I finally gave up on public transport in Corsica & Sardinia at Barumini : there's no way to do it on a day trip by bus or train. Not that the experience of renting a car for a day was such a pleasure: I found the Hertz office at Cagliari-Elmas airport understaffed at 9 am, their printer did not work so they had to write my contract by hand ( oh, I so wish for a full digital transformation of car rental companies ) and the directions where to pick up my car were immensely vague. I guess the lady behind the desk had lost her sense of direction because of the stress. Together with a German tourist I went on a thorough search for our cars, which we finally spotted after 20 minutes using a high vantage point. It turned out that there is an additional parking lot just in the shadow of the large parking garage.

All these delays meant that I could throw overboard the plans that I had to visit another site or two besides Su Nuraxi di Barumini. If you have your own wheels and a full day to spare from …

The La Maddalena archipelago comprises the Italian part of the future Strait of Bonifacio transboundary nomination. After having visited the Corsican side earlier on this Mediterranean trip, I also checked out this Sardinian location. It has a very different feel about it, nothing like the steep cliffs at Bonifacio . However it must be said that I did not visit the Corsican Lavezzi Islands ( “miniature paradise of sandy creeks and crystal-clear water” ) which may be more similar to La Maddalena.

Between Palau (where I was staying overnight) and La Maddalena ferries sail back and forth in 20 minutes all day long. La Maddalena is the 'capital' of the La Maddalena Archipelago, a national park consisting of seven larger and many smaller islands. La Maddalena itself is a fairly large town, so for the real nature experience you have to go to one of the other islands. For example the neighboring island of Caprera, which is connected to La Maddalena by a dam. The island measures only 15 square kilometers, so I was going to explore it on foot.

The bus dropped me – the only passenger - at the Garibaldi museum. I had …

The Bouches de Bonifacio (in English: Strait of Bonifacio) is the narrow, navigable waterway that segregates Corsica and Sardinia. This natural ensemble is on the Tentative List of France as a placeholder for a future transboundary nomination with Italy’s La Maddalena Archipelago . The countries are working on the establishment of the joint “ International Marine Park of the Strait of Bonifacio ”.

The Strait is named after the town of Bonifacio, located at the southern tip of Corsica. It lies on and against a massive rock, part of a rugged coast with vertical rock walls. I stayed there for 2 nights, with the plan to hike in the nature reserve and to make the crossing to Sardinia. “The strait is notorious among sailors for its weather, currents, shoals, and other obstacles.”, Wiki tells us. I certainly got to experience that!

The first day it rained from early on in the morning. Only late afternoon I was able to go out. I still wanted to do the coastal walk that I selected beforehand: the Sentier Campu Romanilu . It would take only an hour and a half. Clearly I was not the only one with …

At spot #728 this is one of the lesser visited sites in Europe among our community members. It comprises a coastal area in northwestern Corsica, recognized for both its marine and terrestrial features. The cumbersome name probably doesn’t help to market it: “ Gulf of Porto: Calanche of Piana, Gulf of Girolata, Scandola Reserve ” actually comprises one integral core zone with three distinct parts. Only the Calanche of Piana (the correct name should be the plural I think - Calanches of Piana) actually lies in the Gulf of Porto. The Gulf of Girolata is a bay of its own and the Scandola Reserve borders that bay as well.

I visited the site from Ajaccio with 1 of the 2 large companies (Cap Nava, Decouvertes Naturelles) that offer day tours there. My tour costed 59 EUR and we were out for 10 hours on a large ship with some 70 passengers. From Ajaccio it takes 2.5 hours to get to the core zone. If you’re not relying on public transport to get around Corsica as I did, you could start your trip from one of the smaller towns north (Porto, even Girolata). Tours with smaller boats …

Nice is a French city with 340,000 inhabitants. Tourism on the Riviera was born here, they say. And they want UNESCO recognition for that. I was there for 3 nights during a quiet September weekend. The tourist crowds had either returned home and back to work, or opted out because of the "Code Red" imposed by the French government on this region. However, urban life continued as usual and the anti-Covid measures were being followed in a half-hearted way. Obviously one cannot smoke and wear a face mask at the same time!

The city owes much of its monumental architecture to the arrival of wealthy foreigners who came to enjoy its pleasant climate. Many English and Russian aristocrats stayed here from the end of the 18th century on. Their villas can be found scattered around the current city. I started my exploration on foot in Rue Verdi, where there is some fine Art Deco and mosaics on the façades can be seen. Closeby lies the Museum of Fine Arts, located in the former Villa Kotchoubey. This orange palace is currently being renovated and has been closed to the public all summer.

I then walked down …

Monaco was my penultimate country to visit in Europe (only Moldova is left now). This tiny city-state has no WHS but it does have a transboundary candidate: the Mediterranean Alps . Monaco has been heading this proposal, allowing its partners Italy and France to have another go in the same year. In 2019, the 3 countries withdrew their nomination after a negative advice by IUCN. The idea is still alive though, it has a dedicated website and news reports suggest that they are aiming for the WHC of 2021.

When I zoomed into what this site entails for Monaco, it transpired that the Principality only participates in 1 of the 8 locations that comprise this TWHS. Furthermore, its contribution is only marine and that marine zone starts way off Monaco’s coast, kilometers far into the territorial waters. Probably because otherwise the anchored yachts of a Saudi prince or Roman Abramovich would have been affected or Prince Albert’s land reclamation efforts disturbed? To consider this a Monégasque nomination is a farce in my opinion.

To get a feel anyway for location 6 of this TWHS, the territorial waters between Cap Ferrat and Canyon della Roya, I …

In August I spent 11 days travelling across Iceland, mostly driving a rental car around the Ring Road. I covered all 3 WHS, 3 TWHS and some places of interest in between on this itinerary . Similar to Namibia or Mongolia, man has stayed on the fringes of this country and nature is intimidatingly prevalent. Find below my top tips for travelling to Iceland as a World Heritage Traveller.

Puffin at Ingolfshofdi

1. Take advantage of all its natural attractions being free to enter

Iceland may have the stigma of being an expensive destination, but the good thing is that all its natural attractions are free. This includes not only the ever-present pretty landscape surrounding you, but also top class sights such as Thingvellir Park, Vatnajökull, the geyser fields, Gulfoss, Lake Myvatn. To be able to enjoy all this without paying is a major drawing card of Iceland. The sites all look well-kept but have few amenities and no visible ranger presence as in the US for example.

2. Don’t expect to meet many Icelanders

In a normal (non-Covid) year, tourists outnumber the locals 6:1. Hotels, restaurants, tours - especially outside of Reykjavik - therefore are often staffed by young …

Iceland isn’t a country to visit for its rich cultural heritage. It has Thingvellir as a cultural WHS, but that’s a cultural landscape with mostly intangible features. The capital Reykjavik has some modernist constructions of interest (the Hallgrímskirkja, several art museums and sculptures), but the rest of the country was quite poor and isolated until the beginning of the 20th century. A reminder of those times lies in the Turf House Tradition , a series of 14 locations on the Tentative List.

Most of those 14 properties lie close to the Ring Road. During my first attempt I was confronted with a closed gate at Keldur after driving 4 km on an unpaved road, so I decided to be more picky with the others as not all are welcoming tourists.

The first satisfying one lies 15 kilometers east of Skaftafell: the turf church Hofskirkja. It is the village church of the hamlet of Hof. This turf-roofed church, which is still in use, was built at the end of the 19th century. It is set in the middle of a contemporary cemetery, which is perhaps even more interesting than the church itself. Each grave lies beneath …

When you look at my ‘Missing’ map , you can see that I have visited nearly all European WHS except for those tiny islands scattered here and there at the fringes. Last year was a true debacle in that regard, missing out on both St. Kilda and Skellig Michael in the same summer due to unfavourable weather conditions. The same risk applies to Surtsey , though it lies not so far out as St. Kilda. Also, unlike the other two, Surtsey is not served by scheduled boat tours and the once available flightseeing tours have been discontinued. So I did not dare to hope to reach it during my trip around Iceland.

Fortunately, those intrepid Norwegians Randi and Svein visited 2 weeks before me and proved that it would be possible. Just cross your fingers for calm weather and bring a stash of money (in Iceland this means: have a creditcard with a high enough limit). The go-to guys for a private charter are SACA . When I saw that the weather forecast for the weekend was sunny and calm, I contacted them by email on Wednesday. On Friday evening, when the detailed weather maps for …

Thingvellir is probably Iceland’s most popular tourist attraction (well, the geysers may just beat it), but surely the core of the country’s national identity. Its meaning has already been well explained by previous reviewers: it comprises the remains of the place where the Althing, the Icelandic ‘parliament’, met yearly to make judicial and administrative decisions. I’ll focus a bit more on the practical details for visiting as I was surprised by some.

I arrived by car from the north (road 36) and was immediately confused where to park. There are signs, there are numbered parking lots , but the pros and cons of those were unclear. I ended up in parking lot P2 which is at the northern end of the park. It is a paid parking, it costs 750 ISK per full day (4,60 EUR). You pay with a credit card at a machine after typing in your car registration plate number. P1 and P5 are also paid, but lot P3 is free however located a few hundred meters further away. P4 is for handicapped only.