travel news review


18 May '99
Netherlands The Resistance Museum in Amsterdam has re-opened in the Planicus Building in Plantage, east of the city centre. The Museum maintain collections relating to the Resistance movement in the Netherlands during WW11 and offers bilingual tours in English and Dutch. Another museum to undergo renovation in Amsterdam is the Van Gogh Museum. This museum will re-open on 24 June. The museum is located at Paulus Potterstraat 7, in the Oud Zuid (Ols South) area of Amsterdam.

9 March '99
While duty free shopping is officially scheduled to end in the member countries of the European Union (EU) on 1 July, 1999, many countries are hopeful duty-free shopping can be extended for another couple of years. Of the 15 member countries in the EU, Germany, France and Britain are the main campaigners for an extension for duty-free shopping. It is estimated that if duty-free shopping goes, more than 140,000 jobs would also go. When the end of duty-free sales in EU countries eventually does come into place, travellers to Europe will still be able to obtain duty free items, as the new restrictions will only apply to intra-EU travel. As an example, if you travel between Switzerland, which is not a member of the EU, and France, duty-free purchases will still be possible. Current member countries of the EU are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

14 December '98
Options for expanding Amsterdam's Schipol airport, one of the busiest airports in Europe, are fairly limited in this densely populated city. But the way the Dutch are planning to solve this problem is in exactly the same way as they have always solved their land shortage problem; they are going to reclaim land and build the airport on an island.

According to preliminary plans for the new airport, passengers would check-in at Schipol Airport and catch a high-speed train to the new island airport via an undersea tunnel. The new island airport would mean that more than 80 million passengers each year could arrive or depart at Schipol.

28 July '98
The 5th International Gay Games are being held this week in Amsterdam. More than 15,000 athletes from 66 countries will participate in the games during the week. The games are held every four years and this is the first time they have been held outside the USA. Anyone can participate in the events, which range from traditional sports like swimming and athletics to ballroom dancing and bridge.

6 May '98
The European Parliament recently endorsed Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain as the initial participants in the launch of a single European currency, the Euro. The Euro will come into the market on 1 January 1999. The United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden have refused to join the monetary union, and Greece is ineligible as it has such a large budget deficit.