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    Hamburg Airport Halts All Flights as Ground Staff Strike

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    The airport in Germany’s second largest city said the one-day strike, called over pay and conditions, began earlier than expected “without any notice.”The airport in Hamburg, Germany’s second largest city, said it had canceled all flights on Sunday because of a one-day strike over pay by ground staff called by a labor union that started its action earlier than expected without little warning.The airport had been expected to carry more than 40,000 passengers on Sunday, with 144 arrival flights and 139 departures, but only 10 flights took place before the strike took hold at 6.30 a.m. local time, Hamburg Airport said in a statement, which directed stranded passengers to contact their airlines. The airport said the strike, called by the labor union Verdi, had begun “without any notice” during a busy holiday.“The union is paralyzing the airport and without notice right at the beginning of Hamburg’s spring break,” Katja Bromm, head of communications at the airport, said in a statement. The airport mainly serves European destinations.The union, which represents public-sector service workers, said it had brought the strike forward by a day and minimized warning of the start time to maximize the pressure on the employer and to prevent the airport from bringing in nonunion workers.“We are very much aware that this strike may have hit families who have saved money to go on holiday, but the employer has left us no other choice,” said Lars Stubbe, the Hamburg representative of Verdi.The strike at Hamburg is the first of more than a dozen planned actions at airports across Germany on Monday, including at the country’s busiest airports, Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin Brandenburg, Mr. Stubbe said.Around 510,000 people will be affected by the strike on Monday, with more than 3,400 flights canceled, according to A.D.V., the association of Germany’s airport operators, German news media reported. The latest strike represents an escalation after Verdi, the full name of which is the Unified Services Union, staged walkouts in February.Mr. Stubbe said that its strikes aimed to increase pressure on employers over stalled collective bargaining talks to improve conditions for more than 25,000 employees in the aviation security sector. Among the union’s demands are 30 days of vacation, additional vacation for shift work and an increase in the annual bonus. The next round of talks is scheduled for later this month.The strikes come amid what is effectively an economic crisis in Germany, traditionally Europe’s powerhouse. The country’s economy shrank slightly last year and it has recovered less well from the pandemic than most of its European peers and the United States.The centrist conservative party, the Christian Democrats, secured the most votes in a parliamentary election last month in a rebuke to the country’s left-leaning government for its handling of the economy and immigration. More

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      Shark Bites Tourist Who Was Trying to Take Photo With It

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      The woman was flown off the island to receive medical care, according to the Turks and Caicos government.A tourist trying to photograph a shark in shallow water at a beach in the Turks and Caicos Islands this month was bitten by it and flown off the island to receive medical care, the local government said.The tourist was treated at a hospital before she left the island, Providenciales, a sandy, 38-square-mile magnet for snorkelers and sun seekers that is ringed by turquoise waters.The shark was about six feet long, according to the Turks and Caicos government, but its species was unclear.The tourist had “attempted to engage with the animal” in an effort to take pictures of it before she was bitten on Feb. 7, the Department of Environment and Coastal Resources in Turks and Caicos said in a statement.Her identity was not immediately released, and officials did not describe the extent of her injuries.The beach was closed but reopened on Feb. 9 after the shark was found to have moved into deeper water, according to the environment department. Turks and Caicos, an archipelago, is a British territory and one of the Caribbean’s fanciest tourist destinations.Shark bites are extremely rare and are typically accidents, experts say. But sharks can cause severe wounds when they mistake humans for prey.Across the world, there were 88 confirmed or potential shark bites logged last year by the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida, an organization that tracks shark data.Twenty-four were provoked, meaning that a human had initiated contact with the shark, according to the organization. Four people died from shark bites. One of last year’s recorded bites was in Turks and Caicos; it was not fatal.The file’s director, Gavin Naylor, said on Saturday that it was too soon to say if this month’s bite in Turks and Caicos was provoked or unprovoked.But Chris Stefanou, a New York fisherman and conservationist who tags sharks, said that photographing sharks can carry risks, and that the shark might have confused a phone for a fish.“Sharks, or any predatory animal in the ocean, can confuse that as like a bait fish,” Mr. Stefanou said, referring to small, shiny fish that draw sharks to shore. “The shark didn’t just see a human: ‘Ooh, I’m hungry, I want to go take a bite.’ That did not happen.”The episode was not the only reported shark bite in the Caribbean on Feb. 7. Two Americans were injured in what appeared to be a shark encounter in Bimini Bay in the northern Bahamas, according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force.Mr. Naylor said two bites in one day in the region was unusual and made him “sit up a little.”But it was not clear whether there was any trend. The number of confirmed unprovoked shark bites dropped to 47 last year, down from 69 the year before, according to the International Shark Attack File. More

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      At This French Exhibition, Check Your Clothes at the Door

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      A museum in Marseille, France, has a show dedicated to the history of social nudity. On a few special nights, visitors strolled around naked, too.A group of visitors listened intently to their tour guide last Friday at one of Marseille’s biggest museums. One woman examined old posters with bright colors and bold graphics. Another studied a collection of black-and-white photographs laid out on a table.They all were naked, save for their shoes.The disrobed spectators had come to the Museum of the Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean, known as Mucem, for an exhibition about social nudity, which practitioners often call naturism. According to the museum, almost 100,000 people have visited the show since it opened in July, and, at five special viewings, about 600 of them have been naked.Some were regular naturists, identifiable by their tan-line-less, often leathery backsides.But many had never been naked with strangers before, except for the odd skinny dip. For them, shared nudity was mostly confined to locker rooms or bedrooms, for sports or for sex. This was a new way to relate to art, and to their bodies. Acceptance. Or, maybe, neutrality.“Normally, bodies are so sexualized,” said Jule Baumann, 27, one of the visitors on Friday. “I liked the idea of being in a place where it’s just normal to be naked.”A naked museum show itself is not novel: Museums in Paris, Vienna, Montreal, Barcelona, Milan and the small English town of Dorchester have hosted such evenings before.The exhibition traces the development of the naturist lifestyle in Europe over a century.France Keyser for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Egypt Feuds With Travel Blogger, Issuing 1,100-Word Response to Complaints

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      When a blogger criticized Cairo’s airport, Egypt’s government fired back, citing security footage, threatening legal action and asking, “Is it reasonable for a passenger to visit two lounges before a single flight?”Authoritarian governments are not known for taking kindly to criticism. And in Egypt, official skins can be especially thin: deepening repression has muffled most dissent and sent tens of thousands of perceived political opponents to jail, including one for posting a doctored photo of the president with Mickey Mouse ears. But this month, Egypt found itself facing an opponent it could not silence so easily.“Cairo Airport: Is There a Worse Major Airport?” the travel blogger Ben Schlappig pondered in a no-holds-barred post on his website, One Mile at a Time. He cited the “actively hostile and rude” staff, the “endless requests for tips,” the “disorder” in line, the “weak” dining options and the “yuck” lounges.“My visits have varied from inconvenient and disorganized, to outright chaotic,” he wrote. “I just can’t think of a single redeeming quality about the airport.” As if salting the wound, he ended by comparing Cairo’s airport unfavorably with that of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, with which Egypt is locked in a yearslong dispute over water rights.It was a verdict almost guaranteed to enrage Egypt’s government, which is making a concerted push to double its tourism numbers, trying to reach 30 million annual visitors by 2028. Besides employing one in 12 Egyptian workers, the tourism industry delivers desperately needed foreign currency to a country reeling from a prolonged economic crisis.New luxury hotels are going up around Cairo and Egypt’s sunny beach destinations. The government has announced plans to refurbish historic attractions. And a long-awaited new museum of antiquities is opening in stages — and to positive reviews — next to the Great Pyramids of Giza.Egypt’s government is making a concerted push to reach 30 million annual visitors by 2028.Sima Diab for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      A Travel Writer Remembers Arthur Frommer

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      The creator of the popular guidebook series, who recently died, not only democratized travel, but supported sustainable travel, before it got that name.In the 1980s, when I planned my first trip to Europe, I can’t remember which Frommer’s travel guidebook I brought along. It might have been “Europe on $25 a Day” or “Europe on $40 a Day.” Either way, I had Arthur Frommer by my side.I recalled this instantly when I learned that Mr. Frommer — who started his guidebook series in 1957, with the title “Europe on 5 Dollars a Day” — died this week at 95.From that first European trip to many more that followed, I appreciated the series’ recommendations on where to stay — usually small pensions called out for their charm or value or both — where to find authentic food, and how to get around by train or bus. In addition to straightforward and reliable how-to advice, Mr. Frommer gave much more to his readers: He democratized travel, and not just by showing that it was financially possible to see the world within their means. By breaking down the intimidating hurdles of foreign travel — like not speaking the language or looking out of place — he emboldened legions of readers to just do it.Why? Because everyone should enjoy the thrill of discovery.Historically, leisure travel was for the rich. In Europe, what became known as early as the 17th century as the Grand Tour was considered an educational and cultural rite of passage for the aristocracy. It yielded pioneering guidebooks such as the German Baedeker series, which was first published in 1827.Tourism was still packaged as a pursuit of the wealthy when Mr. Frommer first visited Europe 72 years ago, according to an Associated Press interview in 2007. As a soldier stationed in Germany in 1953, he discovered the affordable beauty of living like a local and eschewed cocooning luxury hotels that kept you from having “a genuine experience.”He found a ready audience for his style of travel. As he told the writer Rolf Potts in 2008, Mr. Frommer sold out of the initial run of 5,000 copies of “Europe on 5 Dollars a Day” on the first day of publication in 1957. The series, updated each year, sold millions of copies, until 2007. (Pauline Frommer, Mr. Frommer’s daughter, continues to publish travel guides and run the travel website frommers.com.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Lie-Flat Seats and Chilled Champagne: Testing Eric Adams’s Upgrade Life

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      Life is grand in the Bentley Suite at the St. Regis Istanbul, with its marble floors and walk-in closet, its 24-hour butler service, and its views stretching all the way to the blue waters of the Bosporus.The Bentley suite at the St. Regis Hotel in Istanbul is named for the luxury car, and the light fixture over the bed is said to evoke the undulations of the Nürburgring racetrack in Germany. The light sculpture suspended above the vast bed, where New York Mayor Eric Adams slept in 2017, is said to evoke the undulations of the Nürburgring racetrack in Germany. The complimentary chocolate-covered strawberries on the coffee table are dusted with crushed pistachios and nestled on a bed of delicately crumbled cookies. The curved leather sofa has two built-in Champagne coolers that light up and open at the press of a button.The sofa in the Bentley Suite has two embedded Champagne coolers that open at the touch of a button.If you were to think about New York City (but why would you?) while reclining on your private balcony and gazing at the Gucci store across the street, you might be struck by the notion that the suite is roughly three times the size of your first apartment.The suite comes with a terrace with views over the city. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Cruise Lines Change Their Itineraries to Avoid Helene’s Impact

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      Several cruise lines operating out of Florida’s west coast and the Gulf of Mexico altered their itineraries on Wednesday to avoid Hurricane Helene’s path.Carnival Cruise Line canceled port stops at Cozumel, Mexico, for several ships. including Carnival Paradise, Valor, Breeze and Horizon. Two ships, Carnival Elation and Carnival Paradise, could not return to Jacksonville and Tampa after the ports were closed on Wednesday, but the cruise line said it tentatively expected ports to reopen on Friday, depending on its post-storm assessment.“The safety of our guests and crew remains our priority, and our ships are sailing a safe distance from the storm,” Carnival said in a statement on Wednesday.Royal Caribbean has also adjusted the itineraries of seven west Caribbean sailings, including Independence of the Seas, Grandeur of the Seas and Serenade of the Seas, which will be making port stops in Nassau, in the Bahamas, instead of Cozumel.Guests onboard MSC Cruise line’s Seashore were informed that they would not be able to return to Port Canaveral in Florida on Thursday because of high winds and would instead have a bonus day at sea. More

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      Tony Robbins Backs the Estate, a Chain of Luxury Wellness Resorts

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      The self-help guru is joining the hotel mogul Sam Nazarian to open a chain of luxury preventive-medicine resorts, aiming for a slice of the $5.6 trillion wellness industry.The life coach and self-help guru Tony Robbins is teaming up with Sam Nazarian, a hospitality veteran known for brands like the Delano and the Mondrian, on a new luxury chain of hotels and wellness centers that focus on preventive medicine, longevity and wellness.The new brand, called the Estate, aims to tap into the $5.6 trillion annual global wellness market that’s currently dominated by hospitality brands like Sha Wellness Clinics, Six Senses, the Well, Lanserhof and the Carillon Miami Wellness Resort in Miami Beach.Mr. Robbins, Mr. Nazarian and the other investors, which include the singer Marc Anthony, plan to open 15 luxury hotels and residences, along with 10 longevity centers in major markets, by 2030, according to a statement from the company. The first four hotels are scheduled to open by 2026, on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts, as well as in Britain, Italy and Switzerland. The brand’s first urban longevity center plans to open its doors in Los Angeles in late 2025. Membership at the longevity centers will cost $35,000 a year, while rooms at the hotels are expected to cost around $1,000 per night.Mr. Robbins is already an investor in Fountain Life, a preventive-health and longevity company, which will provide diagnostic and therapeutic offerings for the Estate. “Tony and Sam want to take technology out of the walls of the doctor’s office and embed it into the hospitality experience,” said Dr. Bill Kapp, the founder of Fountain Life, in a phone interview.Mr. Nazarian credited Fountain Life’s technology with saving his life last year after a full-body scan detected an asymptomatic brain aneurysm, which he underwent neurosurgery to repair.Guests staying at the Estate will have access to similar Fountain Life scans and procedures as well as spa treatments by Clinique La Prairie, a Swiss health resort. “Our No. 1 goal is to make sure people don’t die of something avoidable,” said Dr. Kapp. The offerings will include full-body M.R.I.s to search for cancer, CT scans to detect plaque in coronary arteries, neurocognitive testing, epigenetic screenings and more, using generative artificial intelligence to identify patterns.Mr. Robbins, known for books like “Awaken the Giant Within” and “Money: Master the Game,” as well as for his philanthropic work, was accused of sexual misconduct by several female fans and staff members in a 2019 BuzzFeed News investigation. He has denied the accusations.Dr. Kapp said he pictured the Estate properties as the vanguard of a new movement in which wellness treatments, including preventive medicine, become a pillar of the hospitality experience. “Health is the new wealth,” he said.Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024. More

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      Test Yourself on the International Settings of These Novels

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      A strong sense of place can deeply influence a story, and in some cases, the setting can even feel like a character itself. This week’s literary geography quiz celebrates cities that are significant, whether they are the primary setting or not. Even if you aren’t familiar with the books, your knowledge of world geography and history should help you. To play, just make your selection in the multiple-choice list and the correct answer will be revealed. Links to the books will be listed at the end of the quiz if you’d like to do further reading. More