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Visited the site in 2006, it is a main historical street in the town, full of old houses, track of former tram, all beautifully restored. It preserved its original charm, once you are the you can feel like in the end of XIX century. Particular buildings are not architectural masterpieces but they are nice as a complex. Buidings are a little bit similar to those in Valparaiso and Sewell

This is the French nomination for 2012: a stretch of 120km in the North of the country comprising various mining sites. When I was sent to attend a course at the Capgemini University just north of Paris, I thought it a fine opportunity to take this possible new WHS on my way back home.

I went to visit the Historic Mining Center in Lewarde, the main museum in the area. It is surprising how little in the surroundings reminds of the mining era. Nothing like the raw industrial beauty of the Ruhrgebiet just over the border in Germany. It just looks like a quiet rural setting. Coal was mined here from the 18th century till the 1970s. The harsh working and living conditions were immortalized in Emile Zola's Germinal, which happens to be one of my favourite 19th-century novels.

The mining center is pretty large and modern, though not yet well-equipped to receive visitors that do not speak French. Also, at the exhibitions, I did not find anything that I had not seen before at similar sites around the world. It indeed is a big question what the OUV of this site is, and the short description on the Unesco website does not help to clarify it. What I've learned while researching it on the internet, is that this probably will be a serial nomination with single monuments scattered along the whole 1200 km2. It is marketed as an "evolved cultural landscape", as the mono-industry of coal mining …

While in Manila for a brief time, my short excursion into Intramuros was enjoyable. Like others have mentioned Manila is a chaotic city (both good and bad!) and San Agustin Church is an enjoyable moment of solitude. For anyone visiting Manila, there are two churches worth visiting, San Agustin and San Sebastian Church. If and when I make it back to the Philippines I would love to visit some of the more remote churches included in this serial site. While the complex seems almost interchangeable with some churches in Latin America, if you look closely you will notice the small lion statues (guarding) the entrance of the church.

During the very short business trip to Suzhou, I had only three hours in the morning for free time to explore the city, and after learned that my hotel was just 15 minutes to the old town by taxi, I did my best to visit one of the World Heritage Site listed gardens of Suzhou, the famed Zhouzheng Yuan or in English, the Humble Administrator’s Garden.

At 7.00 AM my taxi dropped me at the garden entrance, the ticket office was still closed but some tourists were already waiting! After got ticket at 7.30 I entered the gardens. The garden’s entrance was quite simple and uninspired similar to usual side or back gates of many Chinese government buildings in many cities. However, behind the gate was totally a different world, the garden was very beautiful with hundreds of trees and plants. After walked through many pools, pavilions, zigzag bridges, stone gardens, artificial mountains, bamboo groves, I started to wonder the size of the garden. The garden was quite large together with the very genius landscape design made strolling in the garden similar to walking in the large botany. The man-made landscape in the garden was unbelievable; there were many Borrowed Scenery to create garden’s many centerpieces. Every turn provided new dimensions of surroundings, a very strict concept of Stroll Garden, but with numerous playful techniques by using gates and corridors, making the views from one gate to other gate to be more in-depth by dictating eyesight with new …

I found Gyongju to be a pleasant place to be based during my first few days in Korea. Some guidebooks seem to go over the top with their praise of the place which can leave people disappointed with the reality, however for me it was a great place to relax and see some of the most important sites in Korean history.

On the bus to the city I got a great introduction by listening to this episode, from the British Museum/ BBC A History of the World in 100 objects. On top of this I visited the free Gyonju museum which was very interesting although a touch over run with friendly school children practicing their English on me. These gave me a better understanding of what may otherwise just be a series of grassy hills. I have actually visited a fair few grass mounds in my pursuit of World Heritage Sites but these were the most enjoyable I have so far encountered. The central cluster are actually a very enjoyable piece of landscape design and are very well presented, also there is one tomb open for you to explore the interior, which is well worth a look.

There are two other WHS nearby and whilst the modern town is decidedly unremarkable, it has all the amenities you will need making this a great place to be based in the south of the country.

[Site 6: Experience 10*]

* A note to explain the top marks for the experience at …

It looks like this site may be China's proposal in 2014. As such I decided I could attempt to get in a pre-emptive strike at what I hope may be part of the inscription. I visited the new Grand Canal park in the town of Tongzhou which is essentially a suburb of Beijing. It is here that the massive Grand Canal had its northern terminus, before goods were offloaded to be taken into Beijing proper. It seems a lot of money has been spent on making the park into a nice recreation area, and some of the local bridges are also being restored. The park has some nice touches, especially a sculpture on the ground that recreates the course of the canal and shows scenes from its illustrious history. However whilst I was there is just felt pretty windblown and desolate, the only people there were a group of school children, an elderly man flying a kite and one western tourist trying hard to fight off jet lag.

It was nice to be there though and it was interesting in an everyday off the beaten track kind of way. I can't say I have seen the best of this massive feat of engineering, but the girth of the canal was impressive. My hopes of getting onto the water were scuppered, there were no pleasure boats sailing (despite internet sources suggesting there were), the floating restaurant was closed and looking derelict and it was too windy for me even to venture …

Much to my surprise, this turned out to be my favourite site in Beijing. I had originally only scheduled a few hours to explore it, however a bit of a re-jig of my plans allowed a slightly more relaxed pace to my time in the Chinese capital.

I entered through the northern gate and had a huge amount of fun clambering up the hill and ducking into the huge amount of pavilions, follies and temples. This provided magnificent views over the lake that is the centre of the palace complex. My particular favourite was the Fragrant Buddha Pavillion which was magnificently decorated and offered hard won vistas from the top of the many flights of stairs.

After ducking off to a quiet spot for some lunch I treated myself to a cruise around the lake, which was massively enjoyable in the bright afternoon sun. Back on shore the marble boat and painted colonnade showed the massive artistic merit of the site as well as its monumental excess. Having already done a fair bit of exploring I was happy to wiz through the crowded central palace complex and enjoy a slow sunset watching the elderly men flying kites over the lake. This was an exceeding lovely way to spend my last afternoon in China, and to my surprise really let me enjoy a palace complex.

A thoroughly enjoyable and decadent place, that rewarded a leasuirly half day of exploring, my favourite WHS in Beijing.

[Site 8: Experience 8]

The Tinmel mosque (indicated as Tin Mal on google earth) is located in a valley about 1 and a half hour from Marrakesh along a magnificiant road in the Atlas Range. It is clearly indicated at the end of a short side dirt road. The entrance is about 1 euros, to give to the guardian, who will helpfully give explanations about the site, if asked.

The mosque had been constructed in 1156, at the height of the Almohad power. After the decline of that dynasty, the surrounding town was destroyed by the next dynasty, safe for the mosque.

The building can be seen from far, with massive walls. The interesting part is inside, with all the arches richely decorated. Nowadays, the roof has disappeared, leaving a magic blue sky above one's head.

There is a plan to rebuilt the roof however.

Further up the road, don't miss a chance to go to the Tizi N'Test pass, with great view down on the valley below.

It makes a very nice day trip from Marrakesh (or from Agadir).

Samarkand is the reason why I decided to visit Uzbekistan, when I booked the ticket at Uzbekistan Airline office; I saw the poster of the very beautiful Registan so I asked the travel agent that should I trust the poster? The agent immediately said "You will see the better one at the real place!" After that Samarkand became the paradigm of my Uzbekistan itinerary. I arrived Samarkand in the evening, the traffic congestion greeted me with unexpectedly surprised, after a peaceful week in Khiva and Bukhara, Samarkand really reminded the chaotic life of modern urban!

I started my city tour at the Gur Amir Mausoleum, the resting place of Tamerlane; for exterior the beautiful blue mosaic dome was just amazing, and for interior the golden mosaics inside the building were just breathtaking, and in my opinion one of the most beautiful Muslim mausoleum I've ever seen. After the mausoleum, I went to Ulughbek Observatory, a ruin of very impressive ancient observatory, its museum was nice; however, many insightful information from my guide made me question the accuracy of the exhibition and object displayed. Then I continued my trip to see the famous Registan. With high hope and excitement, I found all magnificent three buildings complex to be exactly what I wanted to see, there facades were just magnificent with bright and colorful mosaics. However I was deeply disappointed with the bad status of the interior mosaics and glazed tiles inside the courtyard, seem that Uzbek used their whole money to …

I chanced upon this when I visited Cochin a couple of months ago. This former Dutch Palace is well worth a visit - if you are interested in a bit of history. Cochin is not short of them as it was part of the first fledgling European Empire in India started by Afonso de Albuquerque in early 1500.

The palace is probably an architectural feat as it blends typical ancient Kerala style with Colonial overtones. It is 2 tiered quadrangular building with cavernous halls - containing paintings, artifacts, carriages used by the Cochin Royals, armory of that time and Royal jewelry in a secured vault. On the sprawling garden outside, they even put Kerala style cultural show - Kathakali dance when I was there.

The flooring is special inside the palace. What may appear as polished black marble stones are made out of a mixture of burnt coconut shells, charcoal, plant juices and egg whites as the binder.

I made it a point to look at a website to gather information on Heritage sites in India here: www.come2india.org

It claims to be free from commercial interest and for me - it contained enough information to plan my trips.

First of all - it is not easy to distinguish what exactly was inscribed as Coffee Cultural Landscape - particular coffee farms, land area, towns and villages. All available maps do not show inscribed zone, there are no signs of World Heritage in the places (yet, November 2011) that is for sure inscribed as UNESCO heritage. But for sure the landscapes are spectacular although I haven't seen any difference between inscribed part and non-inscribed.

I was visiting Salamina, passing through Chinchina, travelling around Salento, Manizales, Armenia and Pereira. Those areas are either directly inscribed as WHS (Salamina, Chinchina) or located in close vicinity of Coffee Cultural Landscape. Salamina is truly remarkable (nice colonial town, sourrounded by high mountains, with lovely old houses, one the most interesting places in Colombia). Chinchina looks to be quite ordinary, like many other towns.

Once or twice every year I try and put a little bit of extra effort into visiting a certain World Heritage Site. This is in the hope that it will reveal a little bit more about the place and also to stop me from getting blasé about consistently visiting some of the ‘most outstanding’ places on earth. This time around the site I picked out for a bit of special treatment was Haeinsa.

I decided to partake in the Korean government's Temple stay programme. I wasn't after some kind of spiritual awakening, just a slightly more unique take on the functions of the temple. And that is precisely what the experience delivered. I stayed for one night, arriving on a very busy Saturday afternoon I was surprised to see just how many people had trekked up through the national park to arrive at the temple. It was the anniversary of the Tripitaka Koreana so the crowds were extra dense, making this by far the busiest WHS I visited in Korea. Although it detracted a little from the atmosphere the people certainly had the right idea.

Staying in the temple overnight allowed me to see the compounds with the tourists gone, leaving only my fellow apprentices to view the life of the monks. The highlight for me was the drumming sessions that took place on the main courtyard on the giant Jingo-buk? (I am not very up on my East Asian drumming techniques but it was very reminiscent of the …

The Peking man museum was very good. An enjoyable day and plenty of data to add to my research project on Homo erectus in China.A bright sunny Decembers day too, all added to the atmosphere. I recommend this site to anyone with an interest in human evolution.

I just got back from a weekend jaunt to Moldova. As previously mentioned, this small country sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine gets few visitors, although, I think the country is actively trying to change this. To get there, we just rented a car for the day which was relatively inexpensive. The area surrounding Orhei is famous for its codrii or old growth forest. The site is located just off the Raut river and it was a very pretty area, even though it was winter and the trees and fields were bare. The limestone and shell cliffs where the monastery is located is pretty spectacular. Entering the 600 year old Pestere Monastaire, the air immediately became hot and humid, the stairs were dark, and it gave the cave a relative feeling of mystery. The monastery itself is one of the most impressing little sites I've ever visited. Only a couple of monks reside there presently, and they were busy at work cleaning the pulpit. We were shown the old monks' cells, the earthquake crack, the stone "balcony" and really enjoyed the history from the head monk. I'm not sure how long the country can maintain the sanctity of this spot, since it is touted as the most important in the country. I hope it is soon inscribed and awarded some funds to try and keep it as much the same as possible. If you happen to be in the vicinity of Moldova, stop by and definitely head to Orheiul Vechi. It …

Wulingyuan, the first national protected forest park of China which most of the Chinese and tourist industry called it after the name of the nearby city, Zhangjiajie, is the world of countless bizarre, shaped rock pillars, and, in my opinion, one of the most enchanting landscapes that hardly believe to be existed in the real world except in the classic Chinese painting. Located deep in western Hunan, the land of mystery Tujia people, and even today it takes 4-5 hours for travelling from Changsha, the provincial capital, on superhighway to reach this place.

The park is very large and has many interesting places; it takes at least 3 days to see all the MUST sites inside the park and nearby. Most of tourists stay in the booming town of Wulingyuan which is located in the middle of the national park. The main attraction of the park is the Yangjiajie Scenic Zone; the area becomes famous after many scenic spots have been used in the film “Avatar” as the planet of Pandora, and you will see many advertisement billboard of the Avatar film in the area especially at the Hallelujah Rock (very un-Chinese name), they even have the large statue of bird-liked creature that the Na’vi ride for photo. Apart from the much-commercialized area, the scenic is truly wonderful.

Tianzishan and Marshal Helong Scenic Areas are also worth mentioned. At Tianzishan we need to use cable car to admire the gorgeous landscape of numerous pillar rocks with …

My wife, Barbara and I were guests of Eddy Baeyens (of Buggenhout) in November of 2011. Eddy and I were schoolmates from Xaverius College (Borgerhout) in 65-66. Eddy had arranged for us to climb to the top of the Stadhuis Belfry in Dendermonde and to be given a hands on explanation of the Carillon and even a brief, unscheduled concert by the Carillon Master, Marc Van Boven. I was also given the opportunity to play a little tune on the Carillon myself! It was a very long 160 step trip to the top of the Belfry where the 49 bells are, even above the clock. There was just enough room for the three of us. A wonderful experience!

I have been there many times over the years. The first time was nearly 50 years ago, when I was still a teen. A local fisherman from the village where I was staying, a man with only 1/2 a year of formal education but the town intellectual, took me on buses into Guadalajara and to the Hospicio. There, he proceeded to explain the murals to me. That's not something I could forget.

But the murals themselves are, of course, magnificent. Yes, the centerpiece are the four elements, focusing on the Man of Fire. But one of my favorites involves a Spanish priest holding a cross, which below his hand is a knife plunging into the back of a kneeling Indian.

Now the entire place is an art museum, and a world heritage site. I won't describe: go see!

Visited Tierradentro just recently (November, 2011). Visiting all 5 places (Segovia, El Duande, El Tablon, San Andres and Aguacate) requires at least full day on foot or riding a horse (although I am not completely sure about the latter possibility as the road are occasionally stopped by fence accessible by man only). All thirst four sites are protected and most of tombs are locked. They can be opened during visiting hours only (no additional cost except of entrance ticket). Aguacate is more remote (requires 500 meters climb and some 1,5 - 2 hours of mountain walking), very impessive (photo attached)

Salzburg was a lovely and very touristy city! I think we encountered more crowds here than anywhere else in Austria! Perhaps the sense of crowds was greater due to how the town is set up. The Hohensalzburg fortress sits above everything and offers terrific views. The town itself felt rather quaint and the Mirabellegartens were lovely. Music is everywhere and there was a very special mood in the air here. A lovely place to spend some time!

We finally made it to the Everglades last February. Outside of the Galapagos, it was one of the most amazing places I have been to see the variety of birds and wild life. I was not prepared for the amount of things we would see. February is a great time to visit....water levels are low so the birds, gators, storks etc are all around the watering holes. The Anhinga Trail was one surprise after another! The animals had no fear of us and there were fledglings everywhere! In the shark Valley we saw so many birds and gators with babies and even a manatee in one of the inlets! Down at the point, where the ranger station is; we saw active osprey everywhere and even a croc. The trip was amazing.....we also saw several barred owls and their babies and a horned owl. there was activity but it wasn't crowded. The weather was warm but not hot and bugs were nonexistent. The one bird we did miss seeing was the roseate spoonbill so we are going again this year, a week earlier and are anticipating another wonderful adventure.

It is imperative that we maintain places such as the everglades and the other national parks. they are the true jewels of this country. visiting them restore ones sense of being and purpose.