The Germans choose modesty over security.

Germany rejects full-body scanners at airports

Germany says it will not introduce much-criticized new full-body scanners at its airports even if their use is approved by the European Union. Interior Ministry spokesman Gabriele Hermani said on Friday that “we won’t join in with this nonsense.” The scanners — which produce an outline of passengers’ bodies beneath their clothes — have been tested at airports in Britain and the Netherlands but are opposed in much of Europe.

Add 27 more places to see to your list.

UNESCO adds 27 new sites World Heritage List

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee added a whopping 27 new sites to its World Heritage List at its 32nd session this week, including French fortifications, a Hindu temple and a butterfly biosphere.

Nineteen cultural sites and eight natural sites were inscribed, said the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization panel, meeting in this oldest of Canadian cities.
The total number of World Heritage sites now reaches 878 sites in 145 countries, it said.

As many Americans plan for their next vacation they are packing their hiking boots rather than their dancing shoes.

TripAdvisor Releases Travel Trends for 2009

TripAdvisor®, the world’s largest travel community, has announced the results of its annual travel trends survey of more than 3,000 U.S. travelers. The primary trends identified are that travelers appear to be going lean and green by visiting national parks, hiking, and engaging in adventure activities. A greater amount of Americans said they will be environmentally conscious in their travel decisions in 2009, and more plan to visit eco-friendly hotels in the coming year.

Sand snatchers shrink Caribbean beaches

Ahh, the Caribbean. Sun, surf. But where’s the sand?

It is disappearing at alarming rates as thieves feed a local construction boom.

Caribbean round grains, favored in creating smooth surfaces for plastering and finishing, are being hauled away by the truckload late at night. On some islands not much bigger than Manhattan, towns and ecologically sensitive areas are now exposed to tidal surges and rough seas.

United Airlines offers door-to-door luggage delivery

United Airlines, which will soon raise checked-bag fees, is giving customers a pricier but convenient alternative: getting their luggage delivered overnight from their home or a FedEx station to their destination. The service, available only within the 48 contiguous U.S. states, costs $149 per bag each way for flights under 1,000 miles and $179 for longer flights.

Remember that lovely wedding and honeymoon that you had in the Dominican Republic. Remember how the whole thing came off without a hitch. Well.. that’s the problem… if you are one of more than 200 British and Canadian couples it may in fact have come off without a real marriage.

Investigators have uncovered what they suspect is a wedding scam involving more than 200 British and Canadian couples who paid hundreds of dollars for Dominican marriages that were never officially recorded.

Four people have been detained - all employees of the Central Electoral Board that oversees civil marriages, but no charges have been filed. CBC News reports:

In a preliminary report sent to the board last week, the National Department of Investigations said uncertified officiants are suspected of colluding with hotels to swindle foreign couples.

The Tourism Ministry’s website says registration fees of about $455 are required for Dominican weddings, though the fees can be higher if a resort plans the ceremony.

The allegedly fraudulent ceremonies took place from July 2007 to present at resorts in the eastern Dominican Republic, where foreign couples frequently travel for weddings and honeymoons.

Look at it this way, it may have been one of the most elaborate wedding rehearsals ever.

Last year I wrote about my favorite beach in the world in an article title Favorite Beach - The Baths in Virgin Gorda. I found this video from an episode of the The Map which goes to Virgin Gorda. Skip the first 2 minutes if you must but the trail to the baths is one of those things that words alone don’t do justice. Getting there really is half the fun.

Hotels in British Virgin Islands

The Daily Mail had this picture showing the airport at St Bart’s in the West Indies. I have had some interesting landings on short island runways but nothing like this where passersby actually felt the need to duck as the planes came in.

This journal covers a cruise to Panama on Holland America through Insight / Geek Cruises. The cruise was a Shakespeare cruise done in conjunction with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and a Mac cruise done in conjunction with MacWorld.

Friday November 2, San Jose to Florida

The alarm goes off very early when you are trying to be at the airport before 6am for a 6:50am flight. A close friend Brad volunteered to take us to the airport… a very close friend indeed. Although in reality it was his wife Janice who actually woke up when their alarm went off so very early in the morning.

Our flights to Atlanta and then on to Fort Lauderdale were both happily uneventful and we used the time to sleep, read magazines ( I brought 2-3 inches of my backlog for this leg of the trip), or do homework (Joan). We took a shuttle ($15 a person) to the Westin Fort Lauderdale where I was surprised to find that I had apparently reserved a suite.

Almost immediately after our arrival we went to a party put on by the Shakespeare at Sea / Insight Cruises program that we were joining for this trip. By the time that the evening was done we had met more people on this cruise without setting foot on the boat than we had in a week at sea on our previous cruise. Most of the crowd was older than us, some by a margin. They also were more regular or more recent patrons of the Oregon Shakespeare festival than Joan and I. I had gone to Ashland, where OSF resides, in 2006 with our kids and their high school drama group but we had not been to the festival for a few years before that. Before the birth of our kids Joan and I had gone more regularly. I had gone to Ashland with a group from my high school 4 years in a row in the 1970s. The vast majority of the people at the party were from the west coast and the majority were from the San Francisco bay area. We very quickly found interesting people to talk to. We even found some Mac people who ventured in from the Mac party and some others like myself who were fans of both Mac and Shakespeare.

Before going to bed I recorded a new introduction to an old episode of the Amateur Traveler podcast for publication on November 10th.

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