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Where does all the snow on the mountains come from? You might think so when driving along the Autostrada A12 between Pisa and La Spezia in summer and looking up at the slopes of the Apuan Alps. Indeed, the quarries of Carrara look like a glacier from a distance. I visited the marble quarries in early November 2017 as a stopover on my Tuscany trip. It was a worthwhile detour to see where the raw material for Michelangelo's David came from, which I had previously visited at the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence.Marble is quarried in three valleys located above Carrara: Torano, Fantiscritti, and Colonnata. The quarries in the middle valley, Fantiscritti, are the most accessible. Leave the motorway at Carrara and follow the signposts for 'Cave di Marmo', drive through Carrara, then uphill through the small village of Miseglia. About two kilometres further on you have reached your destination: the Fantiscritti parking lot. There is also a bus connection from Carrara.

On the way to the quarries, you pass the Ponti di Vara. It is worth stopping here for the first close look at the quarries. The two bridges were part of the Ferrovia Marmifera, which was used to transport the marble blocks through the valley and to the port. Nowadays, the marble is transported by trucks and the former railway line is an asphalted road.In Fantiscritti you can choose between two tour operators: Carrara Marble Tour (to an open-pit quarry) and Marmo Tours (an underground gallery). Or you …

I was staying in the hills near Benevento in August 2020 and it was rather hot to go for hikes, and I found out that Saepinium was not very far. For some reason, the title used for the tentative site reminded me of Murakami's book 'A wild sheep chase'. Alas, in Saepinium, the sheep turned out to be about as elusive as in the book.

The region feels rather remote and deserted and it came as a surprise to see the parking almost full. It seemed there just had been an event, I would expect the place more or less deserted in general. Saepinium is a small Roman town with few remains, most interesting I found the two gates and a grave monument just outside the walls. There is a forum, a basilica and a theatre but all are small and not too impressive. The site itself is free of charge but I paid €3 for the museum, which was not worth the fee and it's three tiny rooms took only a few minutes.

A faded explanation mentioned that a long distance walking trail is planned along the old shepherd tracks but I found no signs indicating the existence of the trail.

The description on the Unesco site states 'The whole set of public works realized during the roman age in this city were connected to the shepherd activities.'  This may be true, but there was nothing in Saepinium to confirm this. While Saepinium made for …

The literal translation of El Escorial is "the slag heap". But this is actually the name of the neighbouring village and also a pretty good description of the barren landscape around it. Not exactly the typical setting for a royal palace. Opinions about its architecture are divided, and were already so when King Philipp II had the palace built in the 16th century. Austere and sober for some, imposing and majestic for others. And I didn't really know what to think of this building either when I stood in front of the façade.El Escorial is much more than just a palace, it is a combination of monastery, palace, college, library and royal crypt. So no surprise that it's huge, it is considered the largest Renaissance building in the world.

I visited El Escorial in May 2019. I bought a ticket and booked a time slot online beforehand. But when I arrived on a weekday afternoon there were far fewer visitors than I expected, the day tours from Madrid had apparently already left. You can visit the palace-monastery complex with an audio guide. I skipped the Royal Appartments, these rooms look more or less the same in all European palaces. Instead, I focused on the highlights: the Basilica, the Library, the Cloister and the Royal Pantheon. My highlight was the 50-metre-long wall painting in the Hall of Battles.Photography is not allowed inside, but there were few staff, only in the library and the Pantheon of the Kings was it really …

Early July 2020, I stayed in a Piedmonte countryside apartment near Turin for a week and visited all the buildings included in the inscription.

At the tourist office in Turin, I bought the 'Royal Card Torino' which costs €35 and is valid for 7 days, a substantial saving on the regular entrance fees. In addition to the palaces in Turin and Piedmonte, it includes also access to the rooftop of the Superga Basilica and a tour of the Royal Tombs below the Basilica, which are an interesting addition to the palaces. The Royal apartments at Superga were closed.

With a bit of advance planning I could visit all the places within this week, though many had limited opening hours due to Covid-19 and most had to be reserved in advance, either via mail or online. 

At La Reggia di Venaria I was able to visit an open air modern dance performance which was moving, followed by a poetry reading in Italian. The next day I went to visit the apartments at La Venaria, followed by a visit to La Mandria which is at the back of La Venaria. However, it is quite a walk along the fence of La Venaria gardens towards La Mandria, in hindsight it would have been better to drive to the entrance of the estate on which La Mandria is located. Due to the long walk, I missed the reserved timeslot for the visit but this turned out to be no problem as …

I spent three days in Šibenik in June 2018, in between my jaunts to Zadar in Split. I took the opportunity to wander through the winding streets of the town, to swim in the crystal clear waters of the Adriatic Sea and to admire the waterfalls of Krka National Park. I really enjoyed this city with the Mediterranean charm of Split or Dubrovnik, but with less tourists and more authenticity. In addition to the attractions mentioned above, the town is home to a second WHS, the Tvrđava sv. Nikole, which is part of the Venetian works of defence.

Although the town is well worth a visit for its charm and historic centre, no single monument stands out in a big way. None at all? No! There is the cathedral! It's not very big, doesn't have an imposing spire, nor a monumental bell. However, its architecture is a real masterpiece. It is built entirely of stone, including the domes and roof vaults. This gives it a gloomy atmosphere when you walk in. The atmosphere is rather heavy and few rays of sunlight penetrate through the windows. It takes a while for the eye to become accustomed to the fine ornamentation carved into the stone blocks that make up the cathedral. But once you do, it is a feast for the eyes.

It is then essential to walk around the outside of the cathedral to appreciate the other sculptures that dot all the corners of the building. The frieze of …

My first visit to these prehistoric pile dwellings was Fiave and Molina di Ledro/Italy in 2011 (see my review below). And to say it right away, these are the best (or basically the only) sites to see original remains. Usually, all the remains are under water or in the bog, otherwise none of it would have survived for thousands of years. And often the sites are covered with geotextile and gravel to protect against erosion and mechanical damage. Thus you have to rely on the preserved finds in museums and on replicas of the dwellings and settlements to understand what this WHS is all about. However, the preservation conditions under oxygen exclusion are so good that organic material, food and textiles, has also been preserved. Therefore, a lot is known about the living conditions of these early agrarian communities.

Over the past ten years, I have visited several of the pile dwelling sites, mainly in the eastern part of the Alps. Here is my summary of what to expect from these sites.

My personal pile dwelling highlight was Olzreute-Enzisholz in Germany. In 2016, an archaeological excavation was carried out in Olzreute, which was also open to visitors. In Olzreute, the remains of the dwellings are half a metre deep in the peat bog, and visitors could watch the researchers uncovering the wooden floors and collapsed walls (photo). The work of the scientific laboratories was also demonstrated and explained on site: the determination of plant and bone remains, …

I visited this WHS in December 2020 over several days during my extended road trip in Oman and it turned out to be a real highlight of our trip which would certainly warrant a revisit to Southern Oman any time (perhaps apart from the wet Khareef season).

I visited all 4 components which make up this WHS on separate days. All 4 locations have UNESCO markers just next to their entrances. 

The first component I visited was that of Ubar after a long drive from the delisted Al Wusta Arabian Oryx Nature Reserve. I consciously decided to risk the one hour long unpaved road to the Archaeological Site of Ubar as I wanted to venture as far as possible into the Empty Quarter. The drive with a 2WD sedan car was bumpy but perfectly doable. Just make sure to have a spare tire and loads of water in your car just in case something goes wrong (you're likely to see camel skeletons along the way clearly showing what happens if you end up without water in the desert!). If you're visiting from Salalah instead of from Muscat or Duqm, there's a perfectly paved road now and it's just over an hour drive from Wadi Dawkah. On the way, just before arriving at the Ubar Archaeological Site, the green crop circles in the desert are worth a stopover. The lost city of Ubar was relatively recently discovered through high-tech satellite imagery. In total there are some 15 stone structures …

When I entered Cyprus in mid-December 2020 with intention to stay for 3 months, there was not much of lockdown. Museums and archaeological sites were open, and I was able to visit Choirokoitia and Paphos WHSs within my first 2 days in the country without any problems. Staying in the Paphos District for 3 months, I thought I would visit the Painted Churches in the Troodos Region WHS sometimes in January or February. I was not following the local news and just going about my own business. Then on January 10 I was told by my landlord that a strict lockdown was to commence on the next day. 

Suddenly, we had to stay inside our residences with allowance of only two 3-hour slots a day outside and were also not allowed to move from one District of the country to another. The Troodos Region was basically in the Nicosia District. The feeling that I might not even be able to visit the Troodos WHS before I leave Cyprus in mid-March persisted for a long time, until I was caught by a few police officers on street when I was wandering around at midnight despite the 9 pm curfew. The officers then let me go. I realized at that moment that after all the Cypriots in the southern half of the island were ethnically Greek and loose. 

So I decided to take it easy. As a non-resident of the country, I had a right to go to the airport …

I visited Lake Titicaca in April 2016, crossing from the Bolivian side into Peru one afternoon, then visiting the Uros Floating Islands the next morning before leaving. While the experience was admittedly brief, I can say that I was able to experience, and therefore compare, both sides of the lake (wrote a review on Bolivian side a while back, kinda cringe but y'all can check it to see my complete opinion anyway). While I agree that the Bolivian side, with the Islas del Sol y de la Luna, packed more of the authentic cultural-heritage-site punch, along with an overall more pristine environment, I can't really see the two sides as separate. Naturally, they form a single lake, one of the most pristine for its size, simply separated by arbitrary political boundaries. Furthermore, the short experience I enjoyed at Uros did make me realize on a deeper level how interconnected the people of the lake are with the lake and the natural blessings that abound in it, such as the tortora reeds that thrive in the shallow areas near Puno (among other areas of the lake, but these were the ones highlighted in my trip: you can see the boat paths in their midst in the attached picture); these reeds aren't just used to create the famous floating islands at Uros, but they are also the building blocks for the people's houses and boats, as well as a healthy hydrating staple food. While the islands are now very touristy, we can't …

I visited this tentative WHS in January 2021 as a day trip from Nizwa. The archaelogical remains of Bisya and Salut are some 30 km away from Bahla Fort which would make for an interesting stop if you were only to focus on the Salut Archaeological Park with a huge newly built museum.

The cultural landscape of Bisya and Salut is situated where Wadi Seyfam and Wadi Bahla converge, which provided the water necessary for irrigation and therefore enabled permanent human settlements. Several archeological remains have been found and most are still being excavated. The best examples are clustered in close proximity to Jabreen Castle, at the clearly marked Salut Archaeological Park. As is the case with similar archaeological sites in Oman, the Salut castle (bottom right photo) and residential buildings (bottom left photo), together with the newly built museum are now fenced off with a security guard on duty at all times. An Italian team was conducting excavations and restoration works at the time of my visit and it was not possible to enter inside the castle remains (here you can find an interesting read on their works). These remains are quite similar in size and layout to the Al Baleed or the Sumhuram Archaeological Remains in Salalah.

After exploring this area, I decided to go round the fenced perimiter by car on a manageable unpaved road till I reached the nearby rocky hill (Jabal Salut) with 2 Bronze Age cairns, towers or beehive tombs (top …

August 2020 - before biking from Copenhagen to Berlin we spent 3 days in and around the city. After visiting the Parforce hunting park we took the train at the north entrance further to Kronborg. We got kicked out of the train, as our ticket was not valid and the bikes not included. But luckily the next train came 20min later. In Kronborg we walked a bit around the castle, took an obligatory hamlet picture and visited the near food hall with around 20 street food stands. I had been on a sailing trip in the Kattegat in 1999, so had been here before. The revisit was very pleasant though

Corcovado currently is the only entry on the Tentative List of Costa Rica. There seem to be no plans to bring it forward (again), after the 2004 withdrawal caused by a negative IUCN advice. At the time it was dismissed with not much further explanation than “too small”, too small even for its mammals to survive in the near future. It could not match similar sites (Darien, Talamanca) that were already inscribed. Although I can see the point, I still found it the most worthwhile destination of my Costa Rica trip.

I based myself for 3 nights in Drake Bay, the most common access point on the Osa Peninsula. It is off the beaten tourist track, but not that remote. The area around Drake Bay itself is already really nice, I did a late afternoon birding tour there and hiked part of the Drake Bay Trail (a 20km long coastal path) on my own. I could have easily stayed one or two nights longer, tying in a trip to Isla del Cano for example.

For my Corcovado visit I booked a day tour to the Sirena station of the National Park at the cost of 85 USD. You may only visit the park accompanied by an official guide. At 6 a.m. two boats with some 25 tourists each set from the coast of Drake Bay, already a minor adventure in itself as the place has no jetty. So you have to wade from and to the boats. I …

On a day trip from Hiroshima, I visited the Iwami Ginzan silver mine. In the 18th century Iwami Ginzan was one of the largest silver mines of the world and a small town grew around it. The mine itself or the shrines for the miners aren't spectacular. The town (Omoricho), though, was nice with plenty of historic wooden houses some of which are open to visitors. In the area, you can manage everything on foot. However, to see the additional components related to the shipping of the silver, you will need some form of transport as these are on the coast.

Iwami Ginzan feels underwhelming compared to other silver mines, e.g. Goslar. Goslar has a huge mine plus many historic mining buildings including the Kaiserpfalz. Even if I compare it to a lesser silver mining site like the Erzgebirge, Iwami Ginzan is tiny. However, maybe that's the key bit here. Japan industrialized late in the 19th century and before that was a feudal, backward society.

Getting There

Main transport hub for the area is Hiroshima (on the East/South coast). The train station is on the main high speed rail line and connects you to all parts of Japan.

From Hiroshima you can catch a daily bus to Odashi on the north/west coast. The bus stops along the way in Iwami Ginzan. Details are found here. Or contact the Hiroshima tourist office for help. The bus at my time of visit had a big banner of …

April 2017 - at the end of our honeymoon trip through Andaluzia we took the train to Madrid and flew back from there. It was the same price as flying back from Sevilla directly. The Renfe entered Madrid early in the morning, we stored our baggage at the train station and took a long walk along the Prado and through the Retiro park. It was marathon that day so in the Park we could spot some athletes who either were done or gave up early. The park is nice, it has a giant lake, a wonderful greenhouse and some representative building, but I guess it is comparable to other city parks in Europe. We enjoyed way more Madrids early skyscrapers, the castle and our last tapas for that trip. Happy we visited another European capital, though.

Like Talamanca, Guanacaste is a vast area whose value is hard to summarize in one phrase. One can easily spend days visiting its specific features, its OUV ranges from the marine (turtle nesting sites) to the terrestrial with dry tropical forests and much more. I am only the third reviewer on this website, 11(!) years after the last one. However, parts of the included area close to Liberia are quite popular with beach tourists that mostly come from the USA.

There’s a similar choice to make as with Talamanca as to which included area to visit. The WHS comprises a contiguous area of seven protected zones. I did a half-day visit from Liberia to “Horizontes Forestry Experiment Station”. I had also wanted to add a stay near “Rincon de la Vieja National Park” (probably the most touristy part), but a rescheduling of my flight back to Europe forced me to cut my stay short.

Horizontes was a late discovery during my preparations. It needed pre-booking for Covid reasons as well, however, the process wasn’t as smooth as with other parks in Costa Rica. Payment could only be done by bank transfer in USD (15) or colones, for which my bank asked a 50 EUR fee. Fortunately, Wise did it much cheaper.

This former cattle ranch has been turned into a cultivation site for native forest species and their associated forest ecosystems. It lies almost directly behind Liberia airport. Only the final 4km is on a dirt road …

Yangzhou used to be very difficult to get to, and I'm not talking about ancient times but pre-2000 even. There are now a half dozen bridges and a high-speed train access to make it super easy of course, but back in the days it was basically a secret place to visit.

2 of the 3 components are already inscribed as part of the Grand Canal WHS. I used to think the Ge Yuan is also inscribed but it just falls outside of the core zone after all so there is technically another world heritage site here, although the criteria for inscribing these again would be different to the Grand Canal anyway. My thumbs down start with it being already inscribed and the very crappy criteria such as being a traditional "tourism destination". Don't get me wrong - Yangzhou is overall a great place to visit!

Slender West Lake is probably a must-see anyway but shelling out for gardens is maybe not so great. A mix between Beijing's Beihai, Suzhou's Gardens and Ancient Administrator houses, maybe a bit of Hangzhou's West Lake due to the bridges, there isn't much new if here if you have visited those before. For anyone else this is a great place to see something fresh and the mix of these isn't bad in any way.

The biggest attraction is obviously Slender Lake because it's so large. If you want to see all it can take several hours but you can easily skip the …

This Tentative WHS includes three fortified towns on the Spanish-Portuguese border proposed as an extension of the already inscribed Garrison Border Town of Elvas. Of these, I visited Almeida and Marvão on my trip to Portugal in May 2018. In both towns, the first fortifications date back to the Middle Ages, presumably built by the Moors. In the following centuries, the medieval castles were expanded to fortified towns. The bulwark constructions as they have been preserved until today date mainly from the 17th and 18th centuries. But that's where the similarities end. The two cities could hardly be more different. This is mainly due to their different locations: Almeida is situated on a high plateau and Marvão was built on the top of a high crag.

The defensive walls of Almeida form a perfect twelve-pointed star, similar to the fortified cities of Palmanova and Neuf-Brisach. But in contrast to the Italian and French examples, Almeida is not a planned town with a symmetrical layout. The fortifications have been built around the medieval town. The complete system of bastions, ravelins and casemates has been preserved. Within the walls, you can still visit the ruins of the castle. Apart from that the two massive gates, Porta de São Francisco and Porta de Santo António, are the most striking monuments.About 50 kilometres from Almeida is its Spanish twin, Ciudad Rodrigo, a likely candidate if a transnational nomination will be compiled. And between the two towns, right on the border, is the Real …

This is a kind of WHS visit that I always especially look forward to: remnants of an ancient culture. The Stone Spheres of the Diquís are mysterious stone balls, created by a Precolumbian Costa Rican civilization. With the help of Esteban I tried to get access to a second location in addition to the main site (Finca 6), but although I applied a month before it was not granted (the other 3 locations are not equipped to handle visitors during Covid times was the explanation). So I just focused on Finca 6, which lies in an area dominated by banana and palm oil plantations. The road there is signposted by a simple “Museum” sign.

The pre-trip efforts at least resulted in giving me free access (not something that I was after) and a guided tour of the museum and the archaeological site. The museum is small but shows that in addition to stone spheres, the Diquís also left ceramics and stone figurines.

Then we walked onto the site of the excavations. A trail takes you past the main points of what was once a settlement of about 500 inhabitants. It only takes a few minutes for the first sphere to come into sight. Before we could get closer, something happened that is also typical for this place: a load of bananas passed by! The land in this area has been used by the United Fruit Company (now: Chiquita) as a banana plantation since the 1930s. They use a …

“The rugged terrain, difficult access and the formal protection status have kept human impacts at bay”, the OUV statement for the Talamanca Range states proudly. That means that a proper visit of this WHS, although it covers over 7% of Costa Rica, is not so easy (for a glimpse of it you can drive Route 2, Carretera Interamericana Sur, from San José to San Isidro General and look to the left). It encompasses eight contiguous protected areas including one in Panama, as shown on this map. I first targeted Chirripó NP, however, it turned out that access is almost exclusively geared to trekkers trying to reach the peak of Chirripó mountain. Esteban found me one alternative, with a local rural tourism association in San Jeronimo, which may be worth looking into for a future WH traveller.  

Eventually, I settled for the safe bet of Tapantí-Macizo de la Muerte National Park. This lies near the pleasant town of Orosi, 2 hours south of San José. Covid limitations to the number of daily visitors required me to reserve a spot beforehand for a specific day to visit, but otherwise, the park is easily accessible. It lies at the northern edge of the Talamanca range and is mostly known for its rainforest habitat. Consequentially it is also one of the rainiest parts of Costa Rica.

I arrived there at the opening hour of 8 am. On the advice of the Swiss owners of my guest house, I left the car at …

‘♥ elvas’ is written in large letters at the Praça da República, the central square of Elvas. And that could also be the summary of my review. This fortified town on the border with Spain was the biggest surprise on my Portugal trip in May 2018. It consists not only of the historic town centre but also includes several forts outside the city walls and the Amoreira aquaduct, which secured the water supply even during a siege.

The first surprise was how large this system of walls, bastions and ravelins is. Standing at the Castelo, the highest point of the Historic Centre, and looking across to the fort on Monte de Graça, one inevitably wonders why such extensive fortifications were built in this barren landscape. The answer is that this region played a key role in the battles with Spain for Portuguese independence in the 17th century. And in response to advancing military technology with greater range of the guns, the fortifications were continuously extended during the following two centuries.The second surprise was how well preserved the inscribed sites are. Apparently, the nomination and eventual inscription in 2012 allowed for necessary restorations. As an example, Fort Graça was in an almost dilapidated condition and was only opened to the public in 2015 after extensive renovations.And the third surprise was the almost complete absence of tourists. This adds significantly to the pleasure of strolling through the historic old town. But this also means that not every …