An early finish to my Camino gave me a day spare to venture north to A Coruña and visit the windiest WHS so far.
The lighthouse is quite impressive and …
United Kingdom \ Member since December 2005
I discovered the World Heritage list whilst studying in the Czech city of Olomouc in 2003, and since then I have spent a fair bit of my time visiting the sites and boring people with information about them. World Heritage Sites provide a great way to hunt out the best bits of countries and can give you a look at some great parts of a destination that you would otherwise not see. A few of my favourite sites have been the ones that I have made a special effort to get to see because of their place on the list; Sceilg Mhichíl, Guanajuato and Preah Vihear
I mostly take short trips around Europe, making the most of budget airlines special offers, seeing some of the continent's great cities, visiting friends and dragging them to some pretty obscure places.
I try to travel outside Europe at least once a year and hope to tick off a few of the places on my wish list when money, politics and time enable this.
It's not about the shark!:
Whilst the World Heritage Sites themselves are the focus of my travels, they are more a means to an end, the real joy of travelling comes from interacting with people, waiting for trains at hitherto unknown corners of the world then eating and drinking the tasty (and not so tasty) delights on offer.
My most impressive site: Angkor
My proposal for a new site: Major Buildings of the Chicago School of Architecture
Check out my website: https://letterboxd.com/meltwaterfalls/
Tower of Hercules (Inscribed)
An early finish to my Camino gave me a day spare to venture north to A Coruña and visit the windiest WHS so far.
The lighthouse is quite impressive and …
Santiago de Compostela (Inscribed)
Santiago almost defeated me. It rained heavily and consistently for the 3 days I was there, the times of masses seemed to never correlate with the information I was given, …
Asturian Monuments (Inscribed)
At the start of my trip around northern Spain I based myself in Oviedo, to enable me to see a bit of Asturian countryside and also the bulk of the …
Roman Walls of Lugo (Inscribed)
I had a lovely morning strolling along the circuit of walls watching banks of fog roll in and then burn off in the early autumn sun. Like, Els I also …
Amsterdam Canal Ring (Inscribed)
Amsterdam is a truly worthy addition to the World Heritage List, and it hopefully will start to bring some balance to the pretty esoteric sites that the Netherlands has so …
Studley Royal Park (Inscribed)
This was a great place to spend a leisurely afternoon and was one of the more impressive WHS I have visited in England. The planned gardens were particularly impressive especially …
Darwin's Landscape Laboratory (Removed from tentat…)
This is an interesting place to visit and one that is incredibly linked to one of the most influential thinkers of the modern period. However I am not sure if …
Astronomical Observatories of… (On tentative list)
After a little bit of scouting I discovered that one of these Observatories was located in a leafy part of central Kiev, so decided to head there for a bit …
Kyiv Cathedral and Lavra (Inscribed)
This was my first real experience of an eastern orthodox cathedral and the interior of St Sophia’s cathedral certainly didn’t disappoint. I wasn’t quite expecting to see such a beautiful …
Nesvizh (Inscribed)
This was the second WHS we visited on our day trip from Minsk. It was certainly more impressive than Mir, the castle was complemented by a large park and lake …
Francysk Scaryna avenue in Mi… (Removed from tentat…)
For some reason I really liked Minsk. It isn't rammed full of must see sites and isn't really the prettiest place in the world, however I enjoyed the three days …
Mir Castle (Inscribed)
Quite how this ended up on the World Heritage list I’m not sure. Whilst it is a fairly pleasant place, it seems to be pretty unremarkable. When we visited there …
Warsaw (Inscribed)
I was really impressed by Warsaw. I had heard some pretty mediocre reports about the city from others that had visited, however I really enjoyed the two days I spent …
Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings (Inscribed)
I will be very surprised if these buildings do not make it onto the World Heritage List as they are exceptional testaments to one of the most important architects of …
Trakai Historical National Pa… (On tentative list)
It is a shame that this site will probably not make it onto the list as it was perhaps my favourite site in Eastern Lithuania. The main point of interest …
Kernavė (Inscribed)
I spent a pretty bleak morning at Kernave in February 2010. The site itself was fairly interesting and larger than I thought it would be. The main point of interest …
Struve Geodetic Arc (Inscribed)
At some stage this interest in World Heritage Sites turned from an awareness of major tourist sites into a full blown obsession. This was perhaps best illustrated by the fact …
Vilnius (Inscribed)
A big thumbs up from me for Vilnius. Whilst the main sights are nice they are not astounding however the city has a great atmosphere and wandering aimlessly around the …
Amiens Cathedral (Inscribed)
I was very impressed with this cathedral. It had been a few years since I visited a huge French gothic cathedral and therefore I wasn’t suffering from the fatigue that …
Fortifications of Vauban (Inscribed)
I had already visited several Vauban fortifications; however at the start of 2010 I finally visited one of the fortifications that is inscribed on the list.
Arras
From Lille I …