North America
New York
It's hard for tourists to take it easy in New York when there's so much to see and do, but visitors staying at the Library Hotel may want to abandon their itineraries and curl up with a good book. The restored mansion contains 6,000 tomes, distributed among its 60 guest rooms according to the Dewey Decimal System-a library classification scheme that divides knowledge into ten groups (and 1,000 subcategories). Guests interested in philosophy, the 11th-floor theme, can choose from subjects including logic and ethics, while literature devotees who book early can stay in the hotel's most requested room: 800.001 (Erotic Literature). Also featured are a "Poetry Garden" and an "Executive Inspiration Room." See .
Australia
Sydney
Art gallery visitors often feel obliged to keep quiet while viewing exhibitions. That won't be necessary at "Art/Music: Rock, Pop, Techno," a Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition that explores the interaction between contemporary music and avant-garde art. Visitors can listen to the crunch of CDs beneath their feet in Echo and Narcissus, watch video installations like Party, which depicts a lovelorn lass dancing to Olivia Newton-John's A Little More Love, be filmed playing a double-necked electric guitar or listen to recordings produced by visual artists. Through June 24.
Europe
Antwerp
It's renowned for calorie-rich treats like pralines, waffles and mayonnaise- covered fries. Yet slender style-seekers flock to Antwerp not for the food but for the sleek clothes of Belgian designers like Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester. The city's fashionable face will be showcased in Mode 2001, a five-month festival starting May 26. Curated by designer Walter Van Beirendonck, it features four exhibitions, including "Emotions"-in which designers and artists reveal through video clips their "most intense emotion in the field of fashion." The festival culminates in October with the opening of ModeNatie, a new home for fashion schools and the ModeMuseum. See .
Gardens
Prince Charles has suggested that talking to vegetables helps them grow. Few of his countrymen may be as devoted to their plants, but the British are a "nation of gardeners," according to the National Trust. The organization, which owns more than 200 gardens and parks in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, has declared 2001 "Gardens Year." Most of its properties are open to the public through October, but check the Trust's website () before planning an outing, as the foot-and-mouth outbreak may make it necessary to close sites at short notice.