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I visited this WHS in June 2018. It was a very convenient stop-over before heading further north to the Swedish Lappland. Since I was flying back to Stockholm from nearby Lulea, I decided to revisit on my way back (especially for an extra serving of Tosca Fika from Ullas cafe - thanks Els for the recommendation!).

Church towns are essentially a northern feature in Sweden. They were created due to special conditions in this part of the country. There were no sustainable reasons for bigger towns to be built until the latter part of the 17th century. Of Sweden's 71 original church towns, only 16 are left today, the majority of which have been reduced to a remnant. Gammelstad is Sweden's largest (even though still very small; it can be covered in a couple of hours) and best preserved church town with 408 cottages which have never been struck by a major fire. 

The central influence of the Church was used in economic and in political life with establishments that usually belonged to the town. The church itself, surrounded by the church town and the public buildings, is also inscribed. The Nederlulea (Lower Lulea) church is the largest medieval church in Norrland. It has some late-medieval frescoes, an altar screen which was built in Antwerp, and a very ornate pulpit inside.

People converged at Gammelstad to attend High Mass and hours of devotion, to attend markets, court sessions and parish meetings, but also to meet friends and …

We visited Wood Buffalo Park in July 2018.

It is an achievement just to get there. A long drive about 1400 km from Jasper to Fort Smith. The roads are good and paved all the way to Fort Smith. It’s a small airport in Fort Smith if you want to skip the drive, but you will need a vehicle to see the park. It’s a 120 km gravel road into the park center from Fort Smith.

We stopped on night in Hay River by the Great Slave Lake and two nights in Fort Smith. The drive from Hay river to Fort Smith goes the northern part of the park.

The park entrance is free. The visitor center is in Fort Smith. It was small, but informativ with helpful staff. We saw a great film about the park, 20 minutes, which explained its outstanding values.

The landscape is not as spectacular or scenic as for instance Rocky Mountains, but it still has some uniqueness to it. It varies from boreal forest, karst landforms, salt plains to one of the world’s largest fresh water delta. The park is huge, Canada’s largest, 44807 km2 larger than Switzerland.

We chartered a float plane for an hour to see the salt plains and the waterfalls in Slave River (just outside the park, but very scenic). Unfortunately it was too far to go down to the freshwater delta within the hour. The trip was great, fantastic views of the salt plains …

There are 3 world class museums on the Paseo del Prado which form an integral part of this property. Referred to as the "Golden Triangle of Art" these museums are vast collections of priceless works spanning nearly a millennia of artistic creations.

Each museum holds icons of European art, unquestionably. One of the foremost is Guernica by Pablo Picasso. There are countless other masterpieces worth noting by Dali, Goya, Bosch, Dürer, and El Greco. Cumulatively these 3 museums take in about 7-8 million visitors per year. Each building has its own history as well, the Prado opened its doors in 1819. Reina Sofia is located in the former General Hospital of Madrid which was built in the late 18th century. The Thyssen-Bornemisza was previously known as Villahermosa Palace.

Museo del Prado - Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza - Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

The second key component of this property is Parque del Buen Retiro. This public park, with a royal background is about 40% of the size of Central Park in New York. Within the park are the Velázquez Palace and Palacio de Cristal, which now are primarily used for art installations. The Monument to King Alfonso XII (pictured) is quite stunning in its location overlooking the gorgeous artificial pond. The park is utilized well by the people of Madrid. At any given moment, you will see picnickers, joggers, walkers, and lovers. I was fortunate to stay only 15 minutes from the park and I thoroughly enjoyed …

For today's visitors, it is not immediately apparent that Guimarães played such a significant role in Portuguese history, it is closely related to the foundation of the Portugal and is often referred to as the "cradle of the nation". The Castelo de Guimarães is said to be the birthplace of the first king of Portugal, Alfonso Henriques. Thus it's a good idea to refresh your knowledge about the origins of the Portuguese nation prior to the visit. If not, you can learn the most important facts in the small exhibition at the Castelo. They show also a copy of the Manifestis Probatum, the papal bull in which Pope Alexander III recognized the Portuguese king and confirmed the independence of Portugal from the Kingdom of Castile.

The castle looks just like one imagines a medieval castle: a central keep surrounded by a ring of high walls and eight crenellated towers. You can walk on top of the wall around the entire castle, the photo shows the view to the two other buildings in the small park, the Paço dos Duques de Bragança and the Igreja de São Miguel.The Bragança Palace was built in the 15th century and was for several decades the residence of the Dukes of Bragança until they moved to Vila Viçosa. The Palace has a quadrangular plan and is built strictly symmetrical around a large courtyard, most striking are the high brick chimneys and the sloping roofs. The interior is rather austere and simple. Parts of the …

I don't think anything can quite prepare you for visiting Pompeii. The site is so large that it's overwhelming at first and it's hard to know where to go and what to see. After a couple of hours of exploring, it all starts to make a bit more sense and you get a sense of how the the urban design is laid out.

I guess it's like every time you arrive in a new city - it takes a little while to get your bearings.

Pompeii is the kind of place where a guide or an organised tour would actually be really useful. I didn't have one and I regretted it by the end. But, having said that, there was also something really nice about being able to wander and explore such a vast site by myself.

If you're thinking of visiting yourself, I've put together a map of Pompeii with highlights based on what I discovered when I spent the day there. I hope it is useful to some people.

I visited this WHS in June 2018. I actually visited the High Coast, the Swedish component of this transnational WHS, over 3 full days. I used Sandöverken as my base and covered most ground by rental car, stopping at different viewpoints and choosing a variety of hikes and trails to explore different aspects of this WHS.

To get a good overview and in-depth information on this WHS, I started by visiting the Naturum Hoga Kusten Visitor Centre in Docksta which is free (another good information point is at the High Coast Hotel reception by Sweden's longest suspension bridge). From here you can get lots of information on different trails, hikes and vantage point and they also have the UNESCO WH certificate on display. If you're adventurous and not afraid of heights, from here you can go abseiling up the Via Ferrata on Skuleberget which is one of the inscribed components of the High Coast. If this is not your thing, you'll be better off opting for the chair lift (FriluftsByn) up to a panoramic viewpoint to the Top Cabin serving ice cold Hoga Kusten beer.

If you choose the latter, you can follow short hikes (O. Bergstigen and Kalottstigen) to see different viewpoints, flora and the world's highest coastline at 286 metres above sea level. The High Coast, together with the Kvarken Archipelago in Finland) has been inscribed for its geological OUV. Nowhere else in the world has the land uplift been so extensive after the latest ice …

The Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte is a pilgrimage site, only about 25 kilometres north of Guimarães. The pilgrimage church is located on the eastern outskirts on a hill overlooking the city of Braga. In the 14th century, the first chapel was built in that place. The construction of the ensemble in its present form, with the Baroque staircase and the pilgrimage church, was started in the 18th century and completed in 1811.

Having already visited several monasteries, churches and cathedrals on my trip to Portugal, I was not very keen on visiting yet another religious site. But Bom de Jesus is scheduled for decision at the WHC session in 2019, thus it was no question that I made the short detour via Braga on my way from Oporto to Guimarães. There are three options to get to the pilgrimage church. The classical way is to climb the imposing Baroque staircase. Second, with the historic funicular. And third, by car or bus straight to the top of the hill. Of course, I chose the classical way, well not really the classical way, that would mean climbing the stairs on hands and knees. For my way down, I took the funicular.The staircase has almost 600 steps and leads in a zigzag up to the forecourt of the church. The first part of the pilgrim path is dedicated to the Via Crucis, several chapels represent the Passion of Christ. After a few minutes walk through a forest, you arrive at …

Dmanisi site shows the remains of a prominent Middle Age town from the IX-X centuries. In 1983, while excavating the ruins of the medieval settlement, archeologists found animal fossils in sediments exposed in the medieval cellars, dating from about 1.5 millions years. Subsequent excavation yieled stone tools in 1984, and then remains of at least 5 hominid individuals between 1991 and 2005, dating frome 1.8 millions years.

Those remains span different developmental stage (subadult, adult and an old adult). The mandibule and cranium of the old adult shows it lived several years without teeth, raising questions about the social structure of early homo species. Surviving without teeth hypothesized an early from of assistance and care from other individuals.

Discoveries of those homo remains have reopened the debate about the first human dispersal from Africa. Those hominids are the earliest dispersal beyond Africa. They exhibit numerous archaic physical charcteristics of early Afrianc hominids, but also share certain similarities with later Homo erectus.

The site is 85 km south-west from Tbilissi, with good roads all the way. It is easy to find. The site is rather low-key. It is on a promontary created by the confluence of two rivers. Walls of the middle-age fortress are prominent. Inside the fortress, we find three nice churches, dating from the 6th to 9th centuries. The day of my visit, the site was full of Georgian schoolchildren, and the priest as happy to open the main chruch to visitors. The site of the …

Shatili is a historic highland village located in the isolated Arguni valley on the northern slope of the Greater Caucasus mountains. The village is described as « a unique complex of medieval-to-early modern fortresses and fortified dwellings of stone and mortar, which functioned both as a residential area and as a fortress ». It consists of the terraced structures dominated by flat-roofed dwellings and some 60 towers which cluster together to create a single chain of fortifications.

It is on the TL since 2007, based on criteria (v) of cultural landscape. The extend of the project are not clerly stated, but looking at WHS in Georgia, it probably only includes Shatili village. It woudl be a pity, as in my opinion, the entire valley is worth of OUV, including some other defensive towers or village-fortress like Mutso, about 10 km further dwon the road.

Shatlili is very well preserved, as most inhabitants were focibelay relocated in Gerogian lowlands in the 50’s. The empty village was used as a set for Georgian movies in the 60’s, and inhabitants came back in the 70’s. They came back in newly built houses at the bottom of the village, leaving the old village-fortress untouched. As for Mutso, inhabitants did not came back, leaving the area unspoilt. Most village have now been sensitively restored.

Shaltili can only be reached during summer. It is a 150 km from Tbilissi, of which 100 km are on dirt roads. It takes about 4 hours, climbing …

The slag heaps very visible when moving around in the Lens area gives a remaining memory. About 250 och around 350 made ones are left. There are som many aspects of this area as we can find belfries and WW1 memories everywhere. 

We come in contact with this WHS when visiting Louvre-Lens. This monumental new museum is built on the site of an old coal-mine. Some of it`s history shown in museum. Next to museum site is a complex of houses intended for miners who are inscribed in the WHS area and it is easy to stroll around in that area when having reached Louvre-Lens.

Also the monumental destroying of the area in WW1 gives a backdrop for the need for Germany to pay a lot for that destruction in later agreements. Now is 100 years since WW1 ended and there are not many traces left of the war except the many monuments and graves that are kind of everywhere. Farmland is fixed but if you go up to Canadian memorial place Wimy outside of Lens, we can see fields that are left as they were 1918 and just natural erosion has tried to level out the ground in the battlezone. Perhaps this is not in the WHS but it is very much in this area and we really can't move much in this WHS before seeing some WW1 memorial. I generally agree with the review of NAN 2017, also why the Belgian mines are not in the …

On a beautiful and sunny day in june 2018 I visited Sanatorium Zonnestraal. From my home to this site it is only a hour driving for me, so I decided to go with my car. With public transport (train/bus) it is also posible to visit this site, there is a busstop on the estate.

Sanatorium Zonnestraal was build in the years 1928-1931. The architect was Jan Duiker. The estate is almost 120 hectare and the original sanatorium contains 3 large buildings and some smaller buildings. The years after 1931 they build a lot more on the estate. There is a trail (5km) on the estate and so I hiked along all the buildings.

Zonnestraal was a aftercare institute for TBC patients from the diamond association. For the construction they used only cheap materials such as concrete, steel and glass. The building was build for a lifespan of only 30 years. The idea was that after 30 years there was a medical solution against TBC and then the buildings were no longer needed.

The buildings are nowadays used by some small companies such as a physiotherapist, dentist, fitness, a lunchroom and it is used for seminars. My impression was that Zonnestraal is very poorly maintained. Zonnestraal has been on the tentative list from the Netherlands since 1995. If the Netherlands ever seriously consider proposing Zonnestraal for a nomination, then they need a very good story and also a lot of maintenance is required.

I walked one and …

Love Quedlinburg. I find the city and all the old hoses best but outside is layers om buildings from 19th century and of course the magnificent and dramatic location of the cathedral and castle.

Some strange buildings from GDR-zeit still make ugly wounds somewhere but I liked this WHS a lot.

Site visited April 2018. After some more touristy sites in Peru, visiting Chavín was a pure pleasure: no crowds, souvenir sellers, touts and high entrance fees – just greenery, fresh mountain air, few tourists and, of course, a great site with nice museum.

Chavín de Huántar is located at the foothills of Cordillera Blanca mountain range at an elevation of 3200 metres. There are buses from Huaraz that take about three hours. I had a bit of travel fatigue so I decided to take a private transport. I negotiated a fairly good price with hotel staff. It took about two hours from Huaraz with a 4x4 vehicle which was a good choice because the road was in a quite bad condition at times. The highest point of the mountain road, the tunnel of Kahuish, is at 4500 metres. On the way to Chavín we made some short stops. One of the obvious stops is Lake Querococha which is a part of Huascaran National Park WHS.

When I entered the site it started to drizzle but it didn’t spoil my great mood. I paid a modest 15 soles entrance ticket and had a view around me. At first I wondered where are the temples and all but after a while I realised that I was at the backside of the site. The first overall feeling of the site is s bit shabby. There were some negligent roofs and scaffoldings that protect the ancient structures. River flows just beside the …

In July 2018 we took the opportunity to make our first ever visit to Jodrell Bank. We had seen it many times in the distance but, whilst we were in the area and with inscription possible/ probable (??) in 2019, it seemed worthwhile seeing fully what it has to offer. As the site is likely to receive heightened interest from WH travellers in the upcoming months the following info might be of interest both to those who are considering whether/when to visit as well as to those who will follow events from afar.

a. We arrived to find frenetic activity ongoing to complete a car park extension. Bad news of course! As from 5 Sept 2018 the, currently free, parking will cost £4 per vehicle in addition to the (as yet!) unchanged entry fees (Trying to visit the observatory by public transport could be an “adventure” - look to reach the village of Goostry, still a 30 min walk away!). Behind the car park, yet more construction was taking place. A new “First Light Pavilion” is going up with completion currently scheduled for late 2019/early 2020.

b. There are already 2 “pavilions” containing exhibitions for visitors to the site - The “Planet Pavilion” and the “Space Pavilion”. At the moment the former doubles as ticket office/cafe but also houses scientific displays whilst the latter showcases the main scientific aspects related to radio astronomy (a third building, the Star Pavilion, is only used for special …

With my visit to Visby over the past weekend, I finally ‘finished’ Sweden. I did so on a nightly public transport expedition of over 1,600 km: bike from my house to the local train station (5 min) – train to the airport (45 min) - fly Amsterdam to Stockholm (1.5 hr) – pricey Arlanda Express train to Stockholm central station (20 min) – Batbussen to Nynäshammn (45 min) – ferry to Visby (3h15 min), arriving at 5.45 in the morning. If you ever end up on the streets of Visby via the same early ferry, I’ve got two practical tips for you: (1) Marthas café opens early for breakfast, at 6 am on weekdays and 8 am on Saturday, and (2) there are hammocks for public use along the beach road next to the botanical garden to catch up on your sleep.

After breakfast and having tried to get some rest on a park bench (I only discovered the hammocks later in the day), I started my visit properly with a walk along the exterior of the city walls. They do not look that impressive coming from the harbour, but that's because it is the only part of the structure where the full circle is interrupted. The other 3.44 km of the total 3.6 km is intact.

The wall, which is up to 10 meters high, is reinforced every few meters by a tower. 36 of those are still standing and that adds to the wall’s majestic look. …

I visited this church on a trip from Reims to Le Havre. It has a very interesting history and we decided to make a stop there. The church has the highest gothic vault in the world which is remarkable enough. For whatever reason the people of this (today otherwise not very interesting) town planned to build the largest church in Europe. They built first the choir up to an incredible hight of 48 meters! Unfortunately the building collapsed, even more then once and it took them many years just to fix the damages. In the end the construction and reconstruction got so expensive that today we have just the choir and a transept without a nave! 

There is an excellent audio guide that you can rent and I spent about two hours following the ambitious and desperate history of this church. It shows the ultimate peak of gothic art and its technical failure. The high vault is a true marvel and the many high windows seem almost to resolve the wall. You can see the marvellous reflections on my pictures. This spiritual space is strangely contrasted by big beams which keep the church from collapsing. 

In the church you find the oldest fully preserved and functioning mechanical clock in Europe. Next to it is a highly complicated Beauvais Astronomical clock with moving figures from 1866. It is a marvel with clocks from different time zones, weather measurements, a last judgement and even a mechanism showing the tide at …

I travelled around Burgundy in 2016 and I was a bit surprised how important a cultural and religious center this area was in the middle ages. The famous reform order of Cluny founded hundreds of monasteries in a short time. Its mother church was the largest church of Christendom for about 500 years. When the order go too powerful and rich some monks founded a new order in Citeaux which turned into the cistercians with probable several thousand of monasteries all over the world. Sadly enough the both mother churches were largely or completely destroyed. Cluny was used as a quarry and only a small part is saved but is still very impressive. For fans of romanesque architecture this area is a real paradise almost every village has a castle and often remarkable parish church.

One of the most important and well conserved monasteries is definitively the early romanesque monastery of Tournus: St-Philibert. It is a bit younger then Cluny but a benedictine foundation. I was impressed by the castle like facade with two uneven towers. The west entrance of the church leads into a dark narthex with a low, heavy vault. Like the nave, it has three aisles. Above the narthex is the Chapel of St. Michael. A big three-naved plane room which seems even more spiritual though its plainness (picture). You can look up into the two towers with stairs in them but you cannot climb them. 

The chancel of the church is surrounded by a …

An aspect of Christiansfeld is that it must be one of the most northern cities in Germany for about 55 years. After the war Germany-Denmark 1864, the border was placed some kilometers north of Christiansfeld. (The German land survey marker still stands in a dike along the old highway.) Then, after 1 world war, the referendum about new border Denmark-Germany took C. back to Denmark. This border from 1920 still is in place and we can study the further aspects in the new WHS Hedeby and Danevirke in Germany.

Uplistsikhe Cave Town is another easy day trip from Tbilisi. I visited it on my last afternoon in Georgia. From Tbilisi’s Didube metro and bus station I took a shared taxi with destination Gori – the driver was calling for passengers at the metro exit. 5 of the 6 spots in his car were quickly sold, but the final one proved to be difficult. I had planned to arrive at Uplistsikhe at about 16.30 to have 1.5 hours at the site until it would close for the day, so I was not prepared to wait indefinitely. In the end I paid up another 5 lari to get the taxi going.

In Gori the driver dropped off everyone at his or her destination. Grabbing the commercial opportunity, he wanted to bring me all the way to Uplistsikhe (10 km away). Quite convenient for me, and I would worry about the return trip later (I easily found a taxi back to Gori).

Uplistsikhe turned out to be a fully developed tourist attraction, with a full parking lot, a souvenir shop and a café. You also have to pay an entrance fee here, a rarity in Georgia. It costs 7 lari (2,35 EUR).

The Cave Town of Uplistsikhe was inhabited since the 4th century BC. It developed into an important political, cultural and religious center in Antiquity. It remained inhabited until the 13th century. The city lies on a river and is built on and against a cliff. In its …

For this location I picked the Gimhae Daeseong-dong Tumuli due to easier map location, with Gimhae also being a rather large town instead of what appears to be in the middle of nowhere to find the other Haman Malisan Tumuli. Parking is just next to the large museum and the museum is entirely free! There is an information desk but the guy didn't speak anything but Korean so I just went ahead inside. The signs are available in Korean and English and are in great detail. I found out much more than expected. They also call this site as being "temporarily" listed as UNESCO rather than tentatively...interesting!

Once you go through the museum you can freely walk on top of the actual tumuli, a large burial mound and reminiscent of the Viking ones in Scandinavia. At the start is a burial chamber you can look inside with a few signs but overall it is just a walk to stretch your legs, making that small ascend for a higher overview of the site, and then making your way down towards the parking lot if you are done here.

Whereas the site is surely important for Korean history I'm not sure what they expect to see as unique value to the rest of the world.