By Jane Reddy
Melbourne's popular laneways are now home to cheap, fun classes.Credit: Louise M Cooper
Thorough fare
Lovers of Melbourne's laneways can now stop by for lessons in the physiology of pleasure by a sex therapist or knitting for beginners.
Tom Ding, who started Laneway Learning about a year ago with the mantra "cheap, fun classes in anything and everything", has hosted about 150 sessions with almost 100 different instructors from the community. While classes are diverse - one-night wine-palate training, beginners' music jam and raw food are on the menu - they're all held in cafes and bars in the city's laneways. Classes cost from $12.
Water world: Singapore's Marine Life Park.Credit: AP
See lanewaylearning.com.
Save the address
While events for the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War span four years, the length of the conflict, one for the history buffs will be the 10-day commemoration of the epic battle in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Swedish Lapland's Aurora Safari Camp.Credit: Ewen Bell
Carl Whitehill of the Gettysburg Visitors Bureau says it is expecting 200,000 people over the 10 days starting late June, with battle re-enactments drawing 15,000 participants and 80,000 spectators. Alongside the re-enactments demonstrating tactics used by infantry, artillery and cavalry in Pennsylvania and Maryland, military camps will depict the daily life of Union and Confederate soldiers.
At the site of the Confederate Field Hospital, visitors can join pill-making classes, 1860s-style, hear about the life and death of the Civil War soldier (two out of every three fatalities were caused by common childhood diseases, not bullets).
Gettysburg Seminary Ridge Museum, on the grounds of a Lutheran college, will tell the story of the first day of the battle and the role that faith played in the conflict. Late November will mark the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address and the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery. On June 28-July 7.
See gettysburgcivilwar150.com.
Stake your claim
Of all the things the Swedish have mastered, a standout is the art of insulation to protect from the cold, demonstrated by Smart Traveller's spike in fat stores after one too many cinnamon buns, or bullar, during her visits.
No surprises, then, that new tents at the Aurora Safari Camp in Sorbyn Swedish Lapland are a cosier interpretation of those once used by the indigenous Sami people. A pot-belly stove replaces the traditional open fire in the centre of the room and there are floorboards underfoot.
Photographers Ewen Bell and Fredrik Bowman will lead a tour starting in Sweden and finishing in Norway next February, when there is enough light to snap reindeer racing and enough darkness to capture the Northern Lights.
Aside from photographic instruction, there's dog-sledding, snow-shoeing and fishing villages of Lofoten on the itinerary. The trip, from February 3-17, costs from $9800.
Sounds fishy
Marine Life Park, the 18.2 million-litre oceanarium on Singapore's Sentosa Island, has launched its first "up-close" marine encounter for certified divers. Groups of up to four can swim among 50,000 fish of more than 80 species, including manta rays, groupers and leopard sharks on the 30-minute dive down to 12 metres. For those without a dive ticket, the Sea Trek Adventure, starting on June 30, will involve visitors donning an underwater helmet to breathe through as they descend atop a sea mount.
The Shark Encounter will allow guests, inside a cylindrical acrylic enclosure, to descend for a 360-degree view of hammerhead, sandbar and black-tip reef sharks.
The eight-hectare park also houses the Adventure Cove Waterpark with slides, wave pools and tubing river passing through 14 different "landscapes" including tropical jungle.
See rwsentosa.com.
Airline spreads wings
United Arab Emirates carrier Etihad Airways and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines have launched flights from Abu Dhabi to Amsterdam. The daily service, operated by an Airbus A330-200 for 22 passengers in business class and 240 in economy, will carry KLM's KL code.
The 12 extra destinations that Etihad can now access with the code share are Stockholm, Aberdeen, Barcelona, Bergen, Birmingham, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Leeds/Bradford and Madrid.
There are 28 flights a week from Australia to Abu Dhabi; twice daily from Sydney (including three code-share flights that Virgin Australia operates with its own aircraft) and daily from Melbourne and Brisbane.
See etihad.com.
Sister act on the seas
There's another cruise ship on the horizon with the arrival of Carnival Cruise Lines' Carnival Legend.
Sister ship to the Carnival Spirit, Carnival Legend will sail from Sydney Harbour on September 24, 2014, on eight- to 12-day cruises stopping at New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji.
Legend, with room for 2680 guests, will spend each winter in the northern hemisphere before returning south.
See carnival.com.au.
Send news items to smarttraveller@fairfax.com.au.
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