Monument to Holocaust to Open Near Jerusalem

When the Valley of the Destroyed Communities--an open-air monument to the more than 5,000 communities lost in the Holocaust--is dedicated next month near Jerusalem, it will be the latest addition to Israel’s famed memorial to the Holocaust, Yad Vashem. Dug from the surrounding hills, the Valley’s monolithic stone slabs are arranged in geographical order and inscribed, in Hebrew, Yiddish, Polish and German, with the names of towns and villages that once flourished throughout Europe but were obliterated during the Holocaust. Countries will be arranged in separate courtyards in a configuration resembling the map of Europe. Broken rock on the floor of the valley is being left to symbolize the destruction of Jewish life by Nazi Germany. Dedication of the monument will be marked with memorial services, torch lightings, wreath layings and lectures and discussions Oct. 13-15. In addition to the Valley of the Destroyed Communities, Yad Vashem is composed of several museums and reference facilities containing Holocaust materials and art, as well as other open-air monuments dedicated to heroes and survivors of the Holocaust.

Travel Quiz: What U.S. cities average the hottest July temperatures?

Euro Disney Hotel Closes for Winter: Paris’ Euro Disney theme park, which is discounting room rates at its six hotels, plans to close its top-of-the-line Newport Bay Club hotel from October through most of April to adjust for seasonality of demand, according to a Disney spokesman. The park’s luxury Disneyland Hotel is slashing its nightly rates by about 35%, from about $410 to about $275 for the off-season. Although all of the park’s hotels, totaling 5,200 rooms, registered a 100% occupancy rate in late August, the traditional time for French vacations, other months have not been as rosy. In a radio interview this summer, Robert Fitzpatrick, chief executive of the Euro Disney theme park, acknowledged that attendance at the park, which opened in April, had been “a bit slow.”

New to Seattle: In its first venture into California, the 7-year-old airline MarkAir has begun daily service between Seattle and Los Angeles, offering deeply discounted ticket prices that other larger carriers, such as United, Alaska and Delta, have now matched. Current round-trip, 14-day advance-purchase tickets on MarkAir are $198. The price wars actually started earlier this summer when another small airline--Reno Air--began Los Angeles-Seattle service, and discounted prices way below the then-standard $300 round-trip fare. Most reduced fares on airlines competing with MarkAir, however, are only available on specific flights. MarkAir, which filed for Chapter 11 protection early this summer, is based in Anchorage and has also just begun flying between Seattle and San Francisco ($180 advance purchase). Earlier plans to begin flights between Seattle and Las Vegas and Seattle and Phoenix have been put on hold. For information, call (800) 426-6784.

Quick Fact: Amount of money Cathay Pacific Airways accumulated and then donated to UNICEF last year by collecting passengers’ unwanted foreign change on all long-haul fights, including those between Los Angeles and Hong Kong: $70,000. (The airline is doing it again this year--now through Oct. 31.)

Most U.S. Cholera Travel-Related: A cholera outbreak aboard an Argentine jetliner bound for Los Angeles last February helped push the number of travel-related cholera cases in the United States to an all-time high, according to federal health officials. The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta said 96 cholera cases have been reported in the United States since January and 95 of those were travel-related. (The cause of the other case is unknown.) That’s more cases than in any other year since the CDC began monitoring cholera in 1961. Only 10 travel-related cholera cases were reported in the United States in the 20 years through 1981, the agency said. The bulk of this year’s cases came last winter when the Aerolineas Argentinas passengers developed cholera from a seafood salad served during the flight. Although health officials say the cholera risk for most tourists is low, the CDC has set up two hot lines for Americans traveling to affected regions. The English-speaking line is (404) 332-4559; the Spanish-speaking line is (404) 330-3132.

QE2 Returning to Sea: The Queen Elizabeth 2 will return to its regularly scheduled transatlantic crossings and cruises Oct. 4, following repairs for damage sustained Aug. 7 off Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., when it struck a previously uncharted rock and ripped a hole in its hull. The QE2 is being repaired at a shipyard in Hamburg, Germany, where it will return again Nov. 20 for a previously scheduled overhaul and upgrade of passenger facilities (among them a new spa and refurbishments of its theater and staterooms). It will return to service for good Dec. 12.

Only in October: More than a million visitors are expected to attend the Oct. 4 parade connected with “Fiestas de Octubre,” Mexico’s largest fall festival that last year attracted 1.5 million visitors to Guadalajara. Hundreds of displays, a series of cultural events, conferences, handicraft expositions and performances will take place during the entire month in and around the Benito Jaurez Auditorium in Guadalajara, in the Mexican state of Jalisco in west-central Mexico. And for the first time, a special national and international pavilion exposition of handcrafts, folklore performances and food specialties will be presented by 20 participating countries, including Denmark, England, Portugal, Honduras and Germany.

Comparatively Speaking: Top 10 convention centers, worldwide, for meetings by international organizations, based on the number of meetings in 1991 (most first): Paris, Vienna, Geneva, Brussels, London, Berlin, Strasbourg, Singapore, Budapest and Amsterdam. (Source: Union of International Assn.)

Quiz Answer: Both Phoenix and Las Vegas average a high of 105 degrees, according to the Department of Commerce’s National Climatic Data Center.