The Opry celebrates a grand ole birthday

The world's largest urban museum, the Museum of London re-opened today with five new galleries. The museum has long been a London highlight. It tells the story of the city from the Great Fire of London in 1666 to the present day, using state of the art interactive displays, re-creations of period urban scenes, and cleverly designed neighborhood maps. The five new "Galleries of Modern London" sit in a stunning glass cube perched over the street. Rooms are decorated with models, posters, paintings and artifacts. There's a lavish gilt Lord Mayor's coach, gritty displays showcasing the troubled 1970s and 1980s (with the rise of the fascist National Front and the Poll tax riots) and cutesier items like an old two-penny red phone box, which was once as much a London icon as the black cab and bowler hat. There's also an 18th-century "pleasure garden" and an interactive map of the Thames showing how London is changing with new high rise buildings and modernist architecture. Browse on your own or take a guided tour with Cockney "Pearly King" John Walters, who gives colorful running commentary dressed from head to toe in traditional East End pearly buttons and a black cap. museumoflondon.org.uk, free.

As if saving money on checked-bag fees weren't incentive enough, Budget Travel is giving away a 6-night trip to Egypt (courtesy of Foreign Independent Tours) to the winner of our Ultimate Packing Smackdown—the search for the World's Best Packer. You have until June 14 to tell us why you deserve the title—in photo, video, essay, or poem form—and on July 1, the top ten finalists will be named and voting will commence. Your entry could include a packing list for a two-week trip, your most clever space-saving solution, your pick for the best assortment of luggage to pack, the items you'd never leave home without (or have learned never to bring with you again), or a diagram showing your own unique layering strategy. Send all entries to starpacker@budgettravel.com, and check back in July to see if you've made the first cut! The best strategies will be featured online and in the November issue of Budget Travel.

We've all been there. Your plane has touched down, and you're ready for your whirlwind international adventure. The Eiffel Tower beckons. The Great Pyramids await. The Coliseum is calling your name. And all you want to do is curl up in a ball and tuck yourself in for a long nap. Jet lag is no joke. That terrible combination of fatigue, insomnia, and irritability can derail any vacation right from the start. Well, starting this week, there's an app for that. Virgin Atlantic has teamed up with Dr. Chris Idzikowski, director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre, to release the Jet Lag Fighter ($1.99), an app that promises to get you and your sleep schedule back on track after a grueling long haul. The concept is simple. Punch in basic info, like flight details, age, sex, and usual sleep patterns. The app then generates a specialized game plan to keep your eyes open without that tenth cup of espresso. Your personalized regiment will tell you precisely when to sleep, when to exercise, and when to seek or avoid light. A nifty graph even illustrates how long it will take to overcome those jet lag blues—with and without the program. Compatible with iPhones and iPads, sold in the iTunes App Store. Now we turn to you: got any great jet lag fighting tips that keep you active and ready to go? [Fun Fact for Travel Geeks: Dr. Idzikowski worked on a jet-lag project for Virgin Atlantic's rival, British Airways, three years ago.]

Trash LaGuardia and rebuild it. That's what Chris Ward, the Port Authority chief, said recently. Ward's agency oversees the airport, and he thinks it can't cope with modern demands. Ward said, "LaGuardia should not be the gateway for domestic fliers into New York City. He added that the airport "should fundamentally be torn down and rebuilt." Good news: Three months ago, the Port Authority approved a $40 million contract to plan a re-design for the airport's largest terminal. LaGuardia's delays make everyone in the country late. About 30 out of every 100 flights out of this airport were delayed last year, with effects rippling across the nation. LaGuardia's terminals are chaotic, dirty, and over-burdened, especially when compared to Terminal 5* at JFK, JetBlue's recently renovated space. Pilots hate LaGuardia, too: Says one, after a typical take-off: The taxiways are asphalt so the plane sinks every time we stop. 40% power on one engine won't move the plane, so we have to gun it. Every plane is shaking every other plane trying to get going. They land on a crossing runway and with the IFR spacing restrictions, takeoffs happen half as often as normal. Why would rebuilding LaGuardia be good for the city? New York City could become a global showcase for transport. Redesigned runways would be safer and more efficient. Easy-to-understand, speedy rail links into Manhattan, would allow visitors to hop trains and shuttles that run into the wee hours. The city could exploit its position between China and Europe and create an infrastructure to support a truly 24-hour airport for a truly 24-hour city. It would make a positive first impression on visitors. Yet a wholesale rebuild isn't likely given our financial crisis. The Port Authority is low on cash, partly because the federal government puts limits on the so-called passenger facility charges that are added to plane tickets and are currently $4.50 per passenger, according to the Federal Aviation Administration's site. One solution: Privatize the airport. A private firm might much more quickly hand out the contracts to cutting edge design and architecture and engineering firms, reinventing LaGuardia more cheaply. What do you think? Should LaGuardia—invented as part of F.D.R.'s New Deal for about $600 million in today's dollars—be re-built from scratch, in phases? Or should we make do with what we have, which has been working well enough? Post updated on May 12 to add the quote from the pilot. CORRECTION: Post updated on May 14 to correct the name of JetBlue's JFK Terminal. Sorry.