Tourists in the Areopagous hill as in the background stands the ancient Acropolis hill during a hot day in Athens, July 17, 2024. Greece's Culture Ministry ordered the Acropolis closed for several hours in the middle of the day Wednesday, while authorities warned of extreme heat conditions across much of the country. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) (Petros Giannakouris/The Associated Press)

Hot Europe

Austria, Hungary, Greece and Italy have been especially vulnerable to Mother Nature this summer. A heatwave, wildfires and even a volcanic eruption have threatened to cause chaos for tourists. At times, the temperature across Europe has risen to 104 degrees. Austria and Hungary have been hit especially hard, with residents and tourists being advised to stay indoors between noon and 4 p.m. Vienna and Budapest have set up outdoor cooling stations. The situation has been compounded by wildfires in Greece and Italy. And there’s nothing anybody can do about Europe’s most active volcano. Mount Etna in Italy erupted on Aug. 14 and forced the closure of Catania International Airport in Sicily.

TravelPulse

TJ Fallon and his son Henry, 10, speak on a bench near the gravesite of President Richard Nixon and Pat Nixon. (Leonard Ortiz/Tribune News Service)

Presidential graves

TJ Fallon started visiting U.S. presidential grave sites during the COVID-19 pandemic. ”I did it out of complete boredom after being furloughed,” the New Jersey native said. Four years later, not only has he visited all 39 presidential grave sites at least twice, but his son, Henry, 10, has also seen them all. Henry, of Brick, N.J., likely has become the youngest person ever to check off the feat of paying homage to every dead president after he and his father disembarked from their flight to Los Angeles to visit the Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon libraries. ”I’m nervous and excited,” Henry said before walking to Nixon’s grave site in Yorba Linda, Calif. Afterward, he said he “kind of” felt accomplished to have seen every presidential grave.

San Jose Mercury News

The Gemini Giant, a 30-foot fiberglass statue, was in storage, awaiting some refurbishing. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Fiberglass giants

Once, the giants were everywhere. Even the most popular of them have been threatened with extinction. But people still love the old fiberglass figures, advertising icons that began appearing along suburban commercial strips. lllinois’ Joliet Area Historical Museum was instrumental in saving one of the most famous of the figures, the Gemini Giant that stood outside of the former Launching Pad restaurant in Wilmington, Ill. ”It was one of the most photographed, stopped-at, iconic things across Route 66 in the entire country,” said Quinn Adamowski, board president at the museum. The Gemini Giant is now getting some work done, and once restored will return home to Wilmington, where a place is being prepared for it in a park.

Chicago Tribune

Luxury bunks

The new trend at luxury hotels draws inspiration from the least luxurious accommodations on Earth: dorm rooms. The bunk bed has emerged as a win-win design solution. ”In markets with really high room rates and really high occupancies, adding a few more beds to a room means you can fit more people in it and charge more,” says Alastair Thomann, CEO of the hip hostel brand Generator. But it isn’t just well-designed hostels thinking vertically: It’s luxury and lifestyle brands from JW Marriott to Montage and Moxy. The demand is coming from parents who want a luxe vibe without paying for multiple rooms. Bunk beds allow families to room together without getting in one another’s way.

Bloomberg News