From looking at the positive reviews from some of my most trusted commentators on this site, I already knew that this was going to be a little more interesting than it first sounded. What I found certainly reinforced the reviews below and I found this to be a real gem of a WHS.

The site comprises of the radio station building and the long field of antennas stretching for 2km westwards. I actually got a good view of these towers the day before as I drove on the main road south, and from the fortress in Varberg proper, they looked pretty impressive and mixed in well with the rather beautiful wind turbines that lined all of the E6 that I drove on.

The presentation at the site was impeccable; the new visitors centre was a rather beautiful modernist cube, with lots of information and World Heritage themed goodies. The guided tour was pitched really well, it was thankfully was not exceedingly long. This meant that it did not get bogged down in the functioning of the machinery, which is important and interesting to some, but as a casual tourist I was glad it was kept to the basics.

One thing that really impressed me was how the importance of the machines was highlighted. Standing in front of a contraption that sent the signal out to the masts, the tour guide explained how this mechanism was run almost non-stop in the early years of the radio station. It pumped out Morse code messages almost continuously and the sum total of this data over a year was roughly 2MB (approximately the same as an e-mail with a photo attachment). This really helped me understand the importance of this site; it is the best surviving example from the dawn of international wireless communication, something which has a massive effect billions of people's everyday lives.

After the tour I had a wander around the site by myself taking some photos, before heading back to the visitors centre. I sat down with a delicious Världsarvsbakelse (World Heritage pastry!!) to watch a short documentary explaining the history of the site in the broader context of Swedish emigration to the USA and more general trends in global communications.

This is a pretty unique WHS and exceptionally well presented and its proximity to the charming town of Varberg make it a little gem of a World Heritage Site.

[Site 7: Experience 8]