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“20th C technology” and “post WWII architecture” are 2 under-represented inscribed themes. Czechia’s Jested TV Mast could help to fill both gaps, so we decided to take a look as we passed nearby in Sep 2017.

It is situated on top of Jested Mountain, a 1012 m quartz peak in NW Czechia. A wooden hotel had been built at the summit in 1906 and a cable car followed in 1933. In 1963, however, the hotel burned down. The mountain was then chosen for the construction of a TV tower and the architectural tender as issued required the construction of 2 buildings - a TV tower and a small “replacement” hotel/restaurant. The winning Modernist design, however, combined the 2 in a single building with a striking conical form to create a unique skyline. Construction took from 1966 to 1973 and the Architect Karel Hubáček was awarded the “Perret Award” in 1969. This is given every 3 years by the International Union of Architects for “Technology applied to Architecture”. Other recipients have since included, 1978 - Piano and Rogers, 1987 - Calatrava , 2002 - Foster. So, it is no “minor” honour.

Our initial plan included an overnight at the hotel. I had to wait some weeks before a vacancy became available on Booking.com for our required date. Room prices were around £64 double with shared bathroom and £110 with private facilities. Even the former was somewhat above our normal guideline level for hotels but, what …

Although I had been to the Heinrich National Park before, I stopped at the Grumsin area of the MAB Reserve in September 2017. Both are part of this Primeval Beech Forest WHS in Germany (as well as in 11 other countries).

A bus from Angermünde dropped me off right in front of the WHS Info Center in Altkunkendorf, but this 30 min. public bus ride that went around the most rural area I have ever seen in the state of Brandenburg was like a roller coaster ride and is highly recommended.

The couple at the Info Center was extremely helpful and recommended me to take a combination of two color-coded hiking trails in the area during the 5 hours I had there.

But the trails only go around the core zone, and the couple had told me that it was prohibited to walk into the core zone (as it is in the Shirakami Mountains Beech Forest WHS in Japan). Although I saw several trails that branched out into the core zone without any prohibiting signs, I didn't bother walking in, as all beech trees looked like the same to me.

But because I had only driven through the Heinrich NP, this leisurely hiking, breathing the O2 emitted by the WH beech trees, was a much nicer experience.

Visited September 2017

If you’re looking for perfect photo opportunities, this is not the sites for you. It is just a countryside. But the value of this nomination lays in its history. I have visited 3 (Frederiksoord, Wilhelminaoord, Willemsoord) of 7 components, all not very far from Steenwijk, the town that can be reached from Amsterdam by train. I think the best way is to start in Frederiksoord (take the bus 19 from the Steenwijk train station) where a small museum is open. The museum itself is a bit disappointing, ‘cos they have only one small building with some expositions, mostly with pictures, but at least you can hear and watch an audio-visual presentation about Johannes van den Bosch and the beginning of the colonies. Another bad thing is that they do sell only Dutch publications and nothing in English. After visiting the museum I made a tour of the first colony – Frederiksoord; it is where everything started. Among others you can see here Westerbeek house, the headquarters of the Society of Benevolence from 1818 till now. (The building itself is older the Society, it was constructed in XVII century for Jean François van Westerbeek, the commander of the fortress in Steenwijk, and then it passed to the van Royen family (silk traders) before being sold to van Bosch.) The other interesting buildings are two schools: forestry and horticultural, Frederiksoord hotel (which was built before the Society’s guests started coming to visit the area) and de Bakkerij (now B&B); …

The City of Quito has been on the WH List since its beginnings in 1978. The Ecuadoreans were quick off the mark, with the Galapagos Islands also inscribed that year. From its foundation in 1534, the city always has played an important political, economic and cultural role in northern South America. During its heydays between the 16th and 18th centuries, numerous churches, convents, colleges and universities were founded. Still, Quito does not have the ring to it of Rio de Janeiro or Buenos Aires and isn’t a tourist magnet in its own right. Most people visit it as an obligatory stop-over on their way to the Galapagos Islands.

Nicknamed ‘Florence of the Americas’, the city is high on religious art and architecture. In the retrospective Statement of Outstanding Universal Value, much emphasis is given to the Quito School of Art. In this fusion style, indigenous artists executed Spanish religious concepts. It resulted in an extreme degree of ornamentation, with bloody displays of wounds, the abundant use of gold leaf paint and the substitution of traditional European natural iconography with local flora and fauna.

I started my tour of Quito’s religious buildings at the Cathedral and the Jesuit church, located in the street next to it. Both have in common that they are marketed as “museums”, and thus charge a moderate entry fee and prohibit any photography. They also charge different fees for Ecuadorean citizens and foreigners, unfortunately not an uncommon practice in Ecuador. However, they do give you …

Back in Aug 2015, our visit to Spiennes had been enhanced by a talk from a Polish academic who was assisting with the ongoing excavations there and just happened to lecturing on “Flint mines in Poland” to a gathering of specialists that afternoon in the lecture hall at the Visitor Centre. We were invited to attend and began to realise just how much there was to know about this subject! Mention was made of the flint mine at Krzemionki and I mentally “pencilled in” an intention to visit it if I ever found myself in that part of Poland…… thus it was that we were there just over 2 years later in mid Sep 2017 at opening time!

The site is situated around 8kms from the industrial city of Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski. We were travelling by car in a reasonably straight line between Bialowieza (c300kms NE) towards Krakow (still another 170kms SW) - and currently there isn’t a single WHS in this part of Poland between the 2! Apart from Warsaw and Torun, Poland’s WHS are mainly scattered around its periphery and there seems little reason for non Polish tourists to visit the area other than to “pass through”. We were somewhat surprised to find a large modern visitor centre set in this nondescript countryside. It turned out that over half the visitors to the site are Polish school children. The site also includes a “Nature Park” and a reconstructed “Stone Age Village” and is linked with an …

My wife and I visited Jungfrau in August 2017. We managed to luck out with our visit, with super clear skies and reasonable temperatures both in the valley and up top. Given the prices and the crowds, I would strongly recommend purchasing the "Good Morning" ticket, which offers a substantial discount (down to about 120 CHF per person). You need to be on one of the first two trains up in the morning (departing Grindelweld at 7:25 or 7:40), and then descend again from the mountain by around 1:30pm.

Staying in Grindelweld, we managed to make it up on the first train, skipped over the first parts of the tour and were on the first elevator to the top of the observatory, meaning that we had it entirely to ourselves for about 10 minutes. Fantastic! Though it did fill up with obnoxious tour groups after about 45 minutes.

I would also strongly recommend doing the glacier walk out to the far viewpoint, as you get a completely different view of the area. Although it's shown as 45 minutes, it's probably closer to an hour unless you're an experienced snow walker. We took an hour, though our miniature dachshund (teckel) slowed us down quite a bit!

All in all, a great day and we were very glad of doing the research to get the cheaper tickets, making it up before some of the crowds, and descending early afternoon for a rest and a well deserved beer.

See below for my full …

I visited this WHS in September 2017. I arrived at La Linea at sunrise and parked my car at the closest indoor car park to the border named Fo-cona. Just a quick look at your passport by the Gibraltar customs officials and I made it through to Gibraltar.

I visited on a Sunday because I had booked the Gorham's cave and dolphin tour and missed out on visiting the Gibraltar Museum. I was rather disappointed as the only difference from any other dolphin tour is a short cruising by the inscribed cave complex and the recorded commentary. There's nothing spectacular or anything which you can't see from the viewing platform or pavement at Europa Advance Road - just a slightly different angle.

My next stop was in fact Europa Point. I bought the all day Hoppa bus ticket for 3 euros from the bus driver and stopped next to the mosque. From there I walked to the concrete viewing platform and climbed over the useless gate to enjoy the view (top left photo). Next to the closed info booth (still no information boards) is the UNESCO inscription plaque (bottom left photo). It's a pity that the Gibraltar politicians were quick on the mark to unveil the UNESCO plaque shortly after inscription but then were not able to supply some sort of make shift information board until the viewing platform project is finalised.

I kept on walking till Catalan bay to see different parts of the Gibraltar nature reserves and already …

I visited this WHS in September 2017. I allowed 2 half days for both towns and spent a night in Baeza.

Ubeda is the better ensemble of the pair with more interesting Renaissance buildings and more to see. Baeza is mostly famous for its neatly carved fountains and the still active old university with a facade which reminded me of the Lonja de la Seda in Valencia.

You won't gain much in terms of OUV (if there is any) by visiting the church and palace interiors. However, if you have some time, I'd recommend going for the El Salvador Holy Chapel which is closed during siesta time. The highlight of my visit was the facade and square of the El Salvador Holy Chapel (photo). The church facade in a way is quite similar to the one in Vezelay, France. The UNESCO inscription plaque (with no mention of Baeza) is placed on the right hand side (closest to the fountain) of the Vazquez de Molina Palace.

In the middle of the historic centre of Baeza there is a bronze sign on the floor just after a pedestrian crossing but it is hardly recognisable. Both towns are very close to each other and both historic centres can be easily covered on foot. In Ubeda, I used the convenient indoor parking named Aparcamientos Ubeda in Plaza Andalucia while in Baeza I just parked my rental car in front of the hotel.

Both towns are quite similar to Pienza in Italy but are still …

Sangay National Park is a rarely visited WHS in the central highlands of Ecuador. Only 17 community members were there before me, resulting in an 874th spot in the ranking of Most Visited Sites. That’s less than Zabid (Yemen) or Ilulissat Icefjord (Greenland) for example. It would be interesting to find out how the other visitors approached Sangay, especially before the controversial construction of the Guamote-Macas road. I did it the same way as the only other reviewer so far (Jay T): with a car and driver/guide arranged by Julio Verne Travel in Riobamba. They also advertise downhill bike tours along that road and can arrange multi-day hikes into the area.

The WHS covers only about half of Sangay National Park: the most restricted area. When you drive along the Guamote-Macas road, you’ll be in the core zone for only 8 km. The map from 2009 at the UNESCO website clearly shows the road at the southwestern tip, plus a lake system called Lagunas Magdalenas right beside it. Confusingly, their popular name is the Atillo Lakes (named after the nearby village). The outline of my day trip was to visit these lakes and drive all the way down the Guamote-Macas road to a town called 9 de Octubre, to see the landscape change from subalpine Páramo grasslands to subtropical rainforest (one of the key features of this WHS).

Driving up from Riobamba, the scenery starts with rich agricultural lands. The lava soil is nutritious. One of the main …

As some others were described I will focus on less popular: Talgar (Kazakhstan) and Suyab - Ak Beshim (Kyrgyzstan), both visited in July, 2017.

Talgar can be easily visited from Almaty town as a half-day trip. There is a convenient public bus from Sayakhat Bus Terminal (Avtovokzal Sayakhat) that goes directly to Talgar town (last bus stop). From town center there are around 3 km to the archeological excavations. From bus station cross the bridge and take the first main street to the right and follow the main road up the river. The place should be at the end of the street. Mind that there are no road-signs but at least local people know it and can direct you provided you know some Russian.

In fact coordinates on our website are wrong as they show a place in the city center. Good coordinates are 43°16'47.1"N 77°13'19.0"E as they should show the the place called on Google Maps “Талгарское Городище” (Talgar Borough). Archeological remains covers relatively huge area although there is not much left apart from the reconstructed town gate (on the photo). There area is currently utilized as grazing ground for sheep, horses and cattle. Reconstructed town gate is interesting but during my visit it was closed (no information about opening hours).

Suyab (Ak-Beshim) can be easily visited together with Burana as it is located some 12 km from the site. Moreover I was surprised that taxi drivers knows the place (and the way how to get). …

I visited this WHS in September 2017 en route to Ubeda and Baeza. It is only 45 minutes away from Malaga airport and for the time being is completely free of charge.

The tholos' architecture is very similar to the later ones in Mycenae, Greece and is the most iconic of the lot. Its location is in the middle of an industrial estate and dump but in a way these eyesores are now guarded by an enclosure of trees which reminded me of the idyllic landscape of Val d'Orcia, Italy.

Coming from Malaga, it makes sense to see this site first and afterwards head towards Antequera proper to visit the Conjunto Arqueologico Dolmenes de Antequera and the Menga and Viera Dolmens. The latter is nothing more than a stone tunnel with a broken dolmen entrance while the former is actually a burial mound or tumulus with a dolmen entrance and a supported roof (photo). It is quite similar to some of the dolmens of Malta and Gozo but only made up of one chamber and covered. From here you get a gorgeous view of olive groves and the Pena de los Enamorados which might have been considered sacred in Neolithic times. From the dolmen, the Pena de los Enamorados looks like the face of man lying down.

Although I enjoyed the El Torcal nature reserve for its incredible karst formations and some birdwatching, I think there is no link to the dolmen sites.

Having visited several Neolithic sites, the ones …

When I heard that France would have opened the new Lascaux International Center known as Lascaux IV, I immediately wanted to visit this new museum which seemed to be a great place to see. The tickets are easy to secure by online booking from the Lascaux’s website (which could be improved a lot) even if not all guided tours are on display, but since my visit happened last week (September), there were plenty of free slot of tour to choose. They cost 16€, a remarkable price I should say. The village of Montignac is easy to reach only by car though.

As other people said, the museum complex building is modern and well integrated with the nearby landscape. Professional guides accompany groups of max 32 persons (commencing every six minutes) from the site’s welcome desk to the exit of the reproduction of the cave. After being guided to the roof in the open air to explain the environment of Vezere River Valley, listening to a dog barking sound and voice of chasing boys to replicate the time when they discovered Lascaux in a small open corridor next to the forest, seeing a presentation of what this area looked like in ancient time, we finally entered a kind of replica of Lascaux Cave. Inside the replica, the atmosphere is like a real cave. It is cool and dark. They say this space is dedicated to “contemplation”, so, even if you are staring at replicas you are not allowed to take any …

They just call it ‘Cuenca’ in Ecuador, but with the Spanish Cuenca also inscribed we have two WHS with the same name! So for the website, I’m sticking to its full name: Santa Ana de los Rios de Cuenca. Looking at the current state of our connections, links, reviews (1) and photos (1) for this WHS, not many previous visitors found anything to write home about or even had a critical look at its specific site page. So with Cuenca being the first stop on my Ecuador trip, it’s now time for a makeover.

Adding additional links proved to be hard. Actually, none of the key attractions of the city has a functioning website. I found a number of blog posts from mainly Americans living in the city glorifying life there, but most were too shallow to warrant a link. I eventually settled for 5 Things You Can't Miss In Cuenca's Cathedral of Immaculate Conception. The best website about Cuenca still is the official one from the local tourist department. It does have comprehensive listings of churches, museums etc with their opening hours. I used it in planning my itinerary for the day, as it has so much more detail compared to what I had been able to find elsewhere.

I easily found 11 additional connections to characterize Cuenca. The New Cathedral, the city’s main landmark, in itself, is a rich source. It was designed by a German friar, has 3 blue glazed domes, Carrara marble on the …

The Medina of Tetouan was the second goal of our 2017 WH Travellers Meetup. This Moroccan city can easily be reached on a day trip from the Spanish south coast. We did so by taking an early morning ferry from Algeciras to Ceuta, and then moved on by a pre-arranged minibus to Tetouan for the final 40km. Crossing the border proved to be easy for pedestrians, although the Iranian visa on the passports of some of our group raised a few eyebrows.

Tetouan always has been culturally close to Spain. The city derives its character from the arrival of Spanish-Arab refugees at the end of the 15th century when the last Jews and Muslims were expelled from Andalusia. Later on, it even was the capital of the Spanish protectorate of Morocco (1913-1956). A reminder of that is the early 20th-century church at the Moulay el Mehdi square in the modern part of town, where we were dropped off by our driver. A guide took us from there through a lively shopping street, until we arrived at the Hassan II square. This is fully fenced off, so as to not get too close to the Royal Palace which is the prominent feature of this square.

The old city starts right behind the palace, and that’s probably where we entered the core zone of the WHS. It isn’t 100% clear which parts of Tetouan are actually included, thanks to probably the worst map ever available on the UNESCO website. But …

My wife and I stayed for a week in Strasbourg in August 2017. It's an extremely beautiful city, not too touristy, much more affordable than other French cities (especially Paris), and there's quite a bit to see.

The area known as Petite-France with its picturesque houses, the lovely canal, the imposing Notre-Dame cathedral and of course the little alleyways running everywhere.

Recently, Strasbourg was extended as well to cover another area, the German-developed Neustadt or New Town, located across the river from the medieval city. It's striking just how different the planning, layout and architecture is over here, representing the development of new European ideas, particularly after the revolutions of 1848.

Check out the link below for my full video review!

I visited this WHS as a day trip from St Petersburg in September 2017. The old city of Veliky Novgorod lies some 200km away from St Petersburg and is quite easily reachable by train, bus or car.

Since I wanted to visit early before the very few Russian tourists and since I found a good chauffeur service offer, I opted for the latter and arrived at around 9am. The Kremlin opens at 6am but all the buildings are accessible as of 10am, apart from the main church where a lovely Sunday mass was being celebrated. There's just a small billboard stating Novgorod's inscription on the WH list but no plaque.

After a short stroll around the buildings within the Kremlin, I headed towards the bridge which crosses the Volkhov River and which leads to Yaroslav's court and marketplace. The panoramic view from the bridge is breathtaking on a sunny day with the red Kremlin wall and the church onion-domes (photo). There are a number of pretty old churches with different Russian architectural styles opposite the Kremlin and some have very old frescoes still visible. The cathedral of St Nicholas is worthy of mention for its colourful fragments of frescoes from the 12th century.

If you're not in a hurry I recommend walking around the Kremlin walls to be able to appreciate the different towers. In the afternoon, I also visited the Yuryev (St George) monastery and the colourful interior of the Cathedral of St George.

All in all I really …

I visited Saint Petersburg for 4 days in September 2017. Having visited Moscow last year it was quite easy for me to compare both cities and both are interesting cities to visit. Both cities are in my top 200 WHS and they didn't disappoint.

It's easier to cover the historic centre of Saint Petersburg on foot and overall I felt it has a much more European feel with several churches, palaces, monasteries and cathedrals with European architecture and just a handful of onion-domed ones.

The baroque exterior of the hermitage/winter palace (photo) is as striking as it's never-ending interior and its location in the palace square and on the Neva river bank is exquisite. The canal, fairway and drawbridge boat tour is a very pleasant way to explore the historic centre and beyond.

A stroll to the Peter and Paul Fortress (incredible drone or Google Earth view) is a must and apart from the panoramic view of the Neva river and overall lack of high-rise buildings, here you will find the UNESCO inscription plaque. Vasilievsky Island is the maritime heart of the city.

The exterior of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood is less colourful and extravagant than St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow but its mosaic interior more than make up for this.

On separate half day bus/ferry trips I also visited the Peterhof Palace and Gardens often referred to as the Russian Versailles. My favourite highlights here were the Portrait Room and the lovely fountains with golden …

I visited Pera at the end of March, and spent a day and a half exploring the site.

Some tips:

-wear closed toed shoes! So many little pebbles got in my shoes.

-it's much larger than it seems from the outside. Give yourself all day.

-Petra at night isn't super exciting, but it is beautiful

-Bring water!

Here's the post on my website with an interview from Jane Taylor, author of "Petra and the Lost Kingdom of the Nabataeans:"

Discovering the Lost City of Petra

I visited two properties that are part of this serial site in August of 2017 and three more in June of 2018.

In an otherwise nondescript Rabastens, Notre-Dame-du-Bourg may end up as the first impression that is impossible to beat. The exterior is stately enough, but the interior is simply dazzling. Most vivid colorful frescoes, brilliant stained glass, every little detail is just impossible to take your eyes off. Some parts of the walls are in need of restoration; there was a local conservation worker examining those throughout my visit. The out-of-the-way nature of this church was underscored by the fact that the custodian and I were the only people inside the church for over half an hour. The place was definitely worth the time.

My second target was in Toulouse, at the Basilique St-Sernin. It is among the biggest churches on the pilgrimage route. The intricate bell tower is one of the architectural highlights, but the interior of the basilica was somewhat underwhelming for my taste. It is impressive in a way any big church's interior is, but also sparsely decorated to the point of being on the bland side. The marble altar is undeniably beautiful and don't get me wrong, there are a few other fine features, sculptures, and paintings. The main entry is free, but access to ambulatory and the crypt requires a payment of €2.50. Overall, a worthwhile investment.

The abbey church of St-Avit-Seineur has several fresco remains, but otherwise is a typical …

Like many of my age, I suspect, my introduction to Petra was via "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", which used the iconic façade of the Treasury to represent a temple housing the legendary Holy Grail. Petra is easily the most recognizable site in Jordan, and was, not surprisingly, the first Jordanian World Heritage Site in 1985. The rock passage through the Siq to this ancient Nabatean city is memorable by day, but even more magnificent during Petra by Night, when the canyon and Treasury are lit up by candles. The ancient music left a bit to be desired for me, but I enjoyed the atmosphere and the shadowy reflections flickering on the rock faces. There is a lot to see in Petra, and long walks are almost guaranteed, unless you take up one of the many offers for camel or donkey rides. I particularly enjoyed the hike to the Monastery at the back of the city, as well as the climb to the High Place of Sacrifice, which offers amazing views of the ancient city below (bring water). At the front entrance to Petra is a museum which provides background on and context for the Nabatean tribes who built the city. Petra does not disappoint!

Logistics: Petra may be visited via private transportation, or by day tour from Amman, Jordan, or Aqaba, Israel; I'd recommend staying overnight outside Petra in order to fully appreciate the site. Tickets are also discounted for guests staying at least one night in Jordan. …