Since that first night, the successful open house concept of the Long Night has expanded to the city’s theaters, opera houses, and scientific research institutions, with each offering a similar event during different months of the year.

Lange Nacht der Museen
Mid-March and Late August
This year: Saturday August 31, 2013

The long night of museums takes place twice yearly: first in mid-March, and again at the end of August. With nearly 100 institutions across the entire city to choose from, you’ll want to plan your evening carefully while consulting the map of chartered buses and public transportation, both included in your ticket price.

You can find detailed information about each event as well as purchase tickets online one month before each event on this website (German only). Each long night runs from 6 p.m. till 2 a.m. Admission: €18/€12 reduced.

Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften
Early May

Under the slogan “smartest night of the year,” the long night of scientific research is an annual event, next scheduled for early May. 75 institutions in Berlin and Potsdam open their doors, providing direct access to the scientists and their work. Everything from chemistry to photography to cartography to solar energy to economics to space research and beyond is included.  Most institutions offer plenty of hands-on experimentation, making this long night the best for visitors with children (and for children at heart).

The Lange Nacht runs from 4 p.m. till midnight. Included is transportation on the chartered shuttles as well as a Berlin ABC ticket for public transportation. Tickets are €11/€7 advance purchase and €13/€9 on the night of the event. Family tickets are available for €25/€20 in advance.

Want more? Check out our top cheap hotel picks for Berlin. And don’t forget to leave any questions or comments in the box below.

The post Berlin’s Long Nights are Worth Staying Up For appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Now here’s a thought. Europeans heading north to cross the Arctic Circle, anxious to catch the mid-summer midnight sun, have to make longer journeys than their parents did.

For the Arctic Circle is slipping north, each year getting a shade closer to the North Pole. Folk in Polcirkeln have a fine appreciation of this point, for the prime asset of this small Swedish village (which takes its very name from the Arctic Circle) is in fact a diminishing asset.

Astronomical wobbles

The name Milutin Milankovic is probably not on the tip of your tongue. But the Serbian geophysicist, who died in 1958, holds the key to Polcirkeln’s problem.

Evidently, it was Milankovic who calculated how variations in the tilt of the earth’s axis – a sort of astronomical wobble – cause the Arctic Circle to move around. And it is the Milankovic effect that explains why Polcirkeln’s only claim to fame is sliding off to the north and leaving Polcirkeln stranded. Just now, the Arctic Circle is moving north at a rate of about one meter every month.

Lessons from Polcirkeln

Were we civic leaders in remote Polcirkeln (population about 40 humans and 400 reindeer), we would just have kept quiet about the community’s prime asset having an inconvenient habit of trying to leave town.

But there is a touching honesty about Scandinavians. The good folk in Polcirkeln recognize that visitors are not satisfied with being told that the Arctic Circle is somewhere nearby, but want to see the exact line.

So Polcirkeln has obliged by erecting signs that show where the Arctic Circle was in 2005, where it is now, exactly where it will be in 2015, and other useful indicators.

Happy reindeer

You’ll pass through Polcirkeln if you take the train along the main route from Boden to Gällivare in Sweden. The train staff very obligingly make an announcement as the train crosses the Arctic Circle.

In truth, it is not a very exciting experience. The forests look much the same on both sides of the Arctic Circle, though we did think that the reindeer looked a little bit perkier north of the line. Curiously, all the reindeer we saw on our most recent journey were walking north – evidently keen to keep up with the Arctic Circle.

Grimsey’s inexorable fate

For a more scenic crossing of the Arctic Circle head to Grimsey, a little island about 40 kilometers north of Iceland (easily reached with a short flight from the mainland with Air Iceland). The entire Icelandic mainland lies south of the Arctic Circle, and the northern part of offshore Grimsey is the only fragment of Icelandic territory which can claim to be in the Arctic.

But go soon. If the Arctic Circle continues to move north the way it is, then in another century or two all of Grimsey will lie south of the Circle. And the number of countries on earth where you can cross the Arctic Circle on foot will have diminished from eight to seven.

The post Arctic Circle on the Move: A story for the summer solstice appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Here’s our “Cheapo Strategy”: During the week, keep busy with biergartens and Bavarian buildings. But on the weekend, take advantage of the several city museums that charge only €1!

Art on a shoestring

Each Sunday, many of Munich’s best-known museums offer reduced entrance fares to visitors.

For instance, you can tour the Alte Pinakothek’s collection of European art, the modern art at the Lenbachhaus, Roman and Greek architecture at the Glyptothek, and the sculpture and musical instruments at the Bayerisches National Museum’s, each for a small €1 admission charge.

If you want to hold onto every last euro, Munich can be even friendlier on your wallet.

Entrance to the unique collections at the Kartoffelmuseum, the Siemens AG company museum, and the Geologisches Museum are free seven days a week.

While you’re at it

Be sure to check the museums’ websites for any upcoming events. For instance, the Glyptothek, Munich’s museum of classical Roman and Greek art, hosts a “Lange Nacht der Museen” twice a year, when the museum’s doors stay open till 2 a.m.

Tell us: Have any other Munich tourist tips? Add them below!

The post Munich tip: €1 museum admission on Sundays appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.