All our reviews

July 2018 - on our trip to France we passed the Wallony. In the evening we still could see Huy, in the morning we took an extensive walk around the citadel of Namur. It is quite impressive. WHS status however, I am not sure. In Namur, you can spend easily an hour on the citadel. Interesting is also some artwork here. The golden turtle for instance. From up there you have a good view at the city and can also see the belfries (another WHS)

I did not know what to expect when I haded for the Mujib Nature Reserve and ended up having a lot of fun. 

The reserve is located just at the street along the dead sea, around 45 mins by car from the Baptism Site WHS. There is a car park and a visitor center called "adventure center". 

The adventure turned out to be my first canyoning experience. th only way to explore the site is to walk up the gorge inside the river. Along with the entrance fee I had to rent a life vest and a waterproof bag for my camera. It was not cheap (31 JOD), but worth it. I was totally unprepared, so I just entered the river in my underpants. Bring a swim suit. I also recommend renting shoes. I went bare foot and the rocks were tough on my feet. It's a major tourist attraction in the region, so there were loads of other people.

The water level was mostly low, but has several deep parts that require swiming and rocks that require climbing. The cenery is beautiful, with fantastic rock formations. I ended up spending more than 2 hours in the canyon, scratching another TWHS from my schedule. 

It was great fun and I can totally recommend visiting the reserve. Not sure about the OUV though. The focus on the nomination lies on the fauna the is found in the higher altitudes of the reserve and would probably need a …

Kuelap is the ruins of a Chachapoyan sacred city on top of a mountain in a remote area of northern Peru. Although the main ruins are generally referred to as "the fortress" because of its high walls, the general consensus now is that the walls are not primarily defensive in nature but were used to help level the top of the mountain and that the city was a sacred one rather than militaristic with up to 3000 inhabitants. Findings have shown religious offerings and trade from other neighbouring cultures indicating widely recognized spiritual importance of the site. It is just a matter of time before Kuelap makes the List. It has all the characteristics of a significant archaeological site and easily satisfies OUV criteria iii and iv. There is a lot of work being done to stabilize and restore parts of the ruins and it is obvious that there is a push to develop this site as a future major attraction. The investment in the cable car and restoration work shows that easily enough. 

The site itself was definitely one of the highlights of 6 weeks in Peru and well worth the effort. The crowds were still minimal and the ruins are very photogenic with excellent views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. The tall outer walls (up to 20m high) are impressive and once inside much of the area is still overgrown with cloud forest vegetation. Most of the structures inside were circular residential huts of which faint …

Tsodilo currently ranks 953rd out of 1092 on our list of most visited WHS. That low position has at least 2 reasons: it isn’t a well-known site among the general travel audience and it lies somewhat out of the way from Botswana’s main tourist zone between Maun and Kasane. Those difficult logistics almost beat me as well: the only logical route is when you’re coming from Namibia (the Caprivi Strip) with a rental car like Svein & Randi did last month - then you’ll pass it. However, I had no car and was staying in Maun. The company that I booked my safari with proposed to fly me north and put me in a “fishing lodge” for 2 nights – I could take a day tour from there. But I found a tantalizing alternative: a half-day tour by helicopter from Maun to Tsodilo!!

So on a Saturday morning, I reported at Maun airport at 6.30 am for my flight up there. They fly with small helicopters, there’s only room for the pilot and 3 guests. It takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to the Tsodilo Hills. The pilot had to yell a few times to wake up Maun air traffic control – we were the first to leave just after sunrise. The flight was relaxing, flying rather low over first the farmlands with cattle and then the Okavango Delta. We saw some wildfires but no water at all in this southwestern part of the delta. Only …

July 2018 - Roadtrip through Belgium and northern France. We visited some of the Belfries. The most impressive one we visited in Lille, instead of all the medieval towers, this one is from the 1920s. Lille has another wonderful belfries, that doesnt belong to Unesco though.

However I visited other belfries in 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2016. 2009: Bruges (known from the movie), Mechelen (impressive from far away), Antwerpen (whole city amazing) and Ghent (whole city amazing as well), 2016: Charleroi (rest of city rather boring), 2018: Namur, Mons, Lille and Amiens. The WHS ist quite interesting, but as already stated, some belfries seem to be missing, some are not that impressive. I tkink its impossible and not necessary to visit all of them.

July 2018 - last hours in Belgium we still visited Tournai and had some Frittes before we wold only get French Cuisine. Well, nice church but I do not understand the OUV of Tournai Cathedral. Anyway good to see this church and town. We visited the church from inside and outside but then continued our journey. There are plenty of churches in Belgium that seem to be way more interesting than this one.

July 2018 - we spent the night just 200metres from the entrance of Grotte de Goyet on our trip to France. We did take a walk through the little town, and even came by the entrance to this cave. However, it was not on the tentative list last year, so I would rather call it a near miss, than counting it to the visited sites.

But maybe it should be an extensions to the flint mines in Mons? I don't know. Anyway, we can recoomedn the campground nextby, its very calm and green.

July 2018 - first day in France we passed through the Nord-Pas de Calais Bassin- another mining area, great.

First we wanted to visit more sites, but the first glimbse that we got in Lens was enough. The area seems to be quite poor for French standard. The WHS consists of diifernet kind of sites. Piles of coal, mines, settlements for workers, railway stations. An ensemble of many different things. Compared to the Belgian sites its very widespread, lets see how Erzgebirge will be doing. I think it is way more influential than this site. But maybe next time I should visit some more componenets.

Visited August/September 2018

As a nature lover, the Galapagos Islands had always been on my bucket list. And they didn't disappoint a bit.

Being quite a remote destination, I assumed that probably I'll never go back, so I decided to spend most of my two week vacation there. I wanted to visit a few diferent islands in order to see diferent species of plants and animals and it took time.

There are two ways of seeing the islands, one is on a cruise and the other one is staying a few days in some of the inhabited islands and taking day tours from there. The second option is becoming more and more popular, and it was what I did because it gives you the chance to enjoy local life.

I visited three inhabited islands, Santa Cruz, Isabela and San Cristóbal, and took several tours. I was very interested in seeing some specific species, so I read a lot before chosing the tours I wanted and booked everything online. It is not necessary, unless you are a planner or you really want to take a specific tour. I was offered all the tours while I was already there. End of August and September are considered low season there, because there is less sunlight (although it's dry season), it is less warm, the water is pretty cold and the seas are rougher. But it is a great time to see lots of marine life, and some species are …

July 2018 - Roadtrip to Normandy. It was my second visit to theis WHS. This time Blegny Mine. In March 2015 I already visited Bois du Cazier, when landing in Charleroi instead of Brussels. Well both sites are mining sites, and both are not that spectacular. At least not above ground. For visiting the mines, I did not have the time and probably thats the main essence of the sites.

However, the industrial heritage at both sites is somewhat impressive. I took some nice shots around the places and try to imagine how mining was done 100 years earlier. Thanks for showing, but the entrance fees were too high for a short visit into the museums or mines.

We stopped for a day and 2 nights on our way between the Pantanal and Brasilia. It is a pretty and well preserved former state capital on a very modest scale but on the day we visited the town felt deserted. We couldn't enter the churches or museums and had to content ourselves with a quick wander up and down the historic core (~1-2 hrs max) before settling down in the little plaza to eat ice cream and watch a few families play. An enjoyable enough day but a site only recommended for those with a lot of time to use going out of their way to get there or for the very serious WHS enthusiast. 

Having recently visited, and seeing as the previous reviews are quite old, I thought it might be time for an update. But actually, it seems like nothing has really changed in 10+ years in Diamantina. Maybe that is the charm. It is far enough from anywhere that it still doesn't see many foreign visitors compared to Ouro Preto and the other colonial Minas towns. Even in colonial times it was remote, being the starting point of the "gold trail" leading to Paraty on the coast. 

The horses aren't parked in front of the marketplace anymore but the well preserved centre still retains its easy-going colonial charm. Is it an essential visit to understanding the rich history of Minas Gerais? No. Go to Ouro Preto. If you are short on time it is skipable. If you have the time, the 5 hour journey from Belo Horizonte one way makes it best visited on an overnight trip which is plenty of time. 

July 2018 - a quick stop in Spiennes to visit SILEX. Hmm, there are a lot of signs, so we parked the car, followed the signs, walked on green meadows and finally reached an, of course closed, entrance to the mine. However, we got the essence of this site, since flintstones were laying around everywhere and we understood, that there is not that much more to see. I am not a big fan of these kind of sites, but wanted to tick off. The weather was perfect, so it was a nice stopover, You could also see the belfries of Mons from the SILEX site.

The only reason I review it is because I think it's funny there is an Els Gorge in the park (Catalan for "the" but still). It isn't entirely clear which part of the parks are included and I don't see it as unique enough to be included on the WH list. I mainly came here for hiking around and enjoying the scenery and it should be in everyone's Catalonia trip. The roads are a tad winding but in excellent condition. You won't see a truck along this route. Siruana itself is a worthy stop although the price of the hotel put me off immediately and I only drove up for the sunset. Hard to believe people drink alcohol while relaxing on the cliffs.

I saw plenty of cyclists in the ranges as well. As mentioned already, it's beautiful and a worthy visit but not as WHS.

July 2018 - we almost missed this site and had to drive back to se at least 2 of the four lifts. I know the lift in Finow Brandenburg quite well so I knew what to expect. The alignment of these four lifts is quite intersting and you can dive into history visiting them, The shape of them is not perfect, the constant contact to water is heavily harming the heritage. Its a nice stopover on the way to France.

Visited in Oct 2018. Unlike the other reviewers we chose to go east and started our visit at San Jose after a hot 4 hour bus ride from Santa Cruz. It was 40C and our bus attendant's idea of aircon was wedging the door open with pop bottles as we drove down the highway. Connections to San Jose are good via train or bus since it is on the main road to Brazil. This is hot, tough country and it takes a special kind of people to thrive here which is probably why most of the settlements and people we saw along the way were Mennonites. 

From the bus station it was about a 20 min walk to the main plaza and the church. Unlike the others it is unique in that it is larger and has a stone facade, which looks a little strange on the wooden church, and is walled compound. We relaxed a bit in the shade of the plaza watching the lethargic movements of the towns folk while waiting for the afternoon opening of the church. Finally we saw someone setting up a stage in the plaza and running cords through one of the doors so we got in to the courtyard of the complex. There is a museum on one side but it didn't look like it would be opening for us anytime soon but we got into the dark church interior for a quick look. The woodwork is nice but unsure if we …

On our itinerary around Portugal in April of 2019 we covered all of the monasteries in the "triangle" north of Lisbon. Alcobaça is the unflashiest of the three, but also clearly the most cared for. The imposing main church façade of Alcobaça is probably the most time-stained part of the complex, whereas everything else bears clear signs of careful upkeep. (Incidentally, putting the word façade next to the monastery name might help those not familiar with diacritics in correctly pronouncing the last consonant in Alcobaça).

The monastery was established in the 12th century by the first king of Portugal, Afonso Henriques. It is primarily a Gothic structure, with some Baroque and Manueline influences added later on. The exuberant Manueline style is widely seen at other monasteries – in comparison, Alcobaça is almost subdued.

The central feature of the complex is the Cloister of Dinis, also known as the Cloister of Silence. At a first glance it may appear no more than pretty and even a bit bland – but that is only until you begin noticing details. Look at the rose windows above the ground-level arches - no two of them are of the same design. Examine the column capitals - they are also all distinct, showing an abundance of fantasy and design. Gargoyles are nothing short of delightful. And so on.

Beyond the cloisters, there are several interior spaces of note, the most impressive of which are the Hall of Kings, with statues of Portuguese monarchs …

Visited May 2019

For a first review, I thought it would be nice if I wrote about a place that hasn't been reviewed yet on this website. So, as Casa Vicens opened to the public a year and a half ago, and none of the members of this community has reviewed it yet, I decided to visit it and do it myself.

Casa Vicens was the first building Gaudí designed in Barcelona. It was finished in 1885 and used as a private house until 2014, when a bank from Andorra bought it, restored it and opened it to the public. The house had suffered lots of changes during all the years it had been used as a residence, so some parts of it are different from the original, especially the garden. They did an excellent job in keeping the rooms as Gaudi designed them. Most furniture is lost, so you can see empty rooms, much like in Casa Batlló, but it lets you focus on all the decoration techniques Gaudí used on the walls, floors, ceilings...

Some of the features of Gaudí's later works are not seen at all on this building. There are more straight lines and the most obvious influences are nature and islamic art. But all in all, it is very interesting and beautiful.

The price ticket is 16eur, but the last Sunday of the month and every Monday it is 10eur. You can find guides in different areas of the house who …

It is impressive to think of how many snow-capped peaks are clustered together in this park so close to the equator. Like everyone else we based ourselves in busy Huaraz for access to the national park. There are many options here to visit the park, from multi-day treks to single day hikes, tours or just staring at mountain peaks from your hotel balcony so should appeal to just about everyone that enjoys nature.

Pretty much every hotel and agency offers the same tours at more or less the same time for similar prices. Public transport and doing it on your own generally didn't seem possible or worth the hassle. We booked a few day trips from our hotel and ended up with a different tour company each day. Our first exposure to Huascaran was on our way to Chavin and there is no doubt that the views of the peaks are better from the north of Huaraz (the road to Chavin is to the south). Regardless of tour destination you quickly find yourself above 4000m and the tree line quite quickly which can be hard on some. We stuck to day tours that didn't involve a lot of walking. 

One day we went to Pastoruri glacier, a rapidly melting glacier at 5000m. It was a little disturbing to see it dying right before our eyes while people joyfully posed for selfies. We were able to get up close to the very unique and bizarre looking Puya Raimondi plants …

We visited Svalbard (Spitsbergen) end of March 2019, i.e. during the winter period, since in our opinion the archipelago looks much nicer when everything is covered in snow and ice.

Of course, the consequence is that temperatures are a lot lower than during the summer period (-15 / -20 C°). Also, since there are no roads between the villages, travel is by way of snowscooters while in summer it is also possible to visit e.g. Barentsburg and Pyramiden by boat (although end of March Barentsburg could also be reached by boat).

As mentioned in a previous review, there are daily flights from Oslo to the ‘capital’ Longyearbyen by SAS and Norwegian (SAS stopping in Tromsø) – both arrive around noon.    

We booked a 4-day snowscooter trip which has the advantage that both the (magnificent) nature and the ‘human presence’ on Svalbard can be experienced. During these four days we visited a.o. Russian coal mining town Barentsburg (with a visit to the mine, apparently the only working mine in the world which can be visited), ghost town Pyramiden, Tempelfjorden, Sassendalen, Sassen-Bünsow Land National Park and much more.

Highlights were the Nordenskiöld glacier with its blue ice (since the Bille fjord where the glacier ends was frozen, we could drive right up to the glacier) and Pyramiden, but during the whole trip there were stunning views. We also encountered numerous reindeer, a number of polar foxes and a polar bear a couple of hundred meters away (but unfortunately …