American travelers delayed for two days in the Midwest will be feeling lucky that they're not in Europe. Half the continent—and pretty much all of Britain—is frozen over, with many travelers expected to not get home until after Christmas. Travel reports are being brought to you by the letters H and O, the number 2, and the words "chaos," "misery" and "havoc."

But beneath all the articles about the weather itself, there's this other theme developing, where travelers are endlessly griping at British airport authorities over the weather. The Associated Press ran the headline "Anger rises as travel havoc snarls Britain, Europe," and relayed quotes from snarky politicians about how airports should have shovels or something.

Emirates had an entire article published in local media expressing their shock and disappointment that, when LHR is physically covered with ice, airplanes aren't allowed to land there. Who knew?]]> Omri 2010-12-20T12:56:59-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/9/14/11389/6871

Europeans are fond of complaining that American imports are ruining their culture, and usually we're like "shut up, we need our Chipotle." In this very specific case, though, they might have a point. Europe's first Christian theme park—modeled after the ones in the American South and South America—is now set to open in Mallorca, Spain. Inexplicably.

We of course usually recommend a different religious travel solution. If if you want to see what the Holy Land looks like, our reasoning goes, you should actually take a trip to the Holy Land and see it. From the United States that might be prohibitive with the cost, but a flight from Spain to Israel on one of Europe's billion LCC's is fairly affordable. When you factor in the Euro/Shekel exchange rate you're almost saving money. We understand there are pluses and minuses—in Israel you can only walk on the "Jesus trail" while in religious theme parks you can actually meet Jesus—but we kind of prefer our way. Even if there are no "live resurrections," as this theme park promises.]]> Omri 2010-09-14T15:14:49-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/9/8/142825/1577

Following up on the weekend strikes in London and Paris, the phrase that the Associated Press is going with this mornning is "season of strikes in Europe." Put bluntly: there's not enough money to go around, and workers aren't going to go to their jobs unless they get more of it. It's not just Greece, although of course it's Greece too. Spain and the Czech Republic are hosed as well, and when you add them to the UK, France, and Italy you start to run out of countries that aren't going broke.

Now this is normally where we'd tell you that bad times overseas equal good travel opportunities from here. The problem is that you actually have to be able to get to those places, and a wave of airline strikes is about to start making that dicey. Virgin Atlantic just narrowly averted a strike, but they're pretty much the only ones. British Airways workers apparently have decided to walk out again, because that's who they are and that's what they do. Meanwhile roughly the entire country of India is facing labor-driven transportation disruptions.]]> Omri 2010-09-08T16:38:07-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/8/17/121935/213

You can use Google Maps Street View to find the world's most picturesque street. Or to virtually wander around the San Diego Zoo. Or to plan a bike ride through Boulder. What you can't do is use it to view any part of Germany, since privacy watchdogs have been holding up Mountain Views's expansion into the country. There are currently 23 countries with Street View-enabled cities, and exactly none of them are German. All of that is going to change in the coming months, now that the search giant has met the German government's demands for privacy protections. Twenty German cities are slated for addition by the end of the year.

Under the deal, Google will blur out faces and license plates automatically. Homes will of course be included by default, but Google has agreed to blur them out too if owners submit a simple request. Even a fax will work. Reports say that 10,000 Germans have already submitted their requests, which is a huge number of people who don't want pictures of their front yard on the internet.]]> Omri 2010-08-17T15:46:23-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/5/18/152433/689

This morning brings further confirmation of last week's story about how Greek turmoil is opening up absurd tourism opportunities, as hotels in Athens are talking about losing 1 in 10 of their guests, and cutting prices accordingly.

Far more broadly, Europe's economic problems have sent the Euro tumbling against the dollar, and a continued slide is more likely than not. We put up a broad overview of how Greece's problems interact with the Eurozone earlier this year, but now things are quickly coming to a head.

So, should you go to Europe now or what? Find out, after the jump]]> Omri 2010-05-19T08:30:39-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/10/5/12458/8488

As if the cratering dollar wasn't enough of a problem for US tourists, the New York Times reports that even trying to use American credit cards in Europe is getting difficult. The problem is in the so-called chip-and-PIN verification technology that much of the world is adopting as an alternative to magnetic strip cards. Instead of swiping your card you're supposed punch in a personal ID that needs to match the one encoded on the chip. Only problem: US credit cards mostly don't have those chips.

The writeup manages to convey the issue with all the cosmopolitan awareness we've come to expect from the NYT Travel section. They relate the story of a passive-aggressive couple in Paris who—having had their cards rejected by bike kiosks—just walked around sullenly telling no one in particular how would awesome if they could ride a bike. Obnoxious. But that doesn't make the problem any less real:]]> Omri 2009-10-05T13:18:54-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/9/6/01932/11925

The end of summer is upon us, but that's no reason to stop partying: A bunch of European cities--plus Toronto--are about to start a round of all-night parties they call White Nights.

White Nights--or the sexier sounding French version Nuit Blanche--are celebrations with open-all-night museums, circus troop performances and opera, jazz and rock concerts that go 'til morning. A group of cities have now banded together to get a bit of a White Nights Circuit going, so if you've got some free time in the next month, check out these White Nights:

• Rome: September 8


• Madrid: September 22


• Brussels and Toronto: September 29


• Paris and Valletta, Malta: October 6

So if you're into partying all night or just getting ultra-cultural in Europe, start adjusting your sleep pattern now.

Related Stories:
· Outbreak of Insomnia is Spreading [NYT]
· White Night in Paris [Jaunted]
· Long on Culture, Short on Sleep [Jaunted]

[Photo: c-reel.com]]]> amandak 2007-09-06T09:30:02-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/