Leighton House Art Gallery & Museum, the former home of the great nineteenth century classical painter Lord Leighton is now open to visitors as a mixture of stately home and art gallery. An impressive collection of high Victorian art is on show here, along with various contemporary art exhibitions. The house itself is also a dramatic sight, with its ebony woodwork, ornate mosaic flooring and exquisite Persian carpets.

Address: 12 Holland Park Road

Telephone: 020 7602 3316 Admission times: Mon-Sun, 11am-5.30pm; Closed on Tuesdays Admission: Free

Website: leightonhousemuseum

Here’s a little Beetle quiz based on airport codes. See how many you get right! Go on, have a guess!

Which cities are served by airports with the following codes:

1. PHX
2. ATH
3. ZNZ
4. DPS
5. EZE

For the answers, see at the end of the e-newsletter.

Under 30? A member of Globetrotters Club? Interested in a £1,000 travel award?

Know someone who is? We have £1,000 to award each year for five years for the best submitted independent travel plan. Interested?

Then see our legacy page on our Website, where you can apply with your plans for a totally independent travel trip and we’ll take a look at it. Get those plans in!!

If you have a travellers tale that your aching to tell. Then why not visit the “Travel Sized Bites” section of the Website and share it with the world. Travel Sized Bites

Kevin from the UK wrote in to say: “I think it depends also on whether you need a visa to actually set foot in a country e.g. when I came back through Saudi last Xmas, there were lots of people in transit from India, but you cannot get out of Jeddah airport without a Saudi visa. Whereas Changi airport in Singapore actually gives you a free city tour if time allows between connecting flights. So you will in my book have visited Singapore, even if it is only for 4 hours”.

Any more comments, anyone? E-mail to the Beetle

Win a Frommer’s guidebook on Seattle 2003. See www.frommers.com for info on Frommer’s guidebooks.

Some people have said the quiz is difficult, we say do some research; try google.com or Ask Jeeves, if you need help with the answers.

The winner of last month’s Moon guide is Andrew Hindley.

Some thoughts by Padmassana, likening travel to yoga – or the other way round!

He says: “When you travel you are thinking about what you are seeing, where you are going to stay, how you are going to get there, the people you are with. You are absorbed in where you are at that moment in time, not thinking about the past or far into the future. In yoga you are thinking about the practice, the breath, the foot positions and the bandhas. As with travelling, you have so much to think about, you are absorbed in that moment.

In both yoga and travel, you are enjoying being where you are at that time and the clarity of mind and general happiness; you leave behind all the daily worries. I think that yoga has become a substitute for travel for me, for the 48 weeks a year when I am at home”.

You can contact Padmassana by sending an email to padmassana@globetrotters.co.uk

The tourism industry has been heavily hit by the current conflict in Iraq. Holidaymakers are avoiding Turkey and Cyprus and indeed, the most of the Mediterranean. Muslim countries, such as Egypt and Turkey, or those that have suffered recent terrorist attacks, such as Kenya, are the worst affected.

Destinations as far away from the war zone as Spain are also suffering. It looks like family bookings are the hardest hit, with six out of ten who went abroad last summer not yet having booked for this year.

People who are travelling appear to be shortening their holidays. The number of fortnight breaks booked in the UK for this year has fallen by half while the number of one week stays is down by only 20 per cent. Travel Trade Gazette deputy editor Ian Taylor said: ‘It is clear Easter is likely to be poor by industry standards and family bookings probably won’t come back in large numbers until a ceasefire.

You can contact Padmassana at padmassana@globetrotters.co.uk

For the first time this spring, visitors will be able to walk the full length of what was the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire. Opening May 23, the 81-mile Hadrian’s Wall Path – one of 13 long-distance National Trails – is a signposted route from Wallsend (Newcastle upon Tyne) in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west, via the city of Carlisle.

Though ideal for a week-long walking holiday, 40 short walks have also been created for those with less time or energy.

Farmhouse and bed-and-breakfast accommodation is available near the trail. Tel: 01434 602 505 for more info or take a look at: http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/hadrians-wall-path

Source: britainexpress.com

If you are planning to travel to the Sahara in Southern Algeria, you may want to re-think your plans. 8 Austrian tourists have just gone missing, bringing the number of foreign travellers who have disappeared in the region since mid February to 29: 16 Germans (in several different groups), 4 Swiss and 1 Dutch national have all gone missing in the desert since mid-February. All were travelling by motorbike or car and most disappeared between the towns of Ouargla and the towns of Illizi and Djanet in the far south of Algeria. Smugglers and drug traffickers are known to haunt the area around southern Algeria, near the borders with Niger and Libya, and there are fears the tourists may have been kidnapped. Austria has also issued a travel warning for the country, urging all its citizens to leave the country or contact its embassy in the country.

Vineyard tours and wine tasting are planned to mark English Wine Week this spring (May 24 – June 1). There are 379 vineyards and 115 wineries all over the country and English Wine Producers aims to promote wider interest in them. For more information, please see English Wine Producers

Britain’s longest national walking trail, from Minehead in Somerset to South Haven Point near Poole in Dorset, will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year.

The 630-mile South West Coast Path takes in steep, ‘hog’s back’ cliffs rising to 800 feet, fishing harbours, pretty villages and unspoilt countryside.

There will be a wide variety of events between April and October, including guided walks, talks and displays of works by local artists, writers, musicians and other performers who have been inspired by the path. For more information, see http://www.swcp.org.uk/

Source: Britain Express

British Airways and Air France have both announced that Concorde will be grounded permanently as from the end of November 2003. Passenger demand has fallen significantly since the Concorde crash near Paris in 2000. BA justified their decision by saying that maintenance costs have become too high for them to continue the service and the global downturn in demand for all forms of premium travel in the airline industry. France said “the deterioration of business results from the transatlantic service”, the aircraft’s only scheduled route.