North America
New Haven
While many of Britain's royal spouses have struggled to find a meaningful role after marriage or divorce, Lord Snowden has been through both, and remained one of Britain's leading photographers. Anthony Armstrong Jones, as he was known before marrying Queen Elizabeth's sister Princess Margaret in 1960, has snapped subjects as diverse as models posing on airplane wings and a destitute man feeding his invalid wife. Photographs by Snowden, at the Yale Center for British Art through Sept. 2, features images made over five decades, including portraits of spy Anthony Blunt and author J.R.R. Tolkien.
Bloomington
The first ready-to-eat breakfast cereal-rock-hard chunks of whole-wheat bread-was a serious affair, designed for intestinal health, not pleasure. But consumers demanded that their first meal of the day be fun to eat as well as good for them. Today, cereal is part of the entertainment industry: boxes contain toys, brands are promoted with cartoon heroes, and now there's a theme park devoted to breakfast food. At General Mills' Cereal Adventure, in the vast Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, children who don't find enough color and crunch in their breakfast bowls can swim in Cheerios, play video games inside a Cocoa Puff, customize their own cereal brand, pose for a souvenir Wheaties packet, and eat breakfast all day long in the Cereal Adventure Caf.
Islands
New Plymouth
In his centenary year, experimental artist Len Lye (1901-1980) has grabbed the spotlight in his native New Zealand. Although the dynamic, dance-crazy expat spent most of his life in London and New York, his homeland is hosting a series of exhibitions and celebrations. Lye, who said he was driven by the challenge of capturing motion, is best known for his kinetic sculptures and direct films, made by painting or scratching strips of celluloid. A retrospective, The Long Dream of Waking, at the Govett Brewster Gallery in New Plymouth, features sculptures, films, paintings, photographs, batik, poetry, and notebooks filled with Lye's oddball theories. Through Aug. 19.
Middle East
Iran
The Islamic revolution that toppled Iran's last Shah in the 1980s also set off strong anti-Western feelings. Under the mullahs, the once-thriving tourist industry was almost dormant. But since reformist President Mohammed Khatami came to power in 1997, Iran has opened its attitudes as well as its doors, and the number of foreign visitors has grown by 20% a year. Adventurous travelers yearning to escape the chattering, camera-toting crowds will find Iran blessedly free of touts and tourist traps, but rich in fascinating sights-including the ruins of Persepolis, the tomb of the poet Hafez in Shiraz, the bazaar and mosques of Isfahan and, best of all, the Tower of Silence in Yazd. See .