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Independence Hall is arguably one of the most famous landmarks in the United States. And yet, it took us over 15 years after moving to Philadelphia to finally visit. Now, it is one of our favorite buildings in the city.

The building was never meant to start a revolution. It was actually built as the Pennsylvania State House in 1753, long before the capital of Pennsylvania was to be moved to Harrisburg. Instead, the Founding Fathers, a ragtag group of thinkers, elites, and farmers created something quite new: the birth of modern democracy.

Here, in the Assembly Room, is where everything happened: the Declaration of Independence from England as well as the establishment of the Constitution of the United States. Along the way, concepts like the peaceful transition of power, separation of powers, checks and balances on power, and even the concept of limited government were created.

While it took us 15 years to finally visit, we now come several times a year, usually bringing friends or family when they come into town. Independence Hall anchors the historic core of Philadelphia’s Old City – a collection of pre-Revolution buildings, streets, and alleys that shaped the birth of the young nation. While this is a large metropolitan area, this historic area makes a perfect one-day itinerary for the city…starting off at the building that made us famous.

Timed tickets, while free, are required to manage the crowds most of the year. Limited numbers of day-of and walk-up …

Kilimanjaro is a fascinating mountain/volcano and also a highly interesting nature park. 

I climbed this mountain in 7 days with two good friends. The first day we spotted monkeys in the beautiful rain forest. We climbed up in the next rainy days. The 5th day before the summit finally the clouds were gone and we saw the majestic summit covered in snow. 

In the night we departed from the highest camp (4600mtr.) and we climbed in the snow until the sun started to rise. Amazing views of sunset and the summit (5895mtr).

A long way down to the last camp at 3100 mtr. The final half day was a pleasant walk to the exit of this beautiful national park.

We combined this climb with a safari trough serengeti and ngorongoro national park. Spectacular trip!!

"I wanted to leave a surprise for future visitors." was Hubert's laconic reply, when I mentioned that he had left out a key and hard to miss detail from his otherwise great review of Tokaj. His so called surprise hit me at nightfall, when sitting outside and drinking Tokaj wine became unbearable. The whole area was swarming with insects and I was quickly turning into an open bar for bloodsuckers. Yikes.

I figured this was a night thing. Next morning, though, on my hike in the vineyards, the insects took another bite. Apparently, I am also a well respected breakfast option. Anyhow, now you are warned. Bring insect repellant as if this was in the tropics.

The core zone encompasses the old town of Tokaj. It's nice with wine estates here and there, but certainly it's not a St. Emilion, let alone Epernay or Val d'Orcia. The town is on the south east corner of the inscribed area. I am not sure how much better it gets if you venture further into the area; I could imagine that the less touristy/rural components are nicer. Best site for me were actually at the end of my hike: the small houses directly facing the train station (photo).

While I understand Hubert's 0.5 Stars rating, I decided to give this 0.5 Stars more. Not because I think it's great, but in comparison to the run of the mill Italian vineyard Prosecco or Piedmont inscription, this at least showcases a bit …

Egypt's TWHS needs updating; however, I can say that Dakhla Oasis, one of the five "Southern and Smaller Oases, the Western Desert" will retain its position as candidate for World Heritage Listing in whatever nomenclature or serial nomination form.

It's currently categorised as a natural site, yet it's easily a Cultural Landscape, either Relic or Continuing, depending on the finalised range of buffer and core zone components. The fortified Islamic town of Al Qasr (the iconic Nasr el-Din mosque photo enclosed) is no longer fully inhabited as of December 2020; yet with careful eye, one can detect how this old town, its past residents and the surrounding landscape had interacted within that certain period of time.

Likewise, the farming, irrigation and settlement patterns in Dakhla Oasis continue to evolve.

I know people who are into horses. Frankly, I am not one of those, that is unless served as a plate of pìcula 'd caval in Piacenza; simply delicious. Still, watching the horses playing on the paddocks around Kladruby was a nice experience. The whole area around the estate has been devoted and transformed to breeding horses and I simply could not stop taking pictures from all angles of the horses.

Historically, the estate was owned by a nobleman before being taken over by the Habsburg king when the noble ran into money problems (see Clyde for details). The Habsburgs bred two sorts of horses in Kladruby. White ones for earthly processions. Black ones for the church. To this day the estate is operated and has kept its original shape. Personally, I started to wonder about the practice of boxing horses, i.e. keeping them in rather small cages. Apparently, there are equestrians who feel it's a good option. To me, naively it felt wrong.

While I would rate my visit and the experience rather high, there are a few concerns I have with the OUV of the inscription.

1. You take away the horses and this goes really quickly down 1 star. As such, it's on the border (or past the border) of being an intangible cultural heritage.
2. This is a royal estate raising horses for royal and church rituals. It's not really representative of the general business of breeding work horses or war horses in …

Visited Versailles last week (Summer 2021), and I got the sense that due to COVID crowds were relatively sparse. A mistake on my part led to the happy accident of having the park almost to myself, at least for a few sublime minutes, so I thought I'd share:

I arrived on foot in the morning, having taken the train from Paris to the Versailles-Rive Droit station. (Rive Gauche, which is closer, was closed due to work on the RER.) I thought I'd just intuit my way to the palace, yet somehow I ended up missing the front gates altogether. (Yes, this seems weird to me, too.) I found myself entering through the Grille de la Reine, then backtracking up the Av. de Trianon. Lucky me! I discovered an entrance to the park there -- just on the west side of the Bassin de Neptune -- where a guard scanned my ticket and let me in. Still feeling completely lost -- I still hadn't even caught sight of the palace -- I wandered up through the Bosquet des Trois Fontaines and finally arrived at the gardens behind the palace itself.

There, overlooking the gardens, fountains, and the Grand Canal, I had the completely surreal sense that I was the only person present within the entire palace complex -- It was a wild feeling! Eventually I made my way up to the palace, where a gardener directed me to the front entrance (and the queue to enter.) Only then did …

The single-track road to Cwm Ystradllyn wound further into the contours of the Welsh hills, the cottages and farmhouses becoming fewer and further apart with every bend. It was as if the terrain itself was muffling the intrusion of the modern world. A low rusted gate hung apologetically by a wooded dell through which a stream tinkled; it squeaked as I pushed it open. Cast-off shards of loose slate, as grey as a pigeon’s back, clinked sonorously beneath my feet as I climbed to slope. And there, at the top, surveying the wild moors, stood a towering structure. Four strong walls, three storeys high, punctured by rows of romanesque arched windows, only its roof missing. Nesting birds twittered from the gables and nodding glacier-blue harebells blanketed its foundations. The entire spectacle resembled a medieval Cistercian abbey. But what abbey would have a millrace cut into its floor for a towering but long-gone waterwheel? And what abbey would have a curving embankment, the remnants of a vanished rail line, climbing up to the second story? Abandoned and isolated on the moors, the ruin of the Ynysypandy Mill told its own story about the 19th century boom and bust that momentarily transformed the rugged and sparsely-inhabited mountains of northwestern Wales into the world’s main source for a very in-demand material: slate.

The UK has a rich and varied history. You might not realise that from looking at its UNESCO properties. By my reckoning The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales is now …

With Roșia Montană scheduled for the 2020/2021 WHC, I had made it a fixture in my travel plans for Romania. Figuring out which bus connection to take wasn't easy, but eventually I found one that would work. Plan was to arrive at 18:00h by bus from Alba Iulia, hike to my B&B, drop the luggage, get some food and finally some rest.

And then the rain came. It was at 17:30h when the road between Abrud and Campeni was closed due to flooding. It took two hours to repair the road and when I got off the bus, it was 20:00h. I still had 5km of hiking to get to town, my stomach was empty, and, how could I forget, the road leading to Roșia Montană was also flooded. To add insult to injury, I had sprained my ankle in the morning in Sighisoara; Romanian roads and sidewalks are full of potholes. A strenuous hike with luggage up a flooded road at nightfall was just what the doctor ordered.

In addition, google maps in Romania provides some rather unconventional directions. With nightfall 30min away, I was stuck in the hills of Roșia Montană looking for a trail that just wasn't there.

Side note 1: Follow the car road if hiking.

Side note 2: The "car" road may still be more a trail than a road.

Side note 3: Really consider if you want to do Romania with your own car.

Stanislaw …

I was in Frederiksoord just two weeks ago. It's certainly not very spectacular to see, but I found the story behind it very interesting. I may be a bit biased because it's part of my own country's history. I do hope that being a WHC will create a broader awareness for this part of our history. 

A new visitor centre opened here in 2019. It had to close just a few months later and just reopened now. It tells the story in a modern, audiovisual way. After that, while taking a walk, or better the tramride, through Frederiksoord/ Wilhelminaoord you really get a good feeling for the story. A volunteer on the tram, born here in the final days of the colony, talked about growing up here and told stories about her grant parents etc.

The visitor centre explains all in English, as do many signs in front of a number of buildings. On the tram, the story was told in Dutch, but there were no international visitors (mainly due to the covid situation, I guess). Perhaps, if visitor numbers and tramrides increase, this can/will be done in English as well. 

Dubrovnik really is a or even the pearl of the Adria. It was my first time in Croatia and during a small Europe trip we drove down the Croatian coast from the north and it felt like Dubrovnik is the cultural escalation of the Croatian coast. Already on the way to Dubrovnik every stony bay with the cliffs and the green- blue water and small towns with red roods and a white church tower gets more and more beautiful. But Dubrovnik really is the peak of the beauty.

The street way takes quite long if you start like us in Poveč in Istria in the morning. It took about 8 hours of pure driving to reach Dubrovnik. The 15 minute drive through Bosnia and Herzegovina is unproblematic. It's only a short check of the ID at both sides of the border.

Reaching Dubrovik one already gets excited by the huge, modern bridge that one crosses to reach the city. We stayed overnight on Solitudo camping ground in Babi Kuk on a península from where you can jump into the Sea within 10 minutes at the beach but also reach the oldtown of Dubrovnik within a 15 minute bus ride fot 15 Kuna (2 €).

First we went on the city walls once around the old town. This offers fantastic photo opportunities of the Sea of red roofs below one but also of the Island of Lokrum and the fortifications of the city. It took us 2,5 hours …

The last time that I had Italy 'complete' (i.e., I had visited all of its then 57 WHS), it lasted for only 2 weeks. But after my recent visit to Bologna I now have full coverage for at least 10 more months (unfortunately I don’t ‘have’ Italy’s 2022 nomination Civita di Bagniregio already). Bologna's Porticoes got inscribed last July, a slight surprise after Deferral advice. On the ground, I found no official plaques yet, nor the Italian equivalent of jubilant “Wir sind Welterbe” banners.

My first impression of the city wasn’t that great: its streets are a bit grubby, with walls covered in graffiti. The porticoes allow for little daylight on a cloudy day. Fortunately, the core zone was extended in the final nomination proposal, so the most important monuments of the city that lie anywhere near a portico are now also included.

A remarkable one is the San Petronio Basilica – a church that was planned to become bigger than St. Peter's in the Vatican. That didn't quite work out, but it still is one of the largest churches in the world (just beating the Cologne Cathedral for example). Its façade also stayed unfinished. The entrance is guarded by armed soldiers – terrorists have already planned to blow up this church twice due to it having a 15th-century fresco depicting Mohammed in hell, tormented by devils.

The church interior didn’t do much for me. In the side street next to it I found a much more …

Just recently visited, during trip throughout Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, July, 2021. Strange place. Or maybe better ordinary place, that's better expression. 

While preparing the journey, I found the location (google coordinates) and try to locate that on the map. It was the middle of nowhere, just the fields outside Moldovian town of Balti. Than I tried to find something about the place but found not much. Just few Moldovan university sites that describe agriculture of the area (experimental field with special nutritions / fertalizers). Since the initial idea of Moldovian authorities was to inscribe the site on mixed criteria I decided to go on my own and check the site personally expecting at least some excelent landscape if not great human achievements.

Driving from Balti I put exact coordinates from our website and after some kilometers of driving through Moldovian crops (sunflowers, corn) I found that proposed area does not differ much from the surrounding countryside. Just hectars of fields with the same flora, well, frankly speaking I did not see great difference between those fields and numerous places in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria or even in other areas of Moldova. Just normal fields. And landscape is really nothing special.

As far as I know chernozem soils are available not only in Moldova but also in Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, other countries in Asia so while regarding uniqueness of these kind of soil it is not only Moldovian feature. I have no idea what are the specific …

You are the first I dare to tell a secret to: I prefer Madrid to Barcelona! Therefore, I gave relatively very high rating to this Prado/Buen Retiro "double" site.

I visited Madrid two times for a weekend trip (in 2004 and 2011), and I take Madrid, together with Berlin, as an epitome of modern European capital. Well, the historical core with Plaza Mayor is quite nice but nothing special. However, Madrid I like starts at Puerta del Sol: then follow Calle de Alcala or (via a short detour) Gran Via, both flanked by monumental buildings, and you enter the core zone of this WHS, which has been already described by others, and I guess that almost everybody has heard already about Prado museum. Somebody can have an objection that only some museums with a boring park have been inscribed. I would oppose that I appreciated the qualities of this site even without an urge to enter any building. From the museums, I visited only Reina Sofia during my first visit, and it, of course, does not contribute to the OUV. I would oppose even the suggestion of ICOMOS to cut this site into two pieces: the avenue and the park. It does not make a sense to me, and I like the site as it has been inscribed.

All in all, this is not an absolute world-class, but it has its place on the list and I can understand its OUV.

(PHOTO - Atocha railway station)

On a small Europe trip with the family of my girlfriend we have visitet the small village of Hallstatt in the big Hallstatt- Dachstein WHS region. Even though we were around with a big Mercedes Sprinter we were able ti drive across the village along the beautiful lake to a big parking space.

It seemed as if due to Corona restrictions the town was much emtier and therefore more appreciateble than before the pandemic. At least it was not too full to walk on the touristic harbour walking way. The lake, the mountains and the houses in the village form a beautiful combination. We walked up to the ecumenical graveyard (The protestants can not bury their bodies next to their church as it's on lake surface level therefore swampy) and visited the bonehouse for a small entrance fee in which some people from Hallstatt found there final place after dying. The skulls and bones are up to 300 years old and partly dyed with colours and symbols.

Hallstatt is really a beautiful spot and it's beauty also lies in the calm atmosphere in beautiful nature. I could imagine in post Covid 19 times with all the intercontinental tourists it can loose parts of its beauty while visiting, however it is worth a visit.

Directly after I read the positive ICOMOS evaluation for adding the Cordouan Lighthouse to the World Heritage List, I booked a flight to Bordeaux and a spot on a boat tour that would take me there. So this is how I arrived at my 760th visited WHS only a week after its inscription. It was a shoo-in, an exemplary site, especially from a management perspective. It boasts a large core zone which includes the waters surrounding the lighthouse. The buffer zone extends to the coastal areas, so no wind farms will appear here spoiling the view.

A visit involves some practical considerations, especially when travelling on public transport. Clyde already described most of it well, though I only read his review carefully when I was already on a train to the site (so I worried about wet socks for a while). I had chosen a tour departing from Verdon-sur-Mer, which is linked by direct train from Bordeaux. The trains leave every 2 hours, the 9.29 one connected nicely with the 1 pm departure of my boat trip. From the tiny Verdon station, it takes a half an hour's walk to Port Medoc, where the boats from Vedettes La Bohème depart. I walked alongside the main road on the way up there (following Google Maps), but there is also a coastal boardwalk for hikers and cyclists which I took on the way back.

Port Medoc is a small marina with a couple of restaurants and other amenities. The Cordouan …

I like to focus on the practicalities of reaching this rather remote WHS by public transport. It is not too difficult. Buses go from either Dodoma or Arusha, and they leave early in the morning in either direction for a couple of dollars. Shabiby is by far the best. Dodoma is about an hour closer than Arusha to the Kondoa rock art sites. The visitor center is actually in Kolo, right on the main road, and this is the place where you have to get off the bus, register and pay your fees. About USD 13 for the guide who accompanies you, and we also paid about USD 21 for 3 motorbikes bringing us on a rough road to the foot of the hill where the caves are located. We chose the B group consisting of 3 caves, about 90 minutes walk uphill and down again. I was told that normally it is possible to rent a car from the visitors centre, but that it was in repair during our visit. There is also an entrance fee. The main headache was to catch an onwards transportation from Kolo as most long distance buses have passed already in the afternoon, and we had to wait almost an hour, but then found a smaller local bus all the way to Arusha. 
Babati would be an option to sleep in case there are no more buses, but this is highly unlikely. We reached Arusha before sunset after about 7 hours on the bus …

We stayed for two nights on a campground in Celena Laguna about 10 kms away from Poreč. A small street train brought us close to the old town into the harbour. In the afternoon when the sun is hot there's not much going on in the old town. Only tens of restaurants try to convince one to sit on the many empty seats.

Many houses look not well maintained and close to a breakdown however it is a nice atmosphere with the Mediterranean Sea around the city. In the cathedral there are some information signs about its history that name the rooms one can visit and most interesting some mosaics from up to 1700 years in the past. The bell tower gives a nice view over the city and warns when the bell goes what did not prevent us from standing there and holding our ears closed so that they would not fall off. The cathedral itself we were able to visit later in the evening as it was used for a mass when we wanted to go in. It is a nice looking cathedral without any remarkable highlights.

In the evening it was then super hard to find a spot in a restaurant as suddenly the city was full of people and we ended up in a very crappy place at the end of the restaurant area.

All in all Poreč has some history to offer however it does not leave one behind breathless.

The words "amazing" are easily spread around but a trip into the Xinjiang Yardang deserts is extremely satisfying and an adventure you shouldn't miss. I have only visited the Hami basin at Dahaidao, although I did take lots of pictures from the plane when flying to Kanas and the desert landscapes on the way have many yardangs too, I can't exactly count it as having visited.

Some preparations are required:

1. Have/rent a car. 4x4 is preferred or at least high clearance. I don't usually drive in China but this was an exception and actually it was very easy. I just hate driving in Chinese cities. If you need to rent a driver then you can find it in Hami but they won't come cheap. If you just stick to the road then any car will do.
2. Sunny day. The Yardangs look drab when you don't have sun shining on them. I would say stay 2 days in Hami in case the first day is cloudy. Hami has other things to do like the a Karez Wells (not the best example but it IS on the tentative list, but having seen it I would recommend checking out the Turpan ones instead) and the Hami snow melon park. If nothing to do you can always stuff yourself with snow melon, grapes, raisins, peaches etc because this is fruit heaven (yes, even though it's in the desert thanks to Tianshan water supplies via the wells). If you don't care …

As an extended lunch break from Prague, I visited the wastewater treatment plant in Bubeneč. The plant lies on the banks of the Vitava (Moldau) and is situated at the lowest point in Prague. Seeing that sewage needs to flow, building a wastewater treatment plan here was the sensible thing to. So sensible indeed that the modern wastewater treatment plant built in communist times is situated just across the river.

Thankfully the communists didn't tear down or redo the old plant, so Bubeneč has retained much of its original setup. The steam engines are still operational and are turned on occasionally. However, it's not longer connected to the sewerage, so you don't have to worry about smells. At the time, when all of Prague's sewage passed through, it must have smelt terribly.

The facilities are nice to explore. They offer tours, most in Czech, but you can ask questions in English. In addition, they pass out a guide. Small tip: Just read the guide before you go on the visit and put it away. You will be busy with your camera anyhow... The site is very photogenic emanating a quirky 30s, Metropolis charm. And it's quite interesting to see how a treatment plant operated.

OUV

The Czechs are very good at finding niche topics that have OUV appeal; Kladubrny . Wastewater treatment, sewerage, and safe water were key developments to make cities safe and extend human lifespans to where they are now. It's telling that we …

Kenozero National Park was the second tentative site we visited on our weekend stint via night train (for logistic details, have a look at my Lake Onega Petroglyphs review). As an alternative, one can travel to Nyandoma, a regional centre on a train line to Arkhangelsk. From there a transport has to be arranged to Kargopol and one of the local tourist hubs in the National Park - Morschikinskaya on Lake Lyokshmozero, which forms the southern sector of the national park, or to Pershlakta, which is the main entrance point to the northern sector.

The Kenozero park is a lovely place where not only Russian, but foreign tourists as well enjoy spending their holiday. It specializes in ecotourism: you stay either in homestay, rented wooden house or pitch a tent. The main problem is to get there, but once you get to the hubs and manage to find information centre, there are maps available, informing about accommodation, tours, tourist trails and everything else. There is not only splendid nature all around, but the area also contains many wooden houses and churches, which add to the picturesqueness of it all. Some info is available in English, but if you travel by yourself, you might encounter slight communication issues.

We drove from Kargopol, local centre that has exactly one decent hotel and it gets full in season rather fast, so book ahead. I would also recommend stocking up in any food store you can find. We haven't seen any restaurants …