No more gap
T HE London Underground will run 24 hours a day on Fridays and Saturdays on some lines from 2015. These include the Piccadilly, Victoria, Central, Jubilee and Northern lines, with plans to expand to other stations over subsequent years.
Wifi coverage will be available at all below-ground stations and there will be disabled access at 27 stations.
NAIROBI TO CHINA DIRECT
KENYA AIRWAYS has begun operating direct flights to Guangzhou, China’s third-largest city, three times a week.
The flight departs from Nairobi at midnight and lands in the Chinese city at 4pm.
The route is served by the airline’s newly acquired Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, which has a capacity for 400 passengers.
Kenya Airways will also be maintaining its current schedule of four flights a week to Guangzhou via Bangkok.
CRICKET PACKAGES
THE International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced details of Cricket World Cup 2015 travel packages and ticket prices.
A number of different travel packages for all the matches in Australia and New Zealand are now available. The ICC Travel website has the latest deals and offers, which are updated regularly.
Australia and New Zealand will jointly host the event, which runs from February 14 until March 29 2015, featuring 49 matches over 44 days across 14 host cities.
The opening match of the tournament will be played in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the final will be played in Melbourne, Australia.
Tickets go on sale from February 14 next year but fans can register their interest for tickets that will be available for pre-sale at
cricketworldcup.com.
ICC Travel has partnered with travel agents EduSport and Makro Travel in South Africa.
ROYAL CHARITY
ROYAL Caribbean Cruises has committed to contributing $1-million (around R10-million) to relief efforts in response to the catastrophic damage caused by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
Royal Caribbean also assisted after the earthquake in Haiti.
The cruise line does not operate any cruises in the area, but Filipinos are the largest nationality represented in the staff of the six cruise lines that make up Royal Caribbean Cruises.
NEW DIGS IN SWAKOPMUND
A STRAND HOTEL will open on the promenade in Swakopmund, Namibia, by mid-2015. The old Strand Hotel was demolished in 2008.
The new hotel will feature restaurants, bars, sea-facing terraces and a conference centre.
The development was designed to international four-star hotel standards and the exterior architecture was inspired by Swakopmund and a contemporary interpretation of the historic German architecture of the town.
BECKS ENTERS HOTEL GAME
DAVID BECKHAM has signed a deal to join forces with the US hotel group Las Vegas Sands.
The partnership will be based around the development of dining, retail and leisure concepts at Sands China Ltd properties in Macao and the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
When the latter hotel opened in 2010 it was claimed to be the world’s most expensive casino hotel. It cost £4-billion to build, has 2 560 rooms, six celebrity chefs and a casino with 500 tables and 1 600 slot machines.
MONKEY BUSINESS
THE botched restoration of a church fresco by an elderly parishioner brought it international fame — and a fortune from tourists. Now, the town of Borja, Spain, is at the centre of a fresh controversy.
Florencio Garces, 70, the parish priest in charge of the church where the Ecce Homo fresco draws hundreds of visitors each week, has been arrested for allegedly pocketing church funds of about à210 000.
The Telegraph reports that the town made headlines last year after a local artist Celia Gimenez, 83, attempted to restore a 100-year-old fresco of Christ, with dire but highly amusing results.
Her amateur efforts transformed the Ecce Homo — which means “Behold the Man” — into a laughing stock and the before and after images (pictured left) spread quickly.
The new icon, which quickly became known as “Ecce Mono” for its likeness to a monkey, brought an unlikely windfall for the town and drew some 70 000 tourists within the first year. Church authorities began charging a entrance fee to those wishing to view the painting, funds that were destined for a local charitable care home with 60 residents.
Residents of the town expressed shock at the allegations and defended their priest.
Gimenez said: “We haven’t been told the details of the allegations, but as far as I know he is a lovely man who has cared for this community for more than 20 years.”