LA Post: Hidden World War II tunnels to open to public

(CNN) — In this week’s roundup of travel news: Denver’s weed church, zodiac predictions for the Year of the Snake, plus what promises to be London’s most ambitious – and deepest – new visitor attraction.

Going underground

Some 30 meters (98 feet) below central London lies a mile-long network of tunnels that is set to be the UK capital’s glitziest new tourist attraction, according to the company that’s secured planning approval for the $149 million transformation.

Hidden World War II tunnels to open to public — *How the tunnels look now, as seen in this photo from January 29.*

The Kingsway Exchange Tunnels were built in the 1940s to shelter Londoners from the Blitz bombing campaign during World War II. That was the last time they were open to the general public. Their next wartime role was as the home of Britain’s top-secret Special Operations Executive, an offshoot of MI6 and the real-life inspiration for James Bond’s Q Branch.

The new attraction will be a memorial to the Blitz, which Angus Murray, chief executive of the London Tunnels, told Reuters will be part museum, part exhibition and part entertainment space.

The plan is to open to the public by late 2027 or early 2028. Read more here in our earlier story announcing the project.

If you can’t wait until then to get down in the city’s bowels, London Transport Museum runs exclusive guided tours of its abandoned tube stations, including Down Street, a secret underground bunker that helped win World War II.

Year of the Snake

The first new moon of the lunar calendar fell on January 29, ushering in the Year of the Snake and the 15-day Spring Festival, a big annual highlight in China and for Chinese communities around the world.

Here’s our guide to what it all means and, whether you’re a horse, goat, monkey, rooster or any other sign in the Chinese zodiac, here’s what the stars say are your predictions for the year ahead.

Food is, of course, a key part of the celebrations. One of the most fun elements is the “prosperity toss,” kind of like a food fight with chopsticks but seasoned with auspicious blessings for the year ahead.

For the culinarily adventurous, 2025 is a good time to visit Hong Kong and see how restaurants serve snake. Delights include snake balls and snake soup – and be sure to leave room for the penis wine. Watch here.

Love and luck

Englishman Francis Chadwick was 34 and in the middle of a divorce when his future wife, Tehzin from Toronto, sat down next to him at a Vegas poker table in 2014. Here’s the story of how Lady Luck brought them together.

A coin toss was the deciding factor in Canadian Mary Young and New Zealander Wayne Corlett meeting in the kitchen of a Sydney guest house in 1976. “That was the beginning of everything,” says Young.

Finally, a snake proved auspicious for hikers Manny Salas and Laura Binder, who met after encountering a rattler in California’s San Gabriel Mountains in 2019. “As much as I love that one snake that brought us together, I’m super scared of snakes,” says Salas.

Holy smoke

Weed is a sacrament at the International Church of Cannabis in Denver, Colorado, and the drug can be smoked in its chapel. Since its opening in 2017, it’s consistently ranked among the city’s top attractions.

Guided meditation is one of the practices offered at the church, but if you prefer to work on your mental and physical well-being without ingestion of substances, our partners at CNN Underscored, a product reviews and recommendations guide owned by CNN, have this guide to the best yoga mats of 2025.