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Courtesy of yearly visits to a supplier based in London plus friends with a gorgeous flat on the Thames I have been in London at lest once a year for the past decade. Ian can attest to it as we tend to have a few pints in the process.

Apart from the bar visits, the walks along the Thames and the German school in Greenwich we normally try to include an excursion, if possible WHS related. But after a few years we had tackled all WHS of the extended London Hotspot plus most of the surrounding tentative sites. Eventually all that was left was Darwin's Landscape Laboratory in Downe. So on a Sunday in summer, we drove by car to Downe to see what the tentative site was about.

Quite frankly, the site was underwhelming. This is a typical, not even especially beautiful English manor of the period. The gardens show very little actual gardening and are not impressive.

The on site museum tries to tell the story of Charles Darwin's life, his family and his research. I tend not to enjoy these too much. But I learned two things of note in the process:

• In the 19th century people like Charles Darwin were quite well off, being able to afford a leisurely lifestyle without working.
• Publish or perish was not a concept in 19th century academia as Darwin sat on his results for more than a decade.

OUV

The key …

I visited Mycenae in July 2018. The city was the center of the Late Bronze Age civilization that was the main precursor to the classical Ancient Greek culture. Mycenaeans’ period of domination over the Mediterranean came around 1600 BC. Little visible remains of that glorious period, though; Mycenae is mostly piles of rocks, with very few surviving discernible features, making a site like Delphi quite well-preserved by comparison (of course, Delphi is about a whole millennia younger).

In fact, the signature surviving feature of Mycenae greets the visitors at the very entrance to the city – the Lion Gate, dating from around 1250 BC. Beyond the gate, the site is mostly parts of walls, overgrown foundations, and a couple of grave circles; the city’s dominating position over the Argolid Plain offers sweeping backdrops. Since there is little left to preserve on the site, very few areas are out of bounds to the visitors. This goes really well with the smaller children, who can replace the boring exercise of looking at the rocks with a much more exciting exercise of climbing on and over the rocks.

The onsite museum's collection of artifacts is simply exceptional.

Mycenae is located on Peloponnese a little over an hour and a half drive from Athens. The site itself can be seen in under an hour; the museum will require at least another hour, if not more. The tomb of the mythical king Agamemnon is a separate site a short walk away. Tiryns …

“Our credit card reader is broken.” “Yeah, sure, no problem, I brought cash.” “No, no cash.” “Why no cash? I came all the way bus from the city center of Uppsala.” “No, no, entry is free today.” “Free, why?” “Because the credit card reader is broken.” “But I told you I brought cash?” ...

More or less this was the dialogue I had at the entry of Hammarby, a component of the Linnaeus tentative site. Turns out credit cards are so pervasive in Sweden nowadays (and cash so rare) that having a broken credit card reader means free entry for all. To illustrate the point a bit further: I am fairly certain that two years later with plenty of business trips to Sweden in between I still carry the same cash I carried that day; I just never got to spend it.

Linnaeus is the Swedish version of Charles Darwin, without a doubt one of the most influential biologists in history. His main contribution was to taxonomy. For most of his life he worked as a professor at the university of Uppsala, Sweden’s oldest university.

In and around Uppsala there are plenty of sites related to his work. He used nature trails to educate his students in his system and to classify the local plants. And he created several gardens to show the diversity of plants.

I managed to visit the central site in Uppsala as well as his country home at Hammarby. The latter was …

I visited this WHS in April 2017 on the day before leaving Egypt. I'm an amateur paleontologist and fossil collector, so visiting Wadi Al-Hitan was already in my plan besides seeing the ancient civilization. Since collecting Natural WHS is harder than the cultural one, I was determined to put this on my list as it's not too far from Cairo. 

But it wasn't easy at all. Because I was traveling alone, all the travel agencies at the Tahrir Square could only put me in the waiting list for a bigger group. I was lucky when a group of 7 foreign students studying in Cairo University decided to join the tour. So we took off quite early in the morning as the journey to the first stop took a solid 3 hours. The first stop was a place with a lot of round rocks formation where they called it "watermelons". At this desert site you can clearly see the mark of ancient water flow. Then we went to the on site museum where you could see the evolution of the whale (Basilosaurus isis) where the small hind limbs still attached to the big body. The in situ fossils are just next to the museum with numbers along the path. Besides the whale fossils you can also notice a lot of sand dollar fossils around. In my opinion this is a very educational fossil site even for an ordinary person as one can imagine how the environment and life was long …

Delphi was the sacred center of the world for the Ancient Greeks and undoubtedly a remarkable achievement of purposeful architecture, a sanctuary built into the challenging landscape to inspire awe and worship. Unfortunately, very little is left of its former glory, and the visual impact is fairly muted. Having experienced grandiosity of the Parthenon at Acropolis or the vastness in various states of preservation at Delos, it is hard to see Delphi as little more than a sequence of terraces with few surviving features here or there. Of course, you may be more into archaeology than I am or simply more attuned to the aura of the great legacy that the Ancient Greece bestowed on the mankind, so the simple fact of being in such an important and symbolic place may give you additional satisfaction.

The focal point of Delphi is the Temple of Apollo, undoubtedly photogenic, backed by the views over the valley of Phocis. Among other defined points are the Athenian Treasury, the theater, and the stadium up the mountain. The higher you climb, the more sweeping the views become, but in reality climbing more than a terrace or two above the Temple of Apollo is worthwhile only if you are looking for some mountain hiking.

Delphi is located in the administrative region of Central Greece about two and a half hours drive from Athens. An hour appears sufficient to explore the core of the site (for aforementioned hiking, add another hour). The archaeological museum is …

Of the three geographically dispersed monasteries inscribed together as this WH site, we could only fit one into our Greek itinerary in July of 2018, and our choice fell on Hosios Loukas, the largest and likely the oldest. Hosios Loukas’s fame derives from the lavish decorations of its main church, the Katholikon. These mosaics, frescoes, and marble surfaces date from the 11th century, and are among the best examples of the grand church decoration during Middle Byzantine Renaissance. In addition to the main church, you can visit the crypt, peruse an archaeological collection, learn quite a lot about the history of the monastery itself, and step into a model monk’s cell. Around an hour is quite sufficient to take it all in, but the visit can be extended: there are hiking paths on the mountain around the monastery and a nice shaded terrace with outdoor cafe seating area and great valley views just outside the gate.

Hosios Loukas is located a little bit over 2 hours drive northwest from Athens in the administrative region of Central Greece. Delphi is about further half an hour drive northwest, easy to combine on a day-trip from the capital. It should be noted that Monastery of Daphni, another of the three properties grouped in this site, is located right at the edge of Athens, accessible by public transport (less than 40 minutes from the center of the city). We drove by it, but could not fit a reasonably-timed stop into our schedule.

Ekamra Kshetra is the old town of Bubhaneswar. It contains nearly a hundred temples according to the map I saw on one of the buildings, with the offices document stating 199 and there used to be 700. Getting around is easy on foot if you want but be prepared to take the whole day. I found that most of them are very, very similar but maybe I'm just ignorant. I had a driver/guide for half a day which would be continue to then Sun Temple and end at Chiliak lake mid-evening. I also went to Dhauli up on a hill on the outskirts and its popularity was even more than the town. I think it is part of the nomination as well and has a fancy Ashuka pillar nearby as well.

In most temples the people are inviting to enter freely. It often takes more effort to wear/remove shoes than look at the temple structures because they can be so small. It being sandstone they have eroded a lot and the simple gates aren't exactly security, but I believe the locals really respect their heritage. Some of the better temples are Rajarani and Muktesvara (which the guide kept pronouncing differently for some reason). There is, however, one temple that stands out.

Lingaraj is the biggest temple at Bubhaneswar smack in the middle of old town. I'll come right to be main problem: chances are you can't go inside. It is only for Hindu. Security will smell tourists from …

I visited this WHS in September 2016 during my Latin Grand Tour which last for 7 months. This is a very interesting WHS as most of the WHS in Latin America are related to Aztec, Mayan, Inca or Spaniards glory history, and Joya de Ceren is more to the daily life of the Pre-Columbian Mayan 1400 years ago. The ashes from the nearby Loma Caldera volcano eruption covered and preserved the site in time capsule, just like Leon Viejo and Pompeii.  

I recommend to visit the museum first before entering the archaeological site so that one will have a better understanding of what's in the archaeological zone. Most of the excavated items are here, for example you can see many ceramics with drawing of animal found in jungle like monkeys and birds. The most interesting item I found in the museum is the carbonized corn. This is the evidence of Mayan domestication of plants and up till today the Latinos are still eating corn as their main food.  

Joya de Ceren was a small Mayan village with 10 structures including some houses and storehouses. There is also a temazcal where the Mayan used as a sweat lodge to heal sickness. The site is not big and it will only take you around half an hour but interesting enough to be the only WHS in El Salvador. 

During my trip to Greenland in 2012 I spent two days in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland’s biggest airport and usual entry point for most tourists. There is little to do in this small village (though there is small museum), although you can hike around or take a trip to continental glacier, located around 40 km from Kangerlussuaq (the road to the glacier is actually the longest in Greenland). Based on the map from the nomination file, the road crosses the core WHS area of Aasivissuit-Nipisat. Although the highlight of the trip is the glacier itself, the road is also interesting, with picturesque landscapes of small lakes, meadows (really green in the middle of July) and various stone forms. I remember our guide told us a lot about Innuits, their hunting habits and everyday life. On the road there were at least two Innuit tombs (see photo), dated 400 years back (I suspect they are marked on the official map as “place of worship”). Innuits buried their dead in sitting position and the body was then belayed by stones. On top there was always a flat stone, which also helped to differentiate burial mounds from orientation points. Such a construction of the tomb protected the buried body from wild animals.

I remembered this area as a nice natural landscape, perhaps other places in the core zone provide more artifacts of Innuit culture and justify inscription as cultural, not mixed site.

King of Bhutan: “In celebration of my son's birth by my beautiful wife I hereby announce the renovation of the Drukgyel monastery.”

Ministry of Tourism: “But, my dragon king, as beautiful as your wife may be, we just placed the monastery on the list of tentative works heritage sites as ruins. If we renovate it the entire work will be in vain.”

Zoë: “Honestly, this never had a chance to begin with because you are basing the unique value of the ruins on it never having been changed since its original construction and having just a few brick walls left doesn't show that, at all.”

Bagan Tourism: “We rebuilt everything and will get on the list eventually…”

The guides were a little confused why I asked to see it. It takes a 20 min ride on good road west of Paro and past the entrance of the Tiger's Nest. I still find it beautiful like everything in Bhutan, with a good view of the sacred Jomolhari mountain. There are a few parking spots, a restaurant, trash (unfortunately, and their usual excuse for the Indian tourists to dump it out of the window doesn't apply in this remote spot), and lots of workers getting it ready for a grand re-opening. The guides claim it is 40% complete although from the outside you couldn't tell as it already looking redone. It is not open for public, one could walk around if they wanted to, but the best views …

A trip to Sydney is never complete without a visit to the Sydney Opera House, one of the most popular and most visited tourist destinations not only in Australia but arguably in the entire world. Just like any other first timers in the “Land Down Under,” the very first thing I did on my first trip to Sydney (and in entire country-continent of Australia) was to walk my way to this popular man-made Oz-ian destination.

The dynamic harbour seems to be embodied by Jørn Utzon’s design: a playful encounter among the different elements found in the area: the gigantic and very busy Harbour Bridge, the imposing muscle-flexes of sea vessels and ferries, and the graceful dances of the yachts and other smaller boats. Also, the architectural design, almost a sculpture-like artwork, is a reminder of the beautiful natural landscape surrounding the bay.

According to some online sources, the inspirations of Utzon were the gigantic edifices of the Americas – the pre-Hispanic structures of the Mayans and the Aztecs. In a way, the design was envisioned to be a temple where the public gets to connect with the gods. Others suggest that his inspirations were the huge castles of the Scandinavian region, particularly those from Denmark, his home country. Like what I wrote in the previous paragraph, there are narratives that link the building with the natural and cultural landscapes of the city: the cliffs and the sails of the harbour.

At nighttime, the magnificent opera house transforms …

I always find myself awed by grandiose edifices. Beholding the Parthenon up close, unfailingly grandiose despite its ruined state blended with a construction site, made the visit to Acropolis instantly worthwhile. The 5th century BC temple dedicated to Athena, the patron of the city, is nowadays no more than an empty shell, and nonetheless still a signature piece of Doric architecture.

Acropolis is not just about the Parthenon. There is the Erechtheion, just a few decades younger than the Parthenon, with the eye-catching Porch of the Maidens; several smaller temples; two theaters; and other assorted historic remains.

The new Acropolis Museum, which is less than 10 years old, sits underneath the Acropolis hill near the southern slope and is not part of the World Heritage site. It requires a separate fee to enter and undoubtedly has a lot to offer, but I chose to leave it off our itinerary. The Acropolis treasures that currently reside in the British Museum in London – where I saw them several times during my years of living in the UK – are a gaping hole in the museum’s collection, and the Greek government have been waging an understated battle for over three decades now to have them returned to their rightful home. When they are returned to Greece, the museum will become an essential companion to the World Heritage site.

My visit took place in July of 2018. Acropolis is the focal point of Athens, unmissable if you spend any time …

Plitvice Lakes is undeniably beautiful and the National Park is well managed—both things that would usually earn this five stars, but it's just too popular to be as enjoyable as it could have been. The park uses an elaborate system of boardwalks to lead tourists through the lakes and waterfalls all throughout the area, which means everyone is on virtually the same set path through the park. And if you happen to arrive when a few of the huge tour buses do too, then it can be intense.

But on my first visit I didn't realize that there are hiking paths beyond the 2-3 hour one that most people take—if you have a day you can spend as many as 8 hours hiking through the park, and you would find far fewer people on those other routes, as well as a chance at spotting some of the unique wildlife. 

That said, even though more than 10,000 people visit on a high season day, the 16 terraced lakes are magnificently pretty. I've seen a lot of places in Europe, and Plitvice surprised me—yes, a place like this actually exists in Europe! The water changes hues of aqua and green as you progress through the landscape and if it's a sunny day the sparkling colors are just breathtaking.

Although some people whip through the park quickly, there are some surprises if you take it slowly and exhaust the many paths, taking the 4+ hour twists and turns instead, which …

Flying over this doesn't do it justice. I actually didn't expect to trek into it either because of the distance involved from the towns but in Darjeeling there are many trekking tours advertised. First off you need to get to Darjeeling which a lot of people do easily. They then often continue to Gangtok but I'm quite sure there is no way to enter the park from the north. Well, yes, there is a road at Lachen monastery so you CAN drive into the park but the real way to enter is only on foot.

Drive 5h switchbacks to Yuksom and stay another night. The next morning you start ascending to Tshoka. There are actually huts to make camping in November slightly easier. You have already entered the core zone by now but the views are not exceptional yet. Day 2 and it's another half day (too cold to hike early or late anyway). Goal is Dzongri La. The group was very small and we all decided to go up on the next day and then descend again rather than stay for 2 nights. The one day saved makes quite a difference if you spend so long to get here already. It's foggy and cold but so happy to have arrived. In fact that is wasn't very tough but one has to be relatively fit. Spending a week trekking Bhutan and Nepal to get ready really helped.

Sure, there are other treks that go much further into the …

"Struve Stories" (continued) - 1187-001 FUGLENAES (Norway)

John Booth reviewed this location back in 2010 but, following our visit in Dec 2018, there are a few more aspects about it, and the Struve Arc as a whole, which I think are worth recording. This is the very furthest north location of the Arc and has been allocated reference number "001" by UNESCO. It certainly possesses a rather fine memorial (photo) and is, presumably, where the whole survey started?

Well not really. The idea that Struve and his team went to a furthest point and “triangulated” their way South to the other end isn’t how it happened. The process leading to the inscribed continuously surveyed arc took around 40 years and didn’t even start with that objective in mind. 2 "Russians" (the former was born in Altona, then under Danish sovereignty, of a German speaking family which emigrated to Russia and he is usually characterised as "German Russian whilst the latter was born in present day Estonia!) - the Astronomer Prof Struve (1816) and Lt Gen C.F Tenner of the Russian army (1817) had started in different parts of W Russia for different reasons – the former in Livonia for largely scientific ones and the latter in Lithuania for military mapping purposes (this was soon after the Napoleonic wars and the military and Tsar Alexander I recognised the need for better maps of his country). By 1828 they started to work together and, around 1831, Tsar Nicholas I agreed …

I visited this WHS in November 2018. Although it is one of the biggest and mostly populated cities in Italy, it seems to attract much less people apart from the cruise liner passengers and most of them head straight to the Amalfi Coast or Pompeii and allow less (if any) time to this historic city.

It seems to have too much of a bad reputation when compared to other cities in Italy too. I'm not saying that it doesn't have its problems, but I did not encounter any extraordinary problems even though I went around with my camera at night, I drove in and out of the city and I parked my car both outdoors and indoors.

On the other hand, even though I found Naples interesting and pleasant, to me it lacked the general feel of an old city full of culture which several other inscribed Italian cities possess. I enjoyed the Piazza del Plebiscito and the Palazzo Reale, the Maschio Angioino (photo) and the Castel Dell'Ovo, the several churches, monuments, private stairways, and statues along the famous Spacca Napoli, Via San Gregorio Armeno with the various cribs and figurines, Piazza del Gesù Nuovo and Napoli Sotteranea.

The latter two were the highlights of my trip in Naples. Piazza del Gesù Nuovo seems to be the real heart of this WHS. The rustic ashlar diamond projections of the Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo reminded me of Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara which has a similar facade. Next …

Most about this place has already been said in a greatly written review so I shall now only add that it has since been inscribed and got a nice price hike. Twice!

I arrived here by car from Patse and there were so many locals around, school groups, monks, selfie-posting teenagers, selfie-posting monks, a whole food market along University Road, I didn't expect to get through it all. However, there are actually parking spaces just past the entrance gate. So you pay that hefty entrance tickets for a bunch of walls. Mostly. There is one impressive building still standing tall but there is no way you would know this place was a big ancient university with monasteries and temples unless you read all signs. It's brick walls now. The area is not big. I figured this is all I can see and went through the loop within 30 minutes. Next up the museum and off we go again. Very disappointed. Makes me wonder what people expect to see here. Agree that the history behind it is important though, not agreeing that I should seek out the place to see it. The road from Patna is also very annoying and perhaps next time I would stay on the toll road longer.

Every Indian girl dreams about getting married in her Banarasi saree. As for me, I waltzed into a shop, threw money on the floor and demanded to get three blue and couple purple ones. No, just kidding. I bought one but not in a bitchy way.

When visiting Varanasi it is difficult not to see any saree shops or not to be offered to visit a saree shop. What is more difficult is to see the actual weaving of the saree. There does not seem to be any tourist spot to see. I had to ask a tuktuk driver to get me somewhere. Weaving shops are not very glamorous but appear very traditional. Often now replaced by automatic looms and factory made sarees, the small weaving shops are not having an essy time. Sure the shop keeper told me the sarees are made locally but how can I really be sure? I am unclear if the weaving culture is actually world heritage as it appears intangible. Or is the looms that should be preserved? Wine culture is often world heritage but so far none of the inscribed places are having a problem with lack of vineyards, and if they do they yes sure they are no longer works heritage. There are much, much fewer weavers today, and getting fewer every year. Even if inscribef this would need immediate protection. There are some weaver groups that try to survive together and there is surely always demand for it but not …

I visited this WHS in November 2018 focusing on 2 locations out of the main 3 inscribed, namely Pompeii and Villa di Poppea di Oplonti. I'll definitely visit Ercolano in the near future as the I have no doubt that it is on par with the 2 locations I visited which were top WHS.

I allowed a full day for Pompeii and parked next to the entrance/exit at Camping Zeus. Even though Pompeii is always visited by tour groups with their infamous antenna rod and all kinds of soft toys, the site is so big and vast that it didn't feel too crowded, especially first thing in the morning when most would be gobbling their included breakfasts. Make sure to pick up a free map from the information office before entering as it's quite confusing otherwise to find your bearings at first.

Pompeii is truly an intact (although crumbling) ghost town from Roman times with an extraordinary setting at the foot of the culprit volcano of its destruction as a living town and a great opportunity to understand the 'ordinary' day-to-day life during Roman times. At Pompeii, you get to experience the whole ensemble of Roman architecture: temples, villas, houses, shrines, stores, necropolis, mosaics, frescoes, stucco, thermal baths, water management, outposts, roads, amphitheatres, etc.

Out of all this outstanding site, the absolute highlight of my visit were definitely the intricate and colourful murals and frescoes. The best ones in my opinion were those at the Villa dei …

I visited the Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey in the summer of 2018 when I drove from Belgium to Berlin.

I visited the site on my own without a guided tour. There wasn't a whole lot available in English and I couldn't tell if there were any English language tours or guidebooks available. The interpretative tools available for non-German speakers was rather slim. It was one of the least accessible sites I had visited in all of Germany (and I have visited most of the German sites). I spent about 2 hours exploring the grounds and taking photos. At least the entrance fee was affordable. This site is probably only going to be of interest to local school groups and world heritage site completists.