure project of them all is completed, a multibillion-dollar bridge linking Crimea to the mainland. But that is at least three years off.

One travel agent in Yalta keeps pictures on her computer of the huge foreign cruise ships that used to stop here, ghosts from yet another bygone era on Crimea before Western sanctions over Ukraine cut them off.

"We thought Russia would fill this place with seminars and conferences, but so far nothing," she sighed, adding tha t Crimea had turned into such a "madhouse" that she did not want to give her name for fear of losing government business.

Source: Russia's Pitch to Vacationers: Crimea Is for Patriots

Europe migrant crisis: Surge in numbers at EU borders

Europe migrant crisis: Surge in numbers at EU borders

18 August 2015

From the section Europe

Germany has seen a wave of migration from Syria and the Balkans

The number of migrants at the EU's borders reached a record high of 107,500 in July, officials say, as a sharp surge in expected asylum requests was reported in Germany.

Germany has seen a wave of migration from Syria and the Balkans, and now says it could receive as many as 750,000 asylum seekers this year.

The EU has been struggling to cope with migrant arrivals in recent months.

France and the UK say they will sign a deal to tackle the crisis in Calais.

Over the summer, thousands of migrants have sought to get to the UK through the Channel Tunnel from makeshift camps around the northern French city.

France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and his British counterpart, Theresa May, say they will sign a deal there on Thursday to strengthen their countries' co-operation on security, the fight against criminal smugglers, human traffickers, and clandestine immigration.

In early August, the UK pledged to add €10m (£7m) to a fund established in September 2014 to secure the port of Calais, and initially endowed with €15m over three years.

A makeshift camp known as New Jungle, near Calais, is home to many migrants 'Third consecutive record'

EU border agency Frontex said the number of migrants surpassed the 100,000 mark in a single month for the first time since it had begun keeping records in 2008.

The Warsaw-based agency said in a statement that the figure of 107,500 migrants for July was the "third consecutive monthly record, jumping well past the previous high of more than 70,000 reached in June".

The German government had earlier forecast that 450,000 asylum seekers could arrive in 2015, but is now set to increase that to 650,000 or higher.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said more countries in Europe should share the burden.

"It is unsustainable in the long run that only two EU countries, Germany and Sweden, take in the majority of refugees," he told German daily Die Welt.

Hungary's southern border marks the edge of the EU' s Schengen zone of passport-free travel and is thus a target for migrants seeking to enter the EU.

Its government has said it will send thousands of police officers to its southern border with Serbia in its latest step to stem the flow of migrants.

Helping the refugees - by Jenny Hill, BBC Berlin correspondent

Squatting on a kerb, Barakat smiles as a volunteer hands his young son and daughter some second-hand clothes.

The family are Yazidis and fled Iraq. "They were killing all the women - what were we supposed to do?"

Nearby, hundreds of people queue outside a grey concrete building. Every so often an official comes out and shouts instructions through a megaphone.

This is Berlin's reception centre, where refugees come to register for housing and benefits. But it is volunteers who provide food, water, clothing and medical help. A doctor holds a makeshift surgery in a tent.

"It shouldn't be volunteers doing this," he says. "But the authorit ies never expected this many people to arrive so suddenly."

As I leave, I pass an old lady slowly pushing a trolley towards the centre. "I've come to donate clothes," she tells me. "Why wouldn't you help these people?"

More than 240,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean already this year, arriving on the shores of Greece and Italy before travelling on to other destinations.

In the past week alone, 21,000 migrants have arrived in Greece, according to the UN.

Greece has become the main arrival point for migrants heading for the EU

Germany's latest projected figures were due to be confirmed by Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere on Wednesday and Handelsblatt reported that the number of refugees seeking accommodation around the country was surging.

Last month alone, 5,700 people applied for asylum in the northern city of Hamburg and 7,065 in the south-western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

"I would have to build a block of flats every day to accommodate them", Stuttgart Integration Minister Bilkay Oeney told Handelsblatt.

Thousands have marched in eastern Germany against the housing of asylum seekers

The numbers are far higher than the record 438,000 asylum applications in 1992 during the Bosnian crisis.

German towns have been housing refugees in tent cities and converted gyms, but as tensions increase, there has been a rise in attacks on asylum seekers.

In the east, thousands of people have marched in towns and cities in protest at asylum seekers being housed in their areas and against what they call the "Islamisation of the West".

Last month, EU member states agreed to take in 32,000 asylum seekers arriving in Italy and Greece over the next two years - fewer than the 40,000 target.

The UK is exempt from the agreement.

Source: Europe migrant crisis: Surge in numbers at EU borders

Rugged Cycle Tours in Europe and Taiwan

Photo courtesy of Thinkstock

Cycling is one of the most intimate ways you can experience a country, and the following three programs offer exemplary destinations in which to do it. The following programs are not for casual cyclists, but for those who are in good shape. One tour, from Ride & Seek, even follows Hannibal's trail across the Alps and into Italy. If that sounds like too much on a bicycle, imagine poor Hannibal trying to get his elephants over the hump. The Hannibal journey and another two options from Pure Adventures mix all that good exercise with great food along the way. Sounds like a great combination.

They also know their way around a kitchen in Taiwan, which many people esteem as having Asia's best Chinese food. Bicycle Adventures' comprehensive itineraries in the country are sure to leave their participants hungry.

Passage through Catalonia

The mystique of Catalonia is tied into its beautiful setting in northeastern Spain up against the border of France. Barcelona, the cultural capital of the region, has become an essential destination for anyone who hopes to get a comprehensive understanding of Europe from their travels. Now a cycling journey from Pure Adventures is making it possible to learn the region from the ground up including the bicycle heaven known as the Costa Brava.

Two of their programs operating through fall combine the love of cycling and the love of food. The daily rides on both trips are moderately challenging and both begin in Girona, home to one of the world's top restaurants. Another tour, the seven-night Spain-Biking and Cooking brings cyclists into Catalonian kitchens to learn and cook alongside local chefs.

Both itineraries begin and end in Girona. All Pure Adventures self-guided cycling trips begin with orientation and bike fitting, and all of the Costa Brava trips visit both the Pyrenees foothills and coastline.

The seven-night Spain Catalonia Gastronomic Tour is priced from €1,443 per person double and includes deluxe lodging, daily breakfast, four gourmet dinners (two of them tasting menus), luggage transfers, local Girona-based emergency support, road books with riding route maps and cue sheets, and suggestions for both places to see and local dining. One tasting menu dinner is at Restaurant La Plaça in Madremanya where guests feast on eight mini courses, each complementing the other.

 The seven-night Spain - Biking and Cooking explores the coastal Empordà region after visiting terraced olive groves dating to the ancient Greeks, rice paddies near Pals, kitchen gardens, small farms and the sea. Grapes have been grown in the region since the Phoenicians introduced vines in the 5th century BCE. The tour stops at fish markets, a sheep farm (or olive oil farm) and features private cooking classes. The class at Espai del Peix invites guests to spend three hours concentrating on four different dishes followed by lunch with the chef and a guided visit of the port where the fishing boats come in. The per person double occupancy rate starts at €1,381.

Following the Elephants

For real athletic cyclists with plenty of time and plenty of interest in history, Ride & Seek's 28-day Hannibal Expedition, which follows in the footsteps of Hannibal through Spain, France and Italy, over the Pyrenees, Alps and Apennines on roads featured regularly in the Vuelta a España, Tour de France and Giro d'Italia bike races. The journey will also explore the various regions' culinary delights. The Hannibal Expedition is divided into four distinct stages, and guests can choose to participate in one or all of them. The Hannibal Expedition is slated for Sept. 5 through Oct. 2 and starts at €1,995 for one seven-day stage.

On the first stage of this epic tour, guests cycle across the Pyrenees Mountains from Spain into France. Envision postcard views while pedaling through the land of Cathar castles and sampling gastronomic delights along the way. Stage 2 takes riders across the Alps, including the epic climbs of Galibier, Alpe d'Huez, Agnel and Izoard. Stage 3 crosses through a landscape of vines, castles and hill towns. Finally, Stage 4 meanders through Renaissance Italy from Tuscany to Rome.

Taiwanese Epic

Bicycle Adventures will lead two departures of its 11-day Taiwan Bike Tour in 2015 on Oct. 24 and Nov. 7. The nearly all-inclusive rate per person, based on double occupancy, is $4,850. Bicycle rental and most meals are included. The tour will be led by Joshua Samuel Brown, a lifelong cyclist and travel writer who speaks Chinese and who knows the culture of China and Taiwan. Brown has authored, among others, Vignettes of Taiwan (Things Asian Press) and co-authored Lonely Planet / BBC: Taiwan. He has worked on projects for the Taiwan Tourism Bureau and the Taiwan Trade Association.

"For the past several years, Taiwan has made a commitment to become the bicycling capital of the world," said Todd Starnes, Bicycle Adventures' president and owner. He explained that this commitment came about when the now-retired chairman and founder of Giant Manufacturing Co., Ltd., one of the world's largest makers of bicycles, decided that he would start cycling as a retirement activity.

The country has created an extensive network of bike lanes and bike paths, including the 35-mile Danshui River Bike Path. It's all part of a new awakening to health and wellness in the country. More people can be seen outdoors walking and running for fitness. Several cities have even begun bike-share programs, according to Starnes. The new bike routes are easy to ride and were designed with showcasing the island in mind.

It all begins in Taipei where guests are met at the airport. After a few acclimatizing rides, participants board a high-speed train to Kaohsiung City and the southern end of the island to begin the tour northbound. The itinerary averages about 45 miles a day of biking, allowing guests to pause in aboriginal villages where people still live as they did hundreds of years ago. Traversing the ups and downs and in-betweens of some of the island's five vertical mountain ranges is part of the fun. This includes rides up to and through two national parks that reveal stunning canopies in near-rainforest settings of up to 8,000 feet. 

Source: Rugged Cycle Tours in Europe and Taiwan

Florida expects uptick in tourists from Europe

Skip to search.

New User? Register

Sign in

Help

Make Yahoo Your Homepage

Mail

My Yahoo

Yahoo

Search

Search Web

HOME

FOOTBALL

LOCAL FOOTBALL

BLOGS

FIT TO POST

FUTBOLITA

FC YAHOO

BALL DON'T LIE

CAGEWRITER

BUSTED RACQUET

DEVIL BALL GOLF

F1

TENNIS

NBA

GOLF

FITNESS NATION

FANTASY

Premier League

La Liga

Serie A

Bundesliga

Ligue 1

MMA

VIDEOS

PHOTOS

»

Tin Pei Ling

Patrick Tse

Galaxy Note 5

El Nino

Jose Mourinho

MH370

Donna Vekic

Cecilia Cheung

Christina Aguilera

Singapore Botanic Gardens

Source: Florida expects uptick in tourists from Europe

Quiz: Where in Europe are these tourist destinations?

Shutterstock

By Gary Sorensen, KSL.com Contributor   |  Posted Aug 14th, 2015 @ 11:19am

SALT LAKE CITY — Europe is an incredible travel destination. Take this fun travel quiz to test your knowledge on some of the top travel sites in Europe.

Click here if you can't access the quiz.

Gary Sorensen is a Vice President at Morris Murdock Travel, a travel writer with more than 250 travel columns published, has his own travel radio show, has worked in travel for more than 25 years and is certified at the highest level of travel agent.

Related Links You must be logged in to post a comment.login here

Load More Comments

Showing of 3 comments

You must be logged in to post a comment.login here
Source: Quiz: Where in Europe are these tourist destinations?

Migrant crisis on Greek island of Kos: 'I'm coming here for peace'

Migrant crisis on Greek island of Kos: 'I'm coming here for peace' By Chris Buckler BBC News, Kos

14 August 2015

From the section Europe

Kos is a stepping stone for many new arrivals who move on to Athens and then, they hope, other parts of Europe

When they leave the shores of Turkey to travel to Kos those seeking refuge do not think of this Greek island as their destination. They think only of Europe.

It is a continent they associate with opportunity. Many call it a "place of their dreams" or "a paradise".

It is hard to believe that what they have found in Kos matches the picture they imagined in their heads.

At sunrise people start their day on the streets. They wash in the sea and dress in front of tourists taking an early morning stroll.

There are young children and babies among those lying sleeping on the promenade, hidden by their bags of possessions.

It is easy to spot the new arrivals. They are still in life vests or asleep on them having made the journey overnight.

Migrants, many from Syria, land in Kos every day on small, overcrowded dinghies This ship will be used as a registration centre and temporary shelter for 2,500 people

The authorities on Kos are sensitive about those images which have been printed in newspapers around the world.

This island economy depends on tourism and several people in businesses here have told me they are worried all the news coverage will put off visitors in the future.

That is why there have been such frantic efforts to get a cruise ship to the port to act as a floating refugee camp.

Yet the Greek police said the vessel will only be open to Syrians for the moment because they are automatically categorised as refugees.

Other nationalities are initially regarded by the authorities as migrants.

That means 16-year-old Nahmattullah Dishani (pictured) and his family will not have places on the ship.

They have travelled from the Jalalabad region of Afghanistan, close to the Pakistan border.

"My father is dead... in a suici de (bomb) attack," he tells me. "I want a life. I want to go to school. I want all of my family safe and living."

Nahmattullah was picked up by the coastguard after the boat he was in got into trouble in the ocean.

Plenty of others make it.

At sunrise on a beach from where you can see Turkey, a small boat drifts into view.

The men on board are Syrian and their relief at arriving on European shores away from their country's conflict is obvious.

"I'm coming here for peace," says one of them. "I want peace."

Knowing what all these refugees are leaving behind is the key to understanding why they have made the journey to Europe.

But the continent offers an uncertain future.

Waiting for the boat to Athens...

Yet there is an undeniable optimism among many of the homeless people you meet in Kos.

Chris Yemenijian was a champion table tennis player in Syria.

"If I become a European, I can become a European champion," he says with a broad grin.

And that positivity takes strength when you consider what happened to him in Aleppo.

"My family is dead," he says. "You have to start a new life, a new beginning. You can't go back."

Those stories of desperation are the reason why so many are moving on.

Source: Migrant crisis on Greek island of Kos: 'I'm coming here for peace'