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Sintra is the classic destination for a daytrip from Lisbon, and I did spend a full day there, but it would be quite easy and tempting to take it slowly and dedicate 2 or more days to the area. There is definitely plenty to see to keep you occupied for quite some time. The site is a cultural landscape consisting of the centre of the town of Sintra plus several palaces in the surrounding mountains that were the favourite retreat for Portuguese royalty and nobility for many centuries. There are various types of buses available, and I chose a hop-on hop-off day pass for just 5 EUR that makes the rounds to all major sights (they arrive reasonably on time, but are often stuck in the massive traffic jams). The first stop after the station is the town centre where the National Palace is located. This medieval royal residence is quite an interesting building famous for its conic chimneys and wooden ceilings with beautiful decorations. After that, I took the bus up the winding mountain roads to Sintra's true highlight - the Pena Palace. This is really a fantastic sight, looking like a movie set or Disney attraction. As mentioned below, both Gaudi and Disney seem to have been inspired by its unique architecture and multi-coloured buildings. It is really a joy to walk around the site (still quite a long walk uphill from the bus stop) and enjoy the panoramic views over the mountains. Back in Sintra, I finished …

Targu Jiu in Romania, where I stayed overnight in January, has its "Monumental Ensemble" nominated.

All the monuments, from west to east, "Table of the Silence," "Gate of the Kiss, "Church of the Saints-Apotres-Pierre-et-Paul," and "Infinity Column" are on one street "Calea Eroilor," in the center of Targu Jiu. So the nominated property centers on this street, and they have been trying to put this street in shape for the future inscription consideration.

The Infinity Column was visible from far away.

It just so happened that I had dinner (photo) on that night at the hotel "Europa" right on Calea Eroilor.

Although this dish itself has nothing to do with the nomination, and the making of it is not on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list of UNESCO, it does come from the nominated property and is one of the Romanian staples called "Tochitură," pan-fried pork in a spicy tomato sauce, served around polenta and cheese with a raw egg yoke hidden in between. It was a surprise when I found the yoke.

In the morning before the flight from Paris back to Berlin I decided to visit the Taittinger Cellar of the Champagne WHS so that I can finish off this part of France.

After some scuffle with the French police at the Gare de Paris-Est (while I was using a toilet on TGV, 2 men stole my wheeled bag from the luggage rack only to be arrested once they got off the train with my bag, all before the departure), I arrived at the Cellar in Reims in time for my English tour.

The tour was fine, and the glass of Champagne to cap the tour was even finer. I believe the color of their product, shown in the photo, seconds the OUV of this WHS.

But I regretted that this trip to Reims was so hastily organized that I didn't manage my time in Reims well and couldn't even view the phantasmagorical Pommery Champagne house. I did manage, however, to squeeze in a visit to the St. Remi Abbey, another WHS, near the Taittinger Cellar.

I'm not sure how many people here visit the same WHSs again and again, but I seem to be one of them.

This was my second time in Reims, but this time I actually went back for Champagne.

The photo shows how the Reims Cathedral looks like today. There is no scaffolding, but the fact that the top of the church is still dark means that they have not completely cleaned it yet. So we can still expect the scaffolding to reappear at some point.

After seeing this cathedral again, I walked all the way to the Taittinger Chanpagne Cellar, not knowing which bus to take to the Cellar.

While waiting for my tour at the Cellar, I bought a croissant and a cup of coffee at a bakery and walked for a few blocks to the St. Remi Abbey, another part of this WHS, to have breakfast at the square in front of the church.

One of the most outstanding of UK’s long list of World Heritage Site is that the list contained at least 3 bridges that represent the rapid development of technology on bridge construction after the Industrial Revolution, Ironbridge, Pontcysyllte and the Forth Bridge. To be honest when I visited those bridges in England and Wales, I felt a bit underwhelmed and disappointed, but when I saw the Forth Bridge and looked back to Ironbridge, I felt awed and admired how mankind can achieve.

On late afternoon, I drove to Queensferry on the way back from Falkirk, the gigantic bridge could be seen faraway. And when I was in the old city quarter, the bridge was like a giant protecting the whole city. The whole city was really quiet, only few people I saw, I parked my car and took many photos of the bridge. One local woman walked pass me while I set up my tripod and said to me with proud “Such a great sight, isn’t it?” and I wholeheartedly agreed with her.

Even though I spent my time in Queensferry to get the best shot of this iconic bridge for less than 30 minutes, I felt that the Forth Bridge is a worthwhile place to visit as one of Scottish landmarks and mankind engineering great milestones achievement and definitely a really good World Heritage Site.

As magnificent as it is, Edinburgh had escaped from my itineraries for a while, perhaps due to its a bit out-of-the-way location; this was only my 3rd visit to Edinburgh.

It's always such a pleasure to stroll here.

One thing to note about the Edinburgh WHS is that the New Town is already 3 centuries old and is noted for the Neoclassical architecture. The New Town also has a lot of explore.

After I visited New Lanark initially, I had no desire to write the review since strangely most of my experience on this industrial village was similar to Tsunami’s recent review, while I agreed with most of the review, I think I should write at least something good from my visit to New Lanark.

Traveling to see UK’s World Heritage Sites mandatorily made me to visit at least 3 industrial villages, Saltaire, Derwent Valley and New Lanark, and in my opinion all of them are really poor in terms of presentation and managements. I did not have any nice memory to remember on Derwent Valley nor any word to praise on my visit to Saltaire, so I did not expect anything from my visit to New Lanark. And my low expectation kept me to be OK with this place where similar problem I saw in Saltaire and Derwent reoccurred again. But at least I felt the management on New Lanark is slightly better. The lovely location and beautiful natural surroundings also help a lot to make the visit worthwhile.

Contrast to Tsunami’s, I found its award-winning ice cream is really good and a must try if you visit this place especially the vanilla one. Its cafeteria was also quite OK if there is no noisy school trip and have shepherd’s pie. And I think this is the easiest place to see the emblem of UNESCO World Heritage Site that write in Scottish Gaelic - Dualchas na Cruinne.

Although I initially visited Pirin National Park WHS in summer 2010, I went back there for skiing at the Bansko ski resort, located within the Pirin NP, in January.

Both times I took the narrow gorge train from Septemvri to Bansko and took bus back to Sofia. The scenery from the train was quite pleasant both in summer and in winter.

As it turns out, the ski resort is located within the buffer zone of the WHS; however, if you look at the map of the WHS, you see that the buffer zone is almost surrounded by the core zone, which means that it appears as if the ski resort is oddly protected by the core zone of the WHS.

This photo shows part of the pistes in the buffer zone to the left and the core zone to the right.

After abandoning visits to 4 WHSs and wasting 4 full days in north-eastern Bulgaria due to winter closure and massive snow, I was able to visit only one new WHS in Bulgaria during this trip: the Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak, which is open year-around no matter what.

But there were at least two surprises.

The first was that the interior of the real tomb has not been accessible for the general public since 2013, and the only option was to visit a replica of the tomb they created recently for a few Euros. Remembering how meticulously the replica of the Lascaux Cave was created (Lascaux ll) in France , I went with that option. After all, Kazanlak was inscribed in the same year as Lascaux (and Pyramids of Egypt and Grand Canyon). 

The second and bigger surprise came after I paid a few Euros. After the fiasco in north-eastern Bulgaria, I had a somewhat high expectation for this site, particularly with the replica of Lascaux in my mind. When I walked through a narrow entrance hall to the small round tomb, however, I was stunned that there were no further rooms to explore. This is what I waited for 4 days??? Is this a life-size replica or a miniature-size replica, if such a thing is possible?

The space was like a dome with the floor diameter of 3 meters and the height of also 3 meters. The ceiling did have some intricate frescoes, as you can …

I visited Batalha as part of an organized daytrip from Lisbon (together with Alcobaca, Óbidos, Nazaré and Fatima), so, just like in Alcobaca, we only had a limited amount of time available there. The monastery is much more impressive from the outside than Alcobaca, but we only had a chance for a quick look through the interior. The complex was built to commemorate a 14th-century battle against the Spanish and then served as a burial place for several kings and nobles. It is similar to the Hieronymite Monastery in Lisbon in its impressive, but a bit over-the-top Gothic/Manueline architecture.

I visited Alcobaca as part of an organized daytrip from Lisbon (together with Batalha, Óbidos, Nazaré and Fatima), so we only had a limited amount of time available there. Basically, we just got a look around the huge main church, but not at the rest of the monastery complex. The church is the largest in Portugal and features the Royal Pantheon where 3 kings of Portugal are buried. The most famous sarcopahagi, and the main reason so many tourists visit the church, are those of King Pedro I. and his mistress Ines who had an ill-fated love story in the 14th century.

With 4 days left in my October 2016 trip to the USA I had arranged for myself an excursion to a third WHS of the trip. I caught a subway and a bus to New York’s domestic-only La Guardia airport to catch an American Eagle flight 300 miles southwest to the city of Charlottesville, Virginia.

On arrival I took a fairly expensive taxi to my hotel in the city and had a walk around the university's tranquil campus. I read in Christopher Hitchens' biography of Jefferson that his motivation for building the university was to limit the exposure of Southern minds to what he perceived as the propaganda of Northern universities in New England.

The next morning I took another costly cab to Monticello, a few miles outside town. There is a nearby hill that rises higher than Monticello, meaning whoever occupies it would have a great view of Jefferson’s estate. In recent years a developer announced plans to build condos there, but the trustees of Monticello – determined to prevent the surrounding area being despoiled – raised $15 million to buy the land themselves. By happy coincidence, $15 million is exactly the same amount that Jefferson as president paid Napoleon’s France in 1803 to purchase all the lands west of the Mississippi, doubling the size of his country at the stroke of a pen.

I visited the Lady in October 2016 with my New York resident friend Jeffrey. Our tickets allowed us – after two security screenings – to visit the ‘pedestal’, which is surprisingly high up, making for a decent cityscape of the skyscrapers of Manhattan.

I’d like to have visited the crown, but it sells out months in advance. Prior to 1916 the public was actually allowed up to the small balcony that surrounds the torch itself. The original glass torch is now housed at ground level in the pedestal, having been replaced with a more weather-resistant gold-plated torch in the 1980s.

One of the more interesting exhibits in the Statue's museum is a collection of retaining steel brackets, every one of them custom-made to fit the contours of the statue and hold it in place.

In October 2016 my friend Jeffrey and I took a coach from New York to Philadelphia for the day for the purpose of touring Independence Hall.

It costs nothing to go on the tours, which are conducted by official Park Rangers from the US Parks Service. Our guide, Larry, showed us the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, as well as the former home of the US Senate and House of Representatives (they were based in Philadelphia after moving from New York but before Washington, D.C. was ready to receive them).

The concepts of freedom and democracy these men espoused (though they cared less about slavery) have since spread around much of the world and changed it largely for the better. The USA was the first democracy in modern times, standing in contrast to the monarchies that would still control most of the rest of the world decades or centuries later.

Later that week I travelled to the home of Jefferson in Virginia, which, like Independence Hall, features on US currency (the nickel and the $100 bill, respectively).

Many think that a visit to Derbent is our of the reach of an independent Western traveler. Dagestan has a very bad reputation as a troublesome region with high crime rate and as a source of jihadist threat. Practically all Western countries issued travel warnings, discouraging travelers to go there, and even Moscovite Russians have a firm conviction that Dagestan is a dangerous place. But -if you venture to go there - literally everybody will try to convince you that there is no calmer and friendlier place on Earth than Dagestan. And after two days I was ready to believe rather them than my own bureaucrats in the ministries.

But let us see the practical side: Travelling to Dagestan is not difficult at all, there are no restrictions, extra permits, checkpoints, you can get the visa with the normal procedure, and travel around freely. From Moscow there are a lot of flights daily to Mahachkala. If you book the ticket well in advance a fares are quite low - 40-60 euros one way. I was flying Utair, a low cost company based in Moscow's Vnukovo airport. (Advisable for those who understand Russian as they do not have English website.) From Mahachkala airport you have to take a taxi to the bus station (avtovokzal), from where there are innumerable marshrutkas going to Derbent. As a rule they leave when full, but normally as I realized you don't have to wait more than a couple of minutes. The bigger ones (Gazella minibuses) …

I visited the Monastery of Horezu WHS at about 8.30 on a Wednesday morning in early January 2017 by a rental car.

Anybody was able to enter the monastery compound freely for free at that time.

There was some sort of service going on in the main church of the monastery, in which photo is not allowed even without flash.

I walked around the compound to find a small chapel (photo left) further up the hill.

The entrance had double doors, a grill door first and a wooden door second. The grill door was locked, so I could not enter. But the wooden door was open, so I could see what's inside through the grill door. There was no sign for no photo, so I was able to get a snap of the interior (photo right).

You can spend many pleasant hours wandering around this huge complex, a mixture of a castle and a monastery. It was founded in the 12th century by the Knights Templar, and then extended and enlarged throughout the following centuries, even after the Order of the Knights Templar was officially dissolved (which didn't really happen in Portugal, anyway; they just changed their name into Order of Christ). Today it's a great mixture of Gothic, Baroque and Manueline elements, with 8 cloisters and the fantastic octagonal church, built after the example of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Tomar itself is a pretty town with a direct train connection to Lisbon. The walk from the station to the convent takes about 20 minutes, and only the very last part is uphill. It's a great site that you should take some time to explore.

Giant's Causeway, in Northern Ireland, exceeds expectations. This geologic formation of hexagonal basalt columns extending into the ocean is a natural playground for visitors, and I had a great time exploring the rocks in September 2015. The same volcanic processes that created these columns also created similar rock formations on the island of Staffa off the west coast of Scotland, and Irish legend has tied the two together with folk tales. On the Irish side, Giant's Causeway is located at the bottom of a hill on the north coast, and when I approached in late afternoon, the waves were crashing loudly against the rocks. The columns spike up at varying levels, creating an uneven surface upon which to walk, but from above, the hexagons appear rather like a giant gameboard for Settlers of Catan. I thoroughly enjoyed spending a couple of hours wandering to and from the ocean along the rock columns, and I am glad Northern Ireland has such a fine location as its only entry on the World Heritage Site list. This is a landscape not to be missed!

Logistics: Giant's Causeway can be reached by a combination of train or bus from either Belfast or Londonderry, but it may be more easily reached by private transportation.

It's not an easy place to get to but it's worth the effort. I organised a driver from Siem Reap and that was definitely the easiest way to do it. Although there's a lot of military around, there was no hassle getting into the site.

It's a really interesting site and there's a fair amount to see. A few hours is enough time to get around it all properly, though. I would definitely recommend making the side trip from Angkor to also see Preah Vihear.

“You don’t need luck. You need good shoes!”, fellow WH traveller Nan e-mailed me when I told him to wish me luck ticking off the Par force hunting landscape. He was so right, and I’d like to add to others that plan to visit this WHS: also bring snacks, something to drink and a smartphone with GPS. And do read up a bit about what par force hunting entails beforehand.

From the 3 main components of this WHS, I had set my sights on Store Dyrehave (“large deer park”). Both Store Dyrehave and a formerly connected second component, Gribskov, lie near the town of Hillerød (the third, Jaegersborg, is located closer to Copenhagen, sees a whopping 7.5 million visitors a year and is already well-covered on this website).

Getting to Hillerød already did not prove to be as easy as internet research had led me to believe. Part of the direct S-train route was blocked, so passengers had to be transported by bus to the final destination. This added another 20 minutes to the 1-hour trip from Copenhagen Airport.

Having finally arrived at the station in Hillerød, you'll just have to walk. There is no signposting at all. Beforehand I had carefully studied the route to the deer park and downloaded a map of the area to my phone. Both actions proved necessary, not at least to find the "right" patch of forest: a remarkably similar forest lies on the other side of the main road Københavnsvej …