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Maybe I am too bold to claim the ticking off the pile dwelling sites.

Last week (in October 2021), I visited Ljubljana and I went by the Slovenian components in the Marshland nearby Ljubljana. There is nothing special to see at the site, and I was too shy to force my colleagues to explore it more in detail. However, I visited the City Museum of Ljubljana in the city center, which is located in the buffer zone of the Plečnik´s WHS. There is one room dedicated to the pile dwellings and related archeological findings around Ljubljana and the focal piece of the room as well as the entire museum is "Wheel of global significance" (PHOTO), which is mentioned also in the nomination text.

Here is the text written on the banner:

"Wheel of global significance:

The wooden wheel with an axle, as many as 5,200 years old, is a special treasure of the world´s cultural heritage, both because of its age and its technological perfection. The wheel, possibly a part of a two-wheeled cart, is composed of two ash wood plates joined with four oak wood pins. Tha axle is made from one piece of oak wood, its rectangular ends fitting into the wheel hub. The selection of wood, the accommodation made for wood expansion and shrinking as well as the manner of fixing and joining suggested that the wheel was made by an expert who was knowledgeable about wood varieties.

The wheel with the …

Romanian people are nice!

That is the first thing I would like to say, even after the several predicaments I encountered trying to get in and get out of Rosia Montana without my own transportation.  

But before I talk about Rosia Montana...

This was my 6th trip to Romania, but it happened while I'm living in its southern neighbor Bulgaria during my 2nd 3 month stay.

At this point I'm eager to finish the UK and France to finish up Europe, but due to Covid and other annoyances I couldn't make it to those countries. So I reluctantly decided to just tick off the 2 (and only 2) WHSs in Europe newly inscribed in 2021 in order to keep my European record clean (except islands and Spain and Portugal, for which I have a special plan). After spending 4 nights in Belgium mainly to visit just one new WHS (and 5 TWHSs) I flew to Timisoara, Romania.

Getting in:

1.

From Timisoara I took a bus to Alba Iulia. That Thursday the bus I was waiting for at the Alba Iulia Autogara was the second to the last one to Gura Rosiei (5 km west of Rosie Montana), or so I thought. According to www.autogari.ro, it was supposed to leave at 16:00, and I saw the bus coming from the Autogara cafe at 15:45. But by the time I went out to the platform at 15:50, the bus had left! WT....??? When I …

I visited this tWHS in Spring 2021 as a pleasant stopover between Van and Ani WHS. Its beautiful surroundings at the foothills of Mount Ararat and with lovely wild flowers everywhere in full bloom made it a worthwhile stop in such a remote part of Turkey, near Doğubeyazıt, close to the border with Iran and Armenia.

The palace's tall and ornate exterior facade already hints at the palace's "interior" beauty. Well, "interior" as in covered with a huge glass and metal roof since most of the palace's roof was lost due to an earthquake. The Ishak Pasha Palace construction was started by Kurdish chiefs from the Besyan tribe of Beyazıd Sanjak and it was completed in 1784 by the Kurdish sanjak chief Ishak Pasha. The Ishak Pasha Palace is one of the few examples of surviving historical palaces on the silk route and as such has potential OUV to become a WHS. Although it represents the Ottoman tradition, in actual fact it is rather a mixture of Anatolian, Iranian, Armenian and North Mesopotamian architectural tradition. The traditional model used in the construction of the royal palaces in the capital cities like Bursa, Edirne and Istanbul was taken as an example in the design of the Ishak Pasha Palace. Moreover, the Western influence in Ottoman architecture during the post-Classical period can also be observed. Apart from the palace, it is also possible to visit Urartian rock tombs discovered in 1830.

Although most of the different sections of the palace …

Meanders of the Upper Daugava -site (or to be more precise, area) visited in August, 2021.

The area contains nine meanders of Daugava river (natural site) with all historical monuments located in the countryside. In fact, while natural part of the place is pretty nice, cultural elements mostly consist of traditional villages. Official nomination equals the area to Upper Middle Rhine valley or Wachau but it is completely different. There are no outstanding castles in Upper Daugava, traces of early human activities are not abundant and the villages are mostly built of wood instead of stone architecture in both compared landscapes.

I stayed in Daugavpils (where you can see former TWHS – Daugavpils fortress). Few kilometers from Daugavpils towards Kraslava there is a road sigh towards Butiški (at Naujene village). Using this road you already encounter Daugavas Loki Park (area of protected landscape – a kind of National Park designed for preserving Upper Daugava area). From Naujene there are around 4 km to the first point of interest in the area – ruins of former Livonian’s castle of Daugavpils (Dinaburg) - Dinaburgas pilsdrupas (55°54'40.6"N 26°43'36.2"E). Frankly speaking not much is left from the castle but there is a nice marked one-way circle path in the place. It starts from the official car parking and is called Dinaburgas Taka – brown signs, embracing local river valley, castle ruins - Vecpils pilkalns or Vecpils Mound - and good view of Daugava river. There is also a picknick / camping place …

I visited this tentative WHS in Spring 2021. The Akdamar Church of the Holy Cross is situated on Akdamar Island in Lake Van in Eastern Anatolia, reachable by frequent ferries that depart on average every 30 minutes, close to the town of Gevaş, between Tatvan and Van.

The small island is a favourite picnic or BBQ destination among locals and natural haven for birds (mostly gulls, owlets, and birds of prey), tortoises and rabbits, with a natural spring providing ample water. A few stairs just after disembarking the ferry boat lead to the 10th century Armenian Cathedral or Church of the Holy Cross which was the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Catholicosate of Aghtamar from 1116 to 1895. A steep limestone cliff rises 80 metres above the lake's level (1,912 metres above sea level) at the western end of the island. Although there is a fence half-way up the cliff, I noticed that the majority of the locals visiting the island, at some point or another, hiked uphill to enjoy the splendid panoramic viewpoint (photo). I followed some of them after noticing that there was an opening through the fence and the security guards nearby weren't against climbing to enjoy the view but were mostly making sure no drones were flown on the island even though there was no mention of this on a sign or on the entrance ticket.

The architecture of the church is based on a form that had been developed in Armenia several centuries …

On a summer quest through Romania, I visited Biertan, the most prominent of the villages with fortified churches. Biertan is a small, colorful village and the fortified church in the center overshadows everything. It's built on a rock and has multiple layers of walls. The massive defenses feel a bit out of place, but it just goes to show how contested the area was in the past. The church itself is rather barren.

Best parts of my visit was strolling around the village and getting to experience the Romanian country side.

Getting There

Being villages, these places are not trivial to get to. I think there is the occasional (daily) bus, but best option is to take a cab from the closest nearby main town (Sighisoara, Mediaș, Sebeș).

In my case, I took the morning train from Sighisoara to Medias and a cab from there to Biertan. I had agreed on a price with the cabbie up front and he waited for my return. Honestly, I think the fixed rate wasn't required, meter would have been just fine.

Train schedules were tricky (infrequent), so my visit was cut short (1h on site). It's not a huge place, but 30min more would have been nice. One word of advice: If you are short on time, get the train ticket before heading to the site. When I came back to the train station, there were long queues at the station ticket office and I nearly missed my …

I visited the three component sites in the span of around a month in late summer/early fall 2021. I had good experiences in all three sites and will recount those in this review with my walking and beverage recommendations. 

Wortel

We spent a beautiful late summer night camping in the Wortel Kolonie after visiting Gorinchem and Woudrichem (two fortress towns from the 2021 extension of Dutch Water Defense Lines). It's possible to reserve part of the small primitive campsite there managed by the Flemish agency Natuur en Bos. From the parking area we walked the 500 m to the campsite tucked away behind a forested lane (one finds it by walking straight then turning right 90 degrees, thereby appreciating the orthagonal layout so prized in the OUV). Natuur en Bos provides a fire pit and wood and in the morning we were treated with some beautiful light through the trees. After breaking camp and grabbing some pastries at a nearby bakery we returned to the main parking area to begin our walk around the colony. Unlike the other sites, little remains architecturally from the original settlement except for some of the large institutional buildings. The scenery is pleasant enough for walking, however, and our route weaved in and out of cultivated fields, areas that have been reforested, across the Dutch border and back and past the paupers' cemetary. There is a small visitors center above the cafe by the parking lot, but all the text there is in …

I arrived into Antwerp from Brussels on the train and was immediately in love with the station. Ascending from the underground through platforms on enormous escalators into the cavernous space above was like entering a cathedral devoted to the railways. I was able to stash my larger bags into the automated lockers, although most of these were already full by the time I got there at about 9:30 am so being early is probably required to guarantee one, before setting out to explore the city. Antwerp is full of grand buildings dating back to its golden age in the 16th Century as one of the premier ports of Europe in the early days of colonialism. I particularly like the Grote Markt square, which is not too far behind Brussel’s Grand Place in my estimation. Indeed, it seems to me the ‘Historic Centre of Antwerp’ would have easily been a World Heritage Site in its own right if nominated early on. However, the Belgians may well have left it too late as there are now so many (arguably too many) sites of that type in Europe that something spectacular would be needed to squeeze in and Antwerp, as marvellous as it is, might just fall short.

In any case, Antwerp already has a WHS in the form of the Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex. This is a disproportionately long name for what must be one of the smallest WHS, comprising just a single 16th Century building. Having walked around Antwerp all morning, …

First thing first, Wieliczka is a unique site well worth the visit. The artistry at display and how the miners transformed a mundane, industrial mine into architecture and art is astonishing. Having seen my fair share of mines hunting world heritage sites, I have not encountered anything like it. To me, discounting the darkness of Auschwitz, Wieliczka is the most unique site of Poland, a site truely eminating OUV.

With that in mind, I found myself with a spare day in Cracow. I was considering visiting yet another wooden church (which I love!). But then I figured by triangulation, that if Wieliczka is great and Bochnia is an extension of Wielizcka, then Bochnia, even if it's a lesser version of Wieliczka, should be pretty great, too. So instead of taking a bus to Dębno, I opted for a train ride to Bochnia.

First shock came when I reached the ticket booth: They only had a 3h tour and a 4h tour with an extra boat ride on offer. 3h in a mine... how?! why?! Spending long time underground is not really popular with me and it was messing with my schedule as I still had to get to Katowice the same day. Last but not least, the tours are fairly expensive (~ 15EUR).

Okay, I thought, 3h means that we go deep into the mine and explore some hidden parts. Alas, we did not. You mostly move along one long passage, probably the August Passage. Hubert already …

Our long summer holiday 2021 included a drive down to "the bottom" Italy, and amongst other sites we wanted to visit the three Karstic caves in Apulia, but we didn’t have any luck. 

Our first attempt was Grotta dei Cervi which is by the coast 10-12km south of Otranto. While trying to locate the site by the coordinates we drove back and forth a couple of times and finally ended up at a closed gate by the main road. We had visual of a small building which might be the cave entrance, but we’re not sure. After searching a bit on the internet we found out that this site is only open to authorized personnel and researchers only.

The second one was Grotta Romanelli and it is further down the coast another 10-15 km. We located the road sign (where there is almost impossible to halt) and the sign lower on the same pole said “non visitabile - pericola di caduta“ (danger of falling). Also this time information found on the internet told us the cave seems sealed off and unvisitable. It may be accessible from the sea, but we didn’t try that.

Discouraged we looked up information about the third cave, Grotta delle Veneri, which is about 40 km inland straight west.The internet says that this isn't accessible either, but it’s possible to peak in through some bars during a hike. A distant peak into one of the three caves doesn’t make us very happy so …

First things first, it's Q3 2021 and the tunnel is open again. With it the site is fully accessible for visitors. I had waited for more than a year to complete Poland again; Covid travel restrictions may have also played a role.

The tunnel links multiple mines and follows the flint stone layer upwards, giving you a good understanding of the spread and rather limited depth of flint stones. It's assumed that the flint stones formed as a ground layer of a lake, so the flint stone layer tilt upwards. Supposedly, the deeper layers are of better quality. Side note: Flint stone mining was a temporary activitiy. The soil of the area was too bad for permanent habitation.

While technically, you can tick the site by roaming around the premises or the other locations (many open pits remain and are visible), you would be missing out on the key feature of the site: The small painting of a woman giving birth (?!). I am not sold on the giving birth part, but it sure was nice to see down in the tunnel.

In comparison to Spiennes which gives you an idea of the narrowness of a flint stone mine, Krzemionki feels more explorable and gives you a better overview, especially in combination with the onsite museum, consisting of a multi media part and an outdoor museeum.

Getting There

I came by car with a friend, but had investigated public transport options as a fallback. The …

Yellowstone has survived for 150 years. Mineral exploitation, logging and poachers were the most serious threats between 1872 and 1916. In the 'The Act of Dedication' (1872), Yellowstone was "set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people". As of October 2021, Yellowstone has already received more than 4 million visitors. The threat to Yellowstone National Park today is primarily heavy visitor usage/footprint and Climate Change.

Best Practices

- all suggestions are meant as general advice when possible and appropriate to your trip planning and schedule

1) Book accommodations months in advance 

2) Stay inside the park (splurge or suffer later)

3) Visit only during weekdays

4) Minimum 2 nights, 3 days

5) Start early 6am to 8am

6) Rest during midday

7) Enjoy heavy visitation areas at dusk

8) Don't be the cause of traffic congestion (don't stop for wildlife unless they are crossing)

9) Buy a National Park Pass ($80) 

10) Be prepared (refillable water container, binoculars, high-zoom camera, etc)

Being an iconic 150 year old park will inevitably include plenty of Historic sites that should not be ignored.

"Yellowstone National Park’s National Historic Landmarks include the Old Faithful Inn, Obsidian Cliff, Fort Yellowstone, Lake Hotel, the Northeast Entrance Station, and the trailside museums at Norris Geyser Basin, Fishing Bridge, and Madison." - Yellowstone Quarterly

Yellowstone fully met and exceeded my expectations during my …

I visited this WHS in Spring 2021 after a very long drive from Ani WHS. Having visited I'd rate it as a worth visiting site as much as the Ichan Pasha Palace tWHS but it can be disappointing if you invest so much time to get there solely for the one inscribed building housing the Great Mosque and Hospital of Divrigi, and not as part of a longer road trip as we did. That said, we really were glad that the major restoration works on the four ornate portals had been completed, as these were the highlights we were after and the main reason why we were eager to visit notwithstanding the long drive.

Divrigi was an important city as one of the transition points between Central Anatolia and the Euphrates basin. Although Erzincan was the most important center of the Mengujek's, it is noteworthy that the largest monument built by them is the Divrigi Great Mosque and Hospital which towers south of the Divrigi Castle and the west foothill of the Igimbat Hill. The construction of the Great Mosque of Divrigi was initiated in 1228-1229 on the order of Ahmet Shah, grandson of Mengucek Bey Sahinsah who also built the Kale Castle, and son of Suleyman Shah. The head architect of the monument was Hurremsah of Ahlat. In the southern side of the Great Mosque, there's the hospital constructed adjacent to the mosque. It is difficult to distinguish them at first glance as two separate buildings as they …

Horse breeding on the World Heritage List? I am not into horses and equestrian sports, and when I see the Fiakers at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, I doubt that the horses have much fun drawing the tourists through the city. It would be healthier for both if people would walk. So I was not very excited when Kladruby nad Labem was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2019. But in October 2021 I set out to complete the Czech Republic again and combined this with a revisit to Prague.

I arrived in Kladruby around noon on a weekday. A castle tour had just started, but I decided to wait another two hours for the guided tour to the stables. After all, it's about horses and I have already seen enough interiors of castles.To fill the time, I hiked the circular trail as suggested by the lady at the information centre. She also gave me this map. The hike is about five kilometres long and leads along pastures, meadows, and irrigation canals and through the avenues that were built for training of the carriage horses. A dozen information boards explain the cultural landscape. Here I could also admire the grazing horses at leisure (upper photo). I was surprised that not all the horses were white, especially the foals were grey and almost black. Later I learned that the pure white colour only develops when the horses are grown up.The tours take about an hour and are only …

I did not especially enjoy my time in Toruń but that was not the city’s fault. Instead, it was our coach on a day trip from Warsaw that took a circuitous route through the countryside, turning a journey that should’ve taken under three hours into more than four through some unremarkable farmland and woodland with multiple crossings of the River Vistula our first clue something was amiss. Perhaps the driver knew of congestion we did not or just wanted to avoid highway tolls. This was annoying but I could not complain too much as the trip was provided free-of-charge as a ‘cultural outing’ as part of a conference I was attending in the capital. Regardless, we eventually arrived in the city with the outskirts being of typically brutalist concrete construction although one was brightened up by a large mural depicting Nicolaus Copernicus. After parking in a busy car park down by the river, we were led beneath the city’s defensive walls and past a leaning tower, both made of red brick rather than the marble of the more famous leaning tower in Pisa, then along attractive Medieval streets to the townhouse where the city’s most famous son was born in 1473. One of many impressive old brick Gothic structures in the city, it and the adjoining house are now a museum dedicated to Copernicus, even though most of his life's work was carried out further north in Warmia. There are various relics of his pioneering heliocentric work in astronomy as …

I visited Lilibeo, which is an archeological area in Marsala at the westmost edge of sicily. It is easier to reach than Mothia, as there is no ferry needed. Despite the title of this TWHS, Lilibeo is not an island. The site comes with a nice little museum, but doesn't seem to be too popular. The main claim to fame is the long history reaching back to phoenician and punic settlements, and the official description heavily points to these otherwise underrepresented civilizations. However, there are actual not many artifacts from punic times visible on site. There is a large area with various excavations, but most are from roman or medieval times. There are remains of the city wall, a roman road, remains of the roman city buildings, and various tombs from later periods. However, I couldn't point out anything that told me something about the phoenician/punic times, and I left the area without having learned anything about them. The museum exhibits are better in this regard, as there are remains of two punic ships on display, but these have not been found on this site.So what's the bottom line ? Overall, it was a nice visit. The museum was in a good shape and had some interesting finds. The archeological area seemed a bit disheveled, with bleached-out signs and other maintenance problems. Still, walking around ruins is always fine with me. However, in my opinion, the whole site falls strictly into the 'nice, but not WHS material' category. The phoenician/punic …

We spent two short days in Minorca in October 2021 to check out the upcoming nomination to the list for next year. Presently there are 25 locations enlisted, but the selection of sites is likely to be and should be reduced.

The first 4-6 visits were nice, they added something different, but then it was too much of the same. Some of the sites are neglected and need to be maintained. It seems that the best sites were those with an admission. So which one will survive? Here is our bet after visiting 18 sites. 

The best sites overall:

Talati de Dalt: 4€ admission, well organized. Has a bit of everything. Special to the site is a taula which is a little bit different from the others and there are covered enclosures

Torralba d’en Salort: 4€ admission, well organized. Has a bit of everything with a great taula and a hypostyle chamber.

Torre d’en Galmes: 3€ admission , Mondays free, well organized. The largest complex and the best-preserved settlement. It is particularly noted for its cercles or post-taylotic houses.

Naveta sites. We visited two. 

Naveta des Tudons: €2 admission, a well preserved naveta, considered as the most iconic landmark.

We also visited Rafael Ruby which has two burial navetas. Not very organized right now, but it seems to be stepping up with several new information panels and maybe a ticket booth. It was closed, but we sneaked in. Here you …

So far as archaeological sites in the Balkans go, Butrint is an absolute highlight. I visited Butrint while staying in the popular resort town of Sarandë for 2 weeks, in 2019. Trip from Sarandë is very easy. There is a direct bus connection with Butrint. As there were no 'real' bus stops, we had to stop the bus on the middle of the public road. The route is very scenic. I would recommend stopping at the nice town of Ksamil on the way back, just to lie down on the most well-known and popular 'beach' of Albania. I must say, beaches are not Albania's strongsuit. Butrint is a very nice collection of Greek, Roman, Venetian and Ottoman archaeological sites. Tip: make sure to visit the castle on top on the hill, as you get a very nice view from there. You could spend at least a couple of hours just wandering around. 

I visited 8 out of the 11 components that make up this tWHS in Spring 2021 (except the 3 components in Sivas) and most were really enjoyable places and stopovers. Together with the Seljuk Caravanserais tWHS, we really felt we covered a great deal of smaller places en route between East and West Turkey which we would have passed by unaware otherwise. So even if they never make it on the list, I'm still very glad we made the extra effort to visit almost all sites, and whenever I revisit Turkey to cover more tWHS, I'll surely try to visit Sivas too.

The two components in Konya (also a separate tWHS), Ince Minareli Madrasah and Karatay Madrasah, are quite a walk away from the old city centre proper, yet are worthwhile visiting. There are quite a lot of madrasahs (or medersas, meaning Islamic schools) on the list already but these Seljuk ones in Turkey are still a worthy addition and have architectural elements from Persian and Central Asian ones. The Ince Minareli Madrasah now houses the Museum of Stone and Wood Art. Some of its architectural highlights that emerge in Seljuk Anatolia are the calligraphic portal that serves as the entrance to the complex (reminiscent of one of the portals of the Divrigi WHS), its covered dome at the center of the courtyard, and the highly ornate brick minaret attached to the complex. A visit inside is worthwhile if only for the individual architectural fragments and reliefs of elephants, …

Sighișoara is a small Medieval fortified city, home to an array of churches, townhouses, and defensive works. The Clock Tower is the iconic structure of the city, guarding the main entrance to the citadel. There are a further eight towers that guard the walls of the citadel, each named after the guild of Saxon craftsmen that paid for its construction: Butchers, Bootmakers, Furriers, Ironsmiths, Ropemakers, Tailors, Tanners, and Tinsmiths. Biserica din Deal, the Church on the Hill, is the largest of the churches and its hilltop location offers a great view over the rest of the city with its Medieval core and surrounding suburbs along the banks of the River Târnava Mare. There is a wonderful wooden covered staircase that links the church and adjoining old schoolhouse with the citadel below. The core zone is restricted to the citadel and its immediate surroundings although there are a few good sights beyond, including a 20th Century Byzantine-inspired Orthodox church on the north bank of the river. Beyond the city, the countryside of Mureș, Brașov, and Sibiu counties contains some delightful villages and natural landscapes, including another World Heritage Site in the fortified churches of Biertan, Viscri, and so on.

However, the site that seems to attract the most tourist attention is one yellow house in particular that claims to have been home to Vlad II and Vlad III, father and son who ruled over Wallachia in the 15th Century. Caught between the two great powers of the Kingdom of Hungary …