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My long time Czech friend Radim recently moved from Brno to a town near Nachod near the Polish border, and upon visiting him from Wroclaw, Poland, I mentioned to him that I'm interested in visiting the TWHS of the Betlém Rock Sculptures.

So, on one Sunday afternoon in late August, we (Radim, his wife, a daughter, a baby son and me) drove from the Kudowa train station in Poland, where he picked me up, to the TWHS near Kuks.

Betlém means Bethlehem, and in the early 18th century the prominent Earl in this area Franz Anton Sporcka decided to create "a unique complex of religious scenes featuring old hermits and episodes from the life of Christ" with the help of a sculptor Matthias Bernhard Braun who was born in Austria but worked in Bohemia. 

There is a parking lot at the place, and we were able to easily walk from there following the path to view the sculptures. We only walked for about 500 m to what seemed to be the main set of sculptures, "Braun's Nativity Scene." (The photo) Along the 500 m path we also saw two more sets of sculptures.

The photo shows from left the scenes of the Adoration of the Magi, the Nativity and the Revelation of St. Hubertus.

You could walk passed "Braun's Nativity Scene" all the way to the historic Hospital in Kuks to view more sculptures. In fact the best way to do is to walk from …

One of the foundations of Sweden's prosperity in the "Age of Greatness" was iron.Miraculously, one of the artifacts of this industry has been preserved, the ironworks in the village of Engelsberg. Fortunately, it's quite easy to get here by train.

Earlier, in the 18th century, there were several factories here, as the location is convenient: iron ore, rivers and forest are nearby. But only this factory has survived, and that is due to the efforts of the owners, who decided to preserve it as a heritage. To this day, the factory and all the surrounding land belong to the Johnson family, one of the richest in Sweden. Therefore, there are some restrictions on the territory, since it is private property.Most tourists limit themselves to inspecting the building from the outside, but I booked a place on an guided tour, and it turned out that I was the only person, so I was given a private tour. The guide from local museum not only showed me the furnaces and water wheels, but also told in detail how the factory functioned. However, I didn't understand much, I'm a typical humanitarian, and all these processes of iron smelting remind me of magic.From what I understood, the ore was delivered from the surrounding area, first by sledges, then a narrow gauge was laid. The ore was first weighed, then ground into small pieces, which were thrown into the blast furnace from above. Water wheels were used to grind ore, and the furnace was …

On the way back to Berlin from Munich on June 12, 2024, I decided to visit Torgau, which is about 50 km northeast of Leipzig. I reached the city of 20,000 inhabitants by train at around 6:30 p.m. I quickly went to my accommodation, checked in and immediately left the pension to go to the market square. Luck was on my side and I got the last free table in the cafe Katharina, where I enjoyed a cold beer and an excellent meal while the evening sun caressed me with its mild rays. After around an hour I left the market square, walked through the attractive old town past the imposing St. Mary's Church to Hartenfels Castle. I crossed the bridge over the bear pit and arrived at the castle around 8:30 p.m. To my great surprise and delight, the castle chapel was open. There was a notice on the inner door that the castle chapel was only open very irregularly due to a lack of staff. During my approximately 30 minute stay there I was the only visitor...I had the whole church to myself (I guess that you can have a limited view of the interior of the church through the glass cover/glass door 24 hours a day; the outside door was still open at 10:30 p.m., only the glass door was closed).I then left the castle through a tunnel almost directly next to the chapel entrance to take a few photos of the castle from the nearby bridge …

My trip to Kyoto in October of 2023 was really one of the highlights of my two week adventure in Japan. I timed my trip to coincide with the Jidai Matsuri and Kobo Dashi flea market, which were both great experiences that I can't recommend more. I also had a great time collecting goshuin stamps from all the temples and shrines as a fun souvenir. Here's my review of every temple that i managed to visit under this WHS. 

Ginkaku-ji: This one was really enjoyable, especially as the culmination of the fun Philosopher's Path. It was raining when we visited, which meant it was thankfully not crowded, and it lent to moody pictures of the main pagoda. Ekiando, although not on the whs, was along the same path and deserves a shout out. 

To-ji: The main attractions were the tall pagoda and the lively Kobo Dashi market. To be honest, I have more memories of buying a clay tea pot here then of the actual temple itself lol. There was a lady selling "American muffins" which honestly looked just like the muffins from costco. 

Ninna-ji: This one was suprsingly quiet, which was a nice change from the crowded To-ji. The garden area was really nice but it was also partially under construction so that took away from the historical immersion for me personally. I'm sure that it will look spectacular when it is done though! They also gave me a world heritage themed shoe bag which was …

The city itself, like everything in Jordan, is ancient, the name comes from the Latin saltus - forest.But the real prosperity of the city took place at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when the administrative regional center of the Ottoman Empire was located here, and even the independence of Transjordan was declared here in 1922 (but the center of power moved to neighboring Amman later).In order to receive an UNESCO status, As-Salt is presented as a place of peaceful and harmonious coexistence of different religions, because in addition to the Great Mosque, there is also a Latin church, two Orthodox churches, and even an Anglican hospital. It is strongly suspected that the main motive behind the nomination by Jordan was that this city, as the first capital, has a special significance for Jordanian history.

In the tourist center, you can take a booklet with the "route of harmony", which gives at least some sense of place when exploring the city.But I hoped that the Ottoman architecture of the "capital period" would be more interesting, it is modest actually.In fact, it is a suburb of Amman now, so it is easy to get here by car.

Visited November 2022.

Like most people I only visited the Thanjavur temple called Brihadisvara Temple. The other ones aren't far but check this out: I took the train!! Yeah well, even I can be on a budget. Basically you go to the Trichy (that's Tiruchirappalli if you are a newbie), ask for the next train to Thanjavur which is often, pay the cheapo ticket price and ride 45min across the country. The taxis wanted 2,500 for all this - ridiculous, unsure what the apps wanted though. The way back is the same. I asked for the time in advance and they even got me a reserved seat ticket. You can do all that on the apps if you want to so you know the times in advance. You can take a rickshaw or, like me, walk the 15min to the temple. The path is easy and only requires one tough-ish road crossing. Overall just from looking at pictures I think Brihadisvara is the best choice.

Brihadisvara Temple is the biggest of them too. You have to take off your shoes and socks to get in. It can get VERY hot and they don't do a good job covering the floor with mats well. That means after paying your small ticket fee for the storage you want to rapidly run to the shaded areas. That includes inside (only open after sunset) or the sides which has displays, people relaxing, people sleeping, people asking for money (no kidding). I had a lot of time …

Sardis is nominated for 2025 inscription. I think it should be as there isn't much Lydia related material on the list and the city played a key role and of course, coinage was "invented" there and without it I would be without a job today.

Sardis, an ancient city of great historical significance, was renowned for its wealth and cultural achievements. As the capital of the Lydian Kingdom, it thrived as a center of trade and innovation. Notably, it was where coinage was first minted, revolutionizing commerce. Sardis played a pivotal role in the Persian Wars, falling to Cyrus the Great in 546 BCE. Later, it became part of the Hellenistic world under Alexander the Great’s conquests and eventually came under Roman rule.

The site is small with just the gymnasium and synagogue and some baths, walls, and other smaller buildings left. The synagogue has a beautiful mosaic floor. It’s quite impressive. The gymnasium has its full facade left with lots of sculptures and bas reliefs. I really enjoyed the state of it and just this facade is worth visiting. Nearby is another Temple of Artemis (not sure if this will be part of the WHS) which is worth a stop for 30 minutes as well. I did not have time to visit the Tumuli.

I visited Sardis after my morning visit to Ephesus and ended the day in Izmir. Quite a long very long day. I would recommend doing it different. Visit half day Sardis and …

In June we went on a vacation to the Smokey Mountains. I had promised myself a real vacation this year which involves going somewhere that I had not been yet and did not involve visiting family. This vacation fit that request perfectly and we had a great time in this wonderful part of the country where I had not been to before. We walked in the woods including a short part of the Appalachian trail, threw rocks in the river, even tubed down it, hopped on a train and in general relaxed in the great cabin that we had found in Bryson City, North Carolina. The second day there was hiking day as we hiked to the top of the Smokey Mountains National Park. From there you had a great view of miles and miles of green forest all directions. 

This is a United States National Park at the border of Tennessee and North Carolina and covers the southern part of the Appalachian Mountains. It is driving distance from Knoxville and Atlanta and some other larger cities, and therefore one of the most visited national parks. It is a beautiful, forested area with tons of outdoors and hiking opportunities. The Appalachian Trail runs through this park and we were able to walk a short part of this.

I went here on a family trip a few years ago and although we had an amazing time and I give the WHS a solid 4 stars, that does come with some major reservations. One of them being a place that starts with G and ends in burg.

Yes, the infamous Gatlinburg and its partner in crime Pigeon Forge. Being from the West Coast, we had no idea what was in store for us. No clue that Gatlinburg IS the capital of American kitsch. We were just there to go hiking. So obviously we decided to stay in Gatlinburg, not knowing we were entering one of Dante's circles of hell. If you enjoy kitsch or are a foreigner who wants to experience something abnoxiously american just for kicks, then go on ahead. But if you value your sanity do not stay in Gatlinburg.

That being said the hiking here was astoundingly beautiful and sososo underrated! If you go hiking you leave the circles of hell behind and ascend to heaven! Ramsey Cascades and Mt. Leconte were my favorites. The forest at points reminded me of costa rica. Also, if you are a fan of plants and mushrooms you will have the best time. There were so many quirky mushrooms here! 

All in all, avoid Gatlinburg at all costs and you will have an amazing time. 

Visit: 11th of sept.2024

Every day at 06.35am there is a direct bus (bus1054) from Budapest's Puskas Ferenc Stadion (metro:Puskas Ferenc Stadion) bus station to Aggtelek and at around 14.50 back to Budapest. 

The arrival time in Aggtelek is 10.45...very inconvenient as the winter schedule is already in effect so that visits to the cave take place at 10.00/13.00/15.00. Instead of waiting for two hours, I decided to walk the 2 km long path to the slovakian sister cave Domica. It took me about 30 minutes to walk on an asphalted road with almost no traffic at all to reach Domica crossing the border with its abandoned border buildings.The tour in Domica started at 12.30.There are lockers, a coffee machine, an abandoned-looking holiday complex with statues, mini trains and other Disneyland-like characters. However, the organization and foreign language skills in Domica were very good.The tour started on time. There were only two other visitors that day, two elderly slovaks. The young female guide spoke excellent english and answered all questions. I really liked the Domica cave because of its wealth of colors. I truly enjoyed my tour through the cave.

A well-informed guide and an amazingly alien underworld. Domica didnt disappoint me.

What should also be mentioned is that in the entrance building of the Domica cave, in front of the ticket offices and in an extra room, there is a kind of exhibition about the cave with many information boards and exhibits.

No photos …

I read the previous reviews, and it looks like the rules of visiting have changed radically. Firstly, you can visit the residence not only with a group tour, I arrived late and missed the last English-language tour, but it turned out that you can visit individually, at your own pace. Another important change is that the ban on photography has been removed, now you can take pictures everywhere. The admission is 9 euro (ICOM members for free), the admission to the Court Church and the Court Garden is free.

The residence was built during the strengthening of the local prince-bishops, who actually ruled eastern Franconia. But the bishops achieved special power when this position was monopolized by representatives of the Schönborn family, the most famous of whom was Friedrich Carl von Schönborn, who was the imperial vice-chancellor for a long time (1705-34), fought against the growing expansion of Prussia, supported the emperor in the fight against the papacy (such a bishop!). The manifestation of his political ambitions was the construction of a new luxurious episcopal residence, the architect Balthasar Neumann worked on its creation in 1709-44, and the most outstanding artist of the Rococo era, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, was engaged in decoration. It is interesting that the residence has many allusions to the support of the Habsburgs, so the lobby is programmatically decorated with a depiction of the feats of Hercules, and one of the richest rooms is the imperial bedroom, where the Habsburgs were supposed to stay (of …

Let’s first set some things straight about this WHS. I propose a name change: “Subtropical Rainforests of the Ryukyu Archipelago” would cover it much better than the enumeration of the names of 4 islands as cumbersome as Kluane / Wrangell-St. Elias / Glacier Bay / Tatshenshini-Alsek. And: Iriomote Island actually is the main component. It’s the largest, the least developed and the most ‘different’ as it lies in a different biogeographic realm from the rest: the Indomalayan instead of the Palearctic.

Still, even Iriomote is no Ogasawara. It can easily be reached by ferry from neighbouring Ishigaki, a tacky holiday island that has a busy airport. Iriomote sees a whopping 352,000 tourists a year according to IUCN in its evaluation (I don’t think they’re back to those numbers yet after Covid, there were only about 30 passengers on my ferry). The core zone of the WHS comprises about 90% of the island, it includes everywhere where there are no roads. 

I hadn’t booked anything in advance, but right off the ferry, I could join a ‘Mangrove Cruise’ that departed from a neighbouring pier. It may be the most touristy thing to do on the island, but it will get you definitely into the core zone and you will be surrounded by its OUV – so what more could I want? We were only 8 persons on a boat that could hold 60, so there was ample room to move between the left and right sides in …

The WHS boundary of Mount Wuyi includes the west most part of Jiangxi province and the northwest part of Fujian province. As a mixed site, Mount Wuyi is famous for both its natural beauty and historic value. 

The natural part of Mount Wuyi, of course deserves its inscription as a natural heritage. The whole area is in Danxia landform (regions with cliffs and red stones formed with the force of water), similar to all the locations inscribed in another world natural heritage site "China Danxia". Inside the Mount Wuyi Scenic Area, there are three most famous peaks that are inscribed: Tianyou ("wandering in the heaven") Peak, Yu'nü ("jade lady", used to describe beautiful young female) Peak and Dawang ("the king") Peak. You could easily access all the three peaks by the shuttle bus (70 RMB per person per day), and hike both Tianyou Peak and Dawang Peak. Yu'nü Peak, however, is almost impossible to hike but is the most iconic site inside the national park. It is said that the peak obtained its name because of the similarity of its shape with young female, however I could not identify any resemblance. Besides the mountains, the Jiuqu Stream is also inscribed into the natural part. One could easily take a bamboo raft to raft along the stream (a total time of about 1 hour and 20 minutes). During the raft, you could see all three peaks, as well as the Boat Coffins hanging on the cliffs and the Cliff Rock …

In the spring of 2010, we took a trip to Iceland from Stavanger for a long weekend. We rented a car and did quite a bit of sightseeing in this beautiful and interesting country. One of the trips was to this National Park which is a WHS. The reason for this site is that it is of historical importance. However, I did not really see much interesting in that regard.

However, what was interesting to us was that park is in the middle of the rift zone and apparently this is on top of the plate boundaries with the American plate to the West and the European plate to the right. As half European / half American it is quite interesting to see the two sides and to walk the bridge from America to Europe. There are also some cool rock formations, but other than that not too great of a sight or even much of a highlight in Iceland.

In the summer of 2010, I was in Barcelona for the 2010 EAGE conference. One day I had an evening to go for a walk in town and find this WHS. I also walked along the Ramblas and found the old hostel I stayed at during previous Barcelona trips. This site is a pretty building from the outside, but not that impressive in my view.  

Apparently, the inside is quite impressive and the other building that is part of this WHS is quite nice as well. I was actually a bit disappointed that downtown Barcelona does not have more sites. This city seems to have so much old and new history that I would think there would be more interesting sites.

Visit : 12th of sept.2024

Early in the morning I took the train from Miskolc,Hungary's third biggest city,to Tokaj where I arrived around 12.00.I went straight to my rented apartment where I was received with a glass of Tokaj wine.I then strolled through the little town of Tokaj and visited both the unesco museum and the Tokaj museum.....both are only mildly interesting.I then went to the Rakoczi cellars to take part in a wine tasting. 

I was the only participant. The wine guide spoke excellent english.I tasted 6 different wines and had some snacks.I could then stroll through the cellars freely without a time limit. I bought a bottle of wine and asked for a plastic cup. They opened my bottle halfway so that I could later open the cork without the help of a cork opener. Just around the corner is another winery,the Himesudvar winery,where I had another glass of wine before I set off to climb up the nearby hiking trail that led along the cemetery. Once I got to the next path, I decided to take the hiking trail to the TV tower. All in all, it took me about 50-60 minutes to reach the TV tower. The day was warm and sunny. I sat down in front of the TV tower, opened the bottle of wine and enjoyed the view. Unfortunately, I forgot the time and was pretty drunk at that point of time.

I began my descent when it was still light, …

Erik the Red who came all the way from Iceland to the Southwest Greenlandic fjords to find greener pastures, and must have found in here in Bratthlid (Qassiarsuk), so he called the lands Greenland in a good marketing move for other Viking farmers to follow him. In the year 985, it became the first Norse farm here. His son, Leif the Lucky, discovered the North American shores from here in the years to come. Also the "law speaker" resided here in Bratthlid. The archaeological area can be freely visited, and it takes a couple of hours to see the remains of farm houses, storehouses, and a small turf and wood church what is believed to be the remains of Thjodhild's (wife of Erik the Red) original church mentioned in the Icelandic Saga. It was only in 1126 that the Greenlandic Norse were given their own bishop, but he resided in Gardar in the Eastern Settlements. Present day the village is called Igaliku. His church was cross shaped, and even had a bell tower. All bishops were foreigners, and the last bishop who resided at Gardar has died in 1378. It is possible to rent boats between Bratthlid and Igaliku (or a place on the Tunulliarfik Fjord, then on foot). But during our time here, it was impossible due to strong winds and lots of icebergs on the fjord). We were lucky and it was not clear up to the last minute that we could cross from Narsarsuaq (location of airport …

I spent two days in October 2024 in Tashkent trying to figure out what is special about the Tashkent makhallas. I read the nomination document and Nan’s summary and I went to Hazrat Imam Complex, Chorsu, and Shayhantaur as well as many other neighborhoods but everywhere there is construction, fences, barriers etc, hard to say that I saw anything that has OUV.

Tarraco is messy proposal with a lot of parts to it, just like the equally hispano roman city of Merida. Over the course of two days I visited the amphitheatre, the circus, the aqueduct and the mausoleum (?) of centcelles. I also visited other properties like the forum and theatre, but their conservation state is pretty terrible.

The most famous element of the site is whithout a doubt the amphitheatre. it's pretty and very photogenic, but it pales in comparison with other city enclosed amphitheatres like arles, verona or pula. This is not all too surprising, afterall Tarraco is inscribed because of its ensemble, but I think the fact that the crown jewel is not overly impressive speaks volumes about the general quality of the site. 

The part I enjoyed the most was, as I expected, the roman villa of centcelles (photo). The ticket to fame of this otherwise plain building is its dome partially decorated with mosaics. Not much is known about its history, which has led to much confussion over what to even call it. The whole complex seems to have grown out of a villa, but its evolution across time is a mystery. Some say the domed hall was a basilica, some say it was a mausoleum. The truth is that we don't have any idea why such a luxurious construction (the dome is 10m tall and 10.6m in diameter) was built in the middle of nowhere. However the preservation of a dome mosaic from …

I made my 2nd trip to Iceland this past summer. In the year 2000 when I first made it to Iceland, there was no WHS in Iceland, but the tour of the Golden Circle I took from Reykjavik covered the future WHS of the Thingvellir National Park (inscribed in 2004). But this time I decided to go back for snorkeling at the Silfra Rift at the Thingvellir National Park and also to tick off the Vatnajökull National Park (inscribed in 2019) in addition to Surtsey (inscribed in 2008).

Upon my attempt to "visit" Surtsey, the first thing I had to do was to make sure that I can see it in the proper lighting condition, so after originally scheduling this trip in November last year, I decided to move it to June this year, the month with the longest daylight.

The second thing I had to do was, as I was trying to see Surtsey from an airplane, to make sure that I have a window seat and also not a seat over a wing, as a wing could wholly or partially obstruct my view of the island below.

The third thing I had to do was to make sure I bring my monocular with me in the plane. 

On June 19, as the plane approached Surtsey, I was able to see exactly where the plane was on the Google Map, indicated by the little blue dot moving. I could see that we were on the …