greenland

FOR those who find that Discovery Channel documentaries and Al Gore’s PowerPoint presentations don’t adequately capture the phenomenon of global warming, another option is now more readily available: pulling on a fur-lined parka and watching the ice melt in Greenland.Highlighted as a focal point of global warming in scientific reports and apocalyptic films like “The Day After Tomorrow,” Greenland is beginning to draw attention from tourists who want to see the effects of climate change for themselves.And the accessibility of Greenland for Americans got a boost last summer when Air Greenland started the first nonstop flight between the United States and Greenland, a five-hour flight out of Baltimore (airgreenland.com).
Visitors fly into Kangerlussuaq, the site of a former United States military base. The foot of the polar ice cap there is a popular picnicking spot for tourists, where they stare at a 250-foot wall of ice that, if it melts, has the potential to raise the world’s oceans by 24 feet, some researchers have estimated.

paris

"THE chief danger about Paris,” T. S. Eliot wrote to a friend, “is that it is such a strong stimulant.” That wasn’t merely the overcaffeinated ramblings of a Left Bank cafe habitué. Few cities thrill visitors with such a beguiling multiplicity of personalities. There is the devout Paris of Notre Dame’s Gothic solemnity, and the naughty Paris of Pigalle’s red-light bars. Sophisticated Paris radiates from the vaulted galleries of the Louvre and the gilded Opéra Garnier, while bohemian Paris emerges in the art galleries of the Marais and gritty rock ’n’ roll nightclubs. For every Gallic gastronomic temple, there’s an Asian, African or Middle Eastern restaurant brimming with exotic flavors. And for every Jean Paul Gaultier, there’s a fledgling fashion student opening his first boutique. In the words of Henry Miller, another American drawn to Paris’s manifold pleasures, lofty and low: “To know Paris is to know a great deal.”
With some 10 miles of galleries housing a collection that spans every corner of the globe and every era of human history, the Louvre . After a splendid welcome by the Winged Victory of Samothrace, you’ll encounter Italian Renaissance masterpieces by Titian, Botticelli, Raphael and Da Vinci, culminating in the Mona Lisa. Next hit the Apollo Gallery, a Versailles-like chamber that houses the 140-carat Regent Diamond and the 2,490-diamond-studded crown of Empress Eugénie. Wrap up at Richelieu Level 2, with Bosch’s “Ship of Fools,” Vermeer’s “Astronomer” and the Rubens-filled Medici Gallery.
It may sound cheesy, but for postcard views of Paris’s icons — and a crash course in the city’s geography — float down the lazy Seine on a sightseeing cruise from Bateaux Parisiens . Time compresses like an accordion as you pass the gargoyles of Notre Dame Cathedral, the latticework of the Eiffel Tower and the Luxor obelisk at the Place de la Concorde, where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette met their grisly end at the guillotine.

south africa

CAPE TOWN, is South Africa’s Los Angeles to Johannesburg’s New York — the glitzy, gorgeous, self-obsessed foil to its grittier, more serious and more powerful big sister. Which is not to say that it lacks a serious side. Cape Town holds its own with Johannesburg as a locus of South Africa’s liberation struggle, and no other African city combines heart-stopping beauty and historical gravitas so effortlessly.
In Cape Town everything plays second fiddle to Table Mountain, the city’s 3,051-foot icon. So join the hordes of videocam-toting tourists who take the rotating cable car to the top. The views of the city, Table Bay and the spectacular landscape beyond the mountain’s south flank are both awe-inspiring and a grand orientation for the first-time visitor. Spend an hour hiking; snap the rock rabbits, or “dassies,” that abound on the cliffs; and check out the giant compass rose in the mountain’s center. Return footsore, but inspired.
Now, time for some fun. Across the cape peninsula and through a string of picturesque towns lies Boulders Coastal Park , the locale of scores of gigantic cantaloupe-round boulders and, more important, hundreds of African penguins. Two feet tall, brimming with head-cocking curiosity and hair-trigger irritability, the penguins are among the most endearing sights on the cape, and being thoroughly socialized, they grudgingly tolerate human presence, though not touch. Boulders Beach has one of only two land-based African penguin colonies; the rest are on islands. Even hardened adults will be completely charmed. Get a late lunch at the Penguin Point Cafe , an indoor-outdoor restaurant where much of the fare — like the tiger prawns with udon noodles in butter sauce or ostrich fillet with Thai coconut curry sauce and spiced tomato jam — reflects an Asian influence. Lunch for two, with appetizer, dessert and a glass of wine, can run 350 rand, but burgers and other less expensive fare are also offered. Then take your camera and a swimsuit to the beach and splash with the birds.