travel news review


30 April '99
An exhibition of Edvard Munch's work will be held at the Blaafarvevaerket Museum, at ┼mot, about an hour out of Oslo. The museum, which is open from May until September each year, will host the exhibition of Munch and the works of another well-known Norwegian painter, Arne Kavli. As well as The Scream and Angst, other much lighter works by Munch will also be exhibited.

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.

5 February '99
Travellers to Europe will need to pull on their thermals as much of Europe is currently suffering from severe snow storms and freezing temperatures. The cold, wet conditions are expected to last for at least another week. Poor weather in the Swiss Alps has closed many mountain roads, and authorities have warned of avalanches in many part of the Alps. Roads in parts of Italy, Greece and Romania have been closed owing to heavy snowfalls, and a number of air services have been cancelled because of poor visibility.

But you will need more than your thermals if you are thinking of heading to the Russian Arctic, where temperatures last week fell to the lowest recorded this century. Temperatures along Russia's border with Norway fell to an extremely cold -56 degrees C (- 69 degrees F). Most days during January the temperature has been about 23 degrees C (41 degrees F) below average for this time of year. According to the Russian Weather Services the cold spell is expected to lift shortly.

28 July '98
A group of tourists have been attacked by a polar bear in the arctic archipelago of Svalbard. The archipelago, 1100km (700mi) from the Norwegian mainland, is popular with polar bear spotting tour groups and other such adventure tours. Authorities on Svalbard have warned tourists not to travel more than 48km (30mi) beyond the outskirts of the main town, Longyearbyen, both for their own safety and for the protection of the bears. But there should be heaps of other thing to do on Svalbard besides annoying polar bears, especially as there is 24 hours of daylight in the archipelago from April until late August.