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Toledo was the World Heritage site I was most looking forward to before I left for my trip through central Spain in May 2019. And I was not disappointed. Toledo is an intriguing city. Three religions have left their mark in the old town. Christians, Muslims and Jews lived here together more or less peacefully for centuries, until 1492. A Gothic cathedral, numerous other Christian churches, a former mosque and two former synagogues can be found close to each other. The city's architectural ensemble has remained almost unchanged over the last five centuries.

I started my visit at the Mirardor del Valle, south of the city on the opposite bank of the Tagus River. From there, you have a magnificent view of the rocky plateau on which Toledo is located and the meander of the Tagus River. And you can imagine the labyrinth of alleys in which you will inevitably get lost later. It is easy to get to by car and you can also stop at other viewpoints, but the Mirardor del Valle is the best view. On foot, it is a short hike uphill, but definitely worth the effort.The main access to the old town is via the Puente de Alcantara or alternatively through the Puerta Bisagra. This was the case in the Middle Ages and is still the case for most tourists today. The train station is close by and there are also large car parks. No matter which route you choose, it is …

I visited in April 2021 to El Pinacate. The Shuck Toak Visitors Center has a lot of good information about the area and it's history. I was the only one there that morning and they started a documentary in English in the theater for me. They informed me the reason the entrance to the loop road to El Pinacate was closed was that a property owner in the area was creating problems. They didn't explain what the problems were but that I wouldn't have been allowed anyway because I was traveling by motorcycle. With that development I chose to hike out to the dunes, the largest in North America. They have you sign a form when you go out and then again when you leave to make sure you made it out. I saw one other person out at the dunes and she was really impressed by them. I hope to have another chance someday to go out to the craters. 

When you hunt for WHS there are sites you pick up along the road, but that you didn't really plan for. Keoladeo and nearby Fatipur Sikri to a lesser extent were such sites for me.

The principal town of the area, Agra, featured high on my travel bucked list for India: As every other tourist to India, I wanted to see the Taj Mahal. With this fix point set it followed that I should also visit the sites of the area, including a national park renown for birds.

Now, I am not much of a birder, rather the opposite. And India tends to be highly settled with very little original nature left. In this case even more so, as the wetland that forms the national park is an artificial creation by the English to attract birds for... hunting. So what to make of this national park?

The hunting is over, but the birds still stop here during their migration to and from the Himalayas. And plenty of birds there were. All trees were lined with them. Add to this that the national park was covered in fog, so my visit had a mystic quality to it. Personally, I enjoyed Keoladeo more than the Taj. But dont' listen to me.

As a final, sad note, I have to state that the park is in danger. The water feeding the wetland is scarce and it may dry up. In addition, on my walk I found several protected areas …

On the eastern shores of the Lusterfjord in Western Norway lies Urnes Stave Church. It's a wooden church and there are plenty of those inscribed on the list. But stave churches in general and Urnes in particular are distinctly Norwegian and clearly a world apart from the many flavors of wooden churches you find in e.g. Eastern Europe.

Urnes itself isn't a large church. It's a small church that can host maybe 20 (?) people, mostly the family of the local noble as it was a private church belong to the noble's estate. I would assume the local population could join occasionally. But that wouldn't have swelled the ranks significantly. The area was never densely settled (and it isn't to this day). The rough climate and terrain greatly limited the space available for agriculture and with it the population the region could support. Side note: There is a reason the Viking went for raids so much.

Urnes claim to fame is that it's the oldest original surviving stave church in Norway. And that it features original Viking wood carvings combining Viking and Christian mythology. 

In addition, its location is stunning. The fjord, the mountains, ... It feels as if the whole landscape was composed to create a truly unique site.

Norway has more stave churches on offer. Near Oslo there is one shown in the folk museum. Probably, the most internationally known one is Heddal, which I visited with Randi and Svein. You pass it when …

Given the rather remote location of Guadalupe, one might expect that only a few people visit the monastery. But quite the contrary, it is extremely popular. The monastery is associated with two significant historic events: the Reconquista and the Spanish conquest of the Americas. The Catholic monarchs Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon received Christopher Columbus here several times before he set out on his journey. Later, it became a tradition that conquistadors prayed to Our Lady of Guadelupe for support for their raids. And thus, the Black Madonna became the symbol of the Christianisation of Latin America and is a popular pilgrimage destination for Spaniards and all Christians from Spanish-speaking countries until today.

Without a doubt, the Royal Monastery of Guadalupe is on the World Heritage List mainly for its historical significance rather than its architecture. Having said that, the fortress-like façade is impressive and the cloister is a fine example of the Moorish influences on the Gothic style.But it was not the architecture that I remember most about Guadalupe. It was rather the fact that almost all the points that could annoy me on such a visit occurred here.

Annoying point 1: a boring drive to the siteGuadalupe is in the middle of nowhere in the east of Extremadura, a one and a half hour drive from Mérida. Usually not a problem but the route runs through a particularly boring landscape. Parking was no problem, I had arrived early enough.

Annoying point 2: …

Salamanca is certainly the most elegant and glamorous of all the historic city centres on the Spanish World Heritage List. This is mainly due to its harmonious townscape. Almost all the historic buildings are made of the golden-yellow sandstone from the nearby village of Villamyor. And the Plateresque style of many buildings also contributes to the extravagant look of the city. Plateresque means the elaborate and detailed ornamentation that is applied to the façades, mostly to decorate the main portal. Salamanca is a hotspot of this late Gothic/early Renaissance style, you will find it everywhere in the historic centre. The façades of the University and the Catedral Nueva are two of the best examples.

The most important historic buildings are located along an axis between the Roman Bridge and the Plaza Mayor. I had accommodation south of the city centre, just outside the core zone, so I entered the old town via the Roman Bridge. From there you have a nice first view of Salamanca and the two cathedrals (photo), the Catedral Nueva and the Catedral Vieja. But rather than two separate buildings, the new and larger cathedral was attached to the old one and the two structures merged into one. Both are worth visiting. Construction of the New Cathedral began in the 16th century and was completed in the 18th century. And thus, the interior is a mixture of styles from that period: Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque. But I enjoyed the medieval atmosphere of the old …

Almost 300 years ago a group of German Protestant missionaries in North America were granted land in the wooded Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, west of New York City and north of Philadelphia; on Christmas Eve of 1741, these missionaries founded the Moravian community of Bethlehem. For approximately the next century, Bethlehem was a town run by the Moravian church, operating on principles espousing communal living, hard work, and missionary outreach to local Lenape native American groups (a relationship referenced in the novels of 19th century author James Fenimore Cooper).

There is currently an effort to create a transnational World Heritage Site highlighting Moravian church settlements, with Moravian Bethlehem being added as an extension to the already inscribed Moravian settlement of Christiansfeld, in Denmark. Since I didn't know much about the Moravian church in North America, I took a road trip to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania at the beginning of May this year in order to learn more about the Tentative World Heritage Site. There is a visitor center in downtown Bethlehem that regularly runs historical tours on weekends. Because the tour on the weekend I visited was only covering Moravian Bethlehem's colonial industrial quarter, the visitor center helped me arrange for a personal tour with a guide to learn more about the history of the Moravians in Bethlehem.

The tour started off in the Goundie House adjacent to the visitor center, which offered an eye- opening introduction to the role the Moravian church played in 18th and 19th century Bethlehem. …

A cool September breeze riffled the branches of the fringing trees as I swam out into Lake Héviz. It was definitely better to be in the water than out on the manicured grass. 38 metres below the centre of the lake hot thermal water gushed forth from a fissure, meaning that the lake was roughly the temperature of a municipal swimming pool. And much like a swimming pool, I was not alone. Around me people swam, floated or just splashed in the shallows. And to my right, patients in white towelling robes sat out on the decking of the spire-roofed spa that projected out into the lake on piles like a British seaside pier. However no municipal pool I’ve ever visited has required me to periodically untangle my feet from water lilies or strings of algae.

It sometimes feels that there is a European UNESCO World Heritage ‘starter pack’: baroque palace, vineyard landscape, gothic cathedral, beech forest, Roman ditch. Plus, coming soon, spa resort. Hungary’s Balaton Uplands Cultural Landscape tentative site manages to tick off a number of these in one go. Baroque palace? Yep, that’s the Festetics Palace in Keszthely. Vineyard landscape? Yep, plenty of references to viticulture shaping the landscape. Spa resort? Yes, two bookend the site, Héviz to the west and Balatonfüred to the east.

Lake Balaton is hard to miss on any map of Europe. At 77km (48 miles) long it is the largest European lake outside outside of Scandinavia. It stetches southwest to …

When you travel through Andalusia, you inevitably drive through olive groves. Actually, you do it all the time. The area around Jaen is called 'El mar de olivos' not without reason. But it's hard to say which of these countless olive trees would be included in a nomination and why. The monotonous olive landscape in Andalusia is more reminiscent of the mass product that fills the shelves of our supermarkets than of a cultural heritage of outstanding value. But the same could be said about vineyards, of course.The T-list entry from 2017 includes a list of 15 areas, but without detailed information and without coordinates. Recently (April 2021) the nomination has been specified. A submission is planned to the WHC in 2023. The proposal was reduced to ten main locations and several sublocations, and Jasam was able to find an official document with maps and coordinates (see this Forum post).

I was happy to see that I had visited one part of the nomination on my Andalusia trip in 2016, the Hacienda La Laguna. At that time there were only news on the web about a planned candidature, but no T-list entry and no details. I had chosen the Hacienda for a visit because it is only ten kilometres from Baeza and because it houses the Museo de la Cultura de Olive. The draft nomination document reads that Hacienda La Laguna represents the period of industrialisation in the first half of the 19th century, …

Hallo everybody,

My name is Maurice, I'am switzerland from Zurich but my parents are Italian from Bergamo area.

So a couple of years ago we decided to visit some different towns of Italy, the one who knocked me among all was surely Bologna.

And I don't want to mean the wide middle-aged City center with the Two Towers or the oldest and well - known all around the world University but especially the huge, amazing and fascinating net of Porticoes who embraces all the utban agglomerate.

 But to catch the feeling, the real feeling, you have to walk under them in a rainy or very hot day and it will like to be confortly sit in your sitting-room but not alone and able to live and perfectly understand the real behaviour of people who lives here!

In fact like the modern videogames Porticoes are INTERACTIVE but they are all TRUES...Here people get the joy to live and to do something together and Porticoes, are the glue that make it possible...

 They are also very different each others: If you ralenty your path and look around the arches you can discover lots of little thing you can't imagine to find here: hidden Madonna altars for an old wow received, old graffity with Insignia and prices of ancient whorehouses and also a window that, If you open it, you can discover a Water Channel that passes between houses as a little Venice! 

It's difficult to …

One advantage of the over-representation of some categories on the World Heritage list is that comparisons can be drawn between the sites. From this point of view, it was instructive to visit the last Gothic cathedral in Spain, Segovia, and shortly afterwards the oldest one, the Catedral de Cristo Salvador in Ávila. A development is clearly visible. The exterior of the austere Cristo Salvador cannot compete with the flamboyant Cathedral of Segovia. The Avila Cathedral looks almost like a fortress. Its eastern part is even an integral part of the city wall. But I liked the vestiges of the Romanesque style, especially in the interior. The red and white stone in the ambulatory and the beautifully decorated choir are the special features of the interior.

However, the Walls of Ávila are the main attraction of this WHS, not the Cathedral. The wall encloses the entire old town: 2500 metres long, 88 massive towers, 9 gates, and almost 1000 years old. The old town still appears impregnable today. The walk on the city wall was definitely the highlight of my visit to Ávila. Unfortunately, you cannot walk around the whole old town up there, that would be great. Only a little more than the half is accessible.From the city wall, you can also see one drawback of Ávila: There are many modern buildings in the old town, too many in my opinion. While the area around the cathedral and the Plaza del Mercado Chico has largely retained its medieval flair, …

Sardinia boasts arguably the best beaches in Europe as well as countless prehistoric and protohistoric archaeological sites. This TWHS is only about necropoles though, not less than 35 in the description (out of more than 10,000 on Sardinia), and most of them situated in the northwest of the island. As I have not been to that part of the island yet, I have only seen two of the tentative sites: Li Muri near Arzachena and the mysterious Tomba del Labirinto. Both are unique and worth the visit, and the latter could definitely use a protection concept.

Li Muri is situated in the northeast, not far from the famous Costa Smeralda, in a geographic cluster with other interesting megalithic/nuraghic sites. It consists of a series of four concentric funerary circles with vertically placed stones, a central sepulchral compartment and menhirs in the outer circle. It forms part of the Arzachena Archaeological Park along with other interesting sites but the distances between them are a bit too long to walk (and walking along the road certainly is not enjoyable). From the closest to the farthest from Li Muri, the other sites of the archaeological park are: Li Lolghi and Coddu Vecchiu (giants' tombs), La Prisgiona (nuraghe) and Albucciu (protonuraghe). All are worth to visit when in the area.

Tomba del Labirinto (also known as Luzzanas rock tomb) was an adventure to visit more than a decade ago (and probably still is today). At 40°26'11.98"N 9°7'30.87"E, it is situated in the …

While I try to cover all tentative sites in China excluding autonomous regions (i.e. Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia plus a couple more) you still come across something that is hard to reach. But in the end Tiankeng, or Heavenly Pit, isn't that far off the beaten track as you might think. The main issue with that is the outdated maps available. Google map has absolutely no towns nearby, Baidu map isn't very good in that area of China, and forget even trying to use an alternative. Your base of operations would be Enshi in the far west of Hunan. Whereas Heavenly Pit is located in the Chongqing province, the area around there is so mountainous that getting there from Chongqing is going to take forever. The place is nestled right in-between two larger road systems and there is no train to get you near enough. So, Enshi it is, easy enough to get there by high-speed train or plane, and a huge hub for many things to do like the Grand Canyon, Stoneforest, a Tusi Imperial City unrelated to the WHS. The northern area of the high-speed train station has developed a lot lately it seems, because new buildings are popping up here and there, many hotels unlisted on the map and places to eat all over, one doesn't even have to visit the "old" part of town much further south past the airport unless you want to see the Tusi place within. So I approached a tourist place and …

Once you have completed the loop of World Heritage cities around Madrid, the question arises which of these sites was the most impressive. My answer is Toledo and Segovia. Admittedly, this is not a groundbreaking new insight, most travellers would choose these two. But it is well justified. Segovia has everything you expect from a historic old town on the World Heritage List: outstanding monuments, a beautiful location, and a lively atmosphere.

The main landmark of Segovia is the Aqueduct, or rather its visible part, the Aqueduct Bridge. Above the Plaza Azoguejo, the aqueduct has a height of almost 30 metres. Impressive that it has survived 2000 years almost undamaged. It was in operation until 1974, certainly one reason why it has been so well preserved. Out of town, the visible part ends after about 700 metres at the small Casa del Agua, a purification basin of the aqueduct.At Plaza Azoguejo, the water reached the old town. After climbing the steps to the Postigo Del Consuelo, you can enjoy a beautiful view of the construction. Up there the aqueduct disappears underground. You can follow the course of the water through the old town with the help of bronze plaques inserted in the pavement. Alternatively, you can turn left and enter the old town via Calle Real, passing the Casa de los Picos with its faҫcade made of diamond-shaped stones and the pretty Romanesque Iglesia de San Martin. No matter which route you choose, sooner or later you will …

In June 2018, after visiting Villa Adriana and Villa Gregoriana and enjoying pasta on a terrace in the centre of Tivoli, I now had to explore the gardens of Villa D'Este to complete the hat trick. So I walked from the centre of the small town to the Renaissance palace. The frescoed walls and ceilings in the palace are pretty, but don't stand out from the crowd, especially in Italy. It is nevertheless pleasant to walk through the rooms of the building. However, the highlight is the garden. Large trees and well-trimmed hedges overhang and surround hundreds of fountains.

Although the Fontana dell'Organo was not in operation at the time of my visit, I enjoyed admiring the other works of art. After all, that's what these fountains are! The Fontana Di Tivoli (or dell'Ovato), the Fontana di Nettuno and the Viale delle Cento Fontane are the most beautiful in my opinion. They are original, make clever use of water and are full of sculptures and small details. The others, in the four corners of the garden, are not to be overlooked, however, and are well worth a look. The use of vegetation enhances many of these, although the plants could do with more flowers. The Fontana della Rometta, in the southern corner of the garden, also has an interesting layout. The many paths that criss-cross the site offer several fine views, not only of the garden but also of the valley below. On another note, as noted by Els …

After surveying the remains of Villa Adriana on a Monday morning in 2018, I took the bus to the centre of Tivoli. From there I walked to the entrance of Villa Gregoriana. This park, built in the 19th century on the orders of Pope Gregory XVI, solved the problems of the frequent overflowing of the river Aniene and the resulting floods. The Pope's order was prompted by a major flood in 1826. Fortunately, however, the architect commissioned for this task killed two birds with one stone, designing not only a civil engineering structure, but also an exceptional garden inspired by the Romantic movement.

The visit begins with a winding descent to the bottom of the valley, along its high cliffs. The first point of interest is the view of the Mount Catillo tunnel through which the Pope had the river channelled and diverted. The water meets the Great Waterfall and falls dramatically by 130m as soon as it leaves the tunnel. This is not the most beautiful waterfall in the park, but it is probably the most impressive. A viewing platform at the base provides a nice vantage point. Still, the trail is punctuated by many other waterfalls in a beautiful setting with lush vegetation. The Siren's and Neptune's Grottas are also notable, as is the Miollis Tunnel. A few minor ruins can be found throughout the park. Finally, as the first half of the trail descends into the valley, it is necessary to finish the hike by walking …

I visited the three villas in Tivoli on a Monday in June 2018. The planning for this day was done the day before with the help of my hostel receptionist. I had been encouraged by other backpackers to visit Tivoli, but had been told that it was not humanly possible to visit all three villas in one day. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is possible and even easy to tour all three sites in one day. I determined the logistics of transportation and validated that all three locations were open despite the fact that it was a Monday, and I was off and running!

I took the COTRAL bus to Tivoli from the Ponte Mammolo station in Rome. It is necessary to buy the ticket from a ticket machine before boarding, but this is the most confusing system I have encountered on my European journey. The machine, rather than simply asking for the destination, asks questions about zones and distances, which left me very confused. So I bought a ticket at random and hopped on the bus as it was leaving the station. Luckily, it worked! It is possible to get off the bus very close to Villa Adriana, before reaching Tivoli itself.

Villa Adriana is a Roman archaeological site of remarkable magnitude. A small museum at the reception desk gives an idea of its gigantic size with a model of the site at its peak. The first striking building on the visit is the …

This is quite interesting serial nomination of 35 pre-historic, pre-Nuraghic sites of Sardinia. Nevertheless, I was thinking intensively how to evaluate it in comparison to other archeological sites in Europe. The killing feature is enormous number of sites and rather scientific description/justification provided by the state party of Italy: They are praising unique combination of hypogeism and megalithism typical for these structures dating to 5th-3rd Millennium BC. Well, maybe yes... However, I like and support megalithic TWHS sites like Carnac in Bretagne, Ceide Fildes and future-TWHSs around Sligo in Ireland. Thus, why not Domus de Janas of Sardinia? This is the reason I change my initial thumb-down to -up for this TWHS, but we will see...

I visited Sardinia in September/October 2017, and I enjoyed my stay very much. From the point of view of UNESCO material, Sardinia is a poor sister of Italian mainland. Besides already inscribed Nuraghe (only one site in this WHS, what about extended by other hundreds of Nuraghic sites...???), I can see a potential only in natural coastal reserves (La Maddalena Archipelago) and these pre-Nuraghic sites that are obviously much older than Nuraghes...

I visited only one site from this nomination: the component No.33 Pranu Mutteddu near Goni village, and it happened by coincidence, I would say. During my Sardinia vacations we explored almost all Eastern cost of the island.

Thus, we passed by the component No.31 "Corbeddu Cave in Oliena" without visiting the site. We could see the mountain range, where …

Just visited (April, 2021) or to be specific revisited after several other visits in the past. This time I solely focused my stay on the modernistic aspect of central part of Gdynia. As briefly described in the introduction Gdynia as town has relatively short history that implies its current layout. For many years it was not more than a small fishing village on the shores of Gdańsk Bay (Zatoka Gdańska) but when Poland finally retook its independence in 1918 and after granted limited access to the sea (Baltic) in 1920, Gdynia become a central point of construction process (harbor, infrastructure, the city itself). Hence the results of these building works you can still admire today.

Gdynia center is today protected by establishing so called Monument of History (Pomnik Historii) covering the majority of historical areas. Also many individual buildings are protected in the register of historical monuments. I assume that limits of the tentative site are the same as borders of the Monument of History. It covers the area of 91 ha to the south of Gdynia Harbour. Contains around 450 different buildings. It has regular layout based on 3 different axis: north-south – Świętojańska St (mostly commercial and residential houses) and 2 west-east: series of streets: 10 Lutego St., Kościuszki Sq and Jana Pawła II Ave. and second Starowiejska (the oldest street in Gdynia). See the details on the map.

To find out the best of Gdynia modernistic achievements you can use several routes from https://en.modernizmgdyni.pl/ …

I visited the Amani forest reserve in januari 2019. I traveled by bus from the coastal town of Tanga and changed in Muheza. There is a daladala (local small bus) up to Amani around 13.00h. The daladala does not depart from the main road but a bit further. A motorbike taxi brought me to the daladala. I thought I was lucky to have caught the daladala just on time but luggage and goods kept being stocked into the daladala. It was not until 15.00h before we started moving. There was a discussion and two women were left behind, looking very upset. I just hoped the discussion was not about me for occupying their seat.

The road up was very bumpy and it seemed quite miraculous how the full daladala was able to make it's way up so steadily. Going up, the oppressive heat started to give way to a fresh coolness and a beautiful green forest.

Up in Amani, I stayed in the Amani Rest House, next to the Conservation Centre. I had contacted them before (details are on reviews on Tripadvisor). The wooden resthouse is pleasant and clean enough, just the room was not used for a long time and the bathtub was full of leaves. The one time entrance fee to the forest was USD 10 and the half board stay was around USD 20, the food was basic but plentiful and tasty. Guides could be hired for USD 15 a day but I did not …