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I visited the boyana church twice,on the 16th and 17th of january.

Why?? Because I like that church that much? No,not all. Personally,I was not very impressed with the boyana church. Sure, the frescoes are impressive......and they are the only reason to visit this church. The church itself is nothing special at all. Due to wrong information on the website of the tour agency(according to them the boyana church was closed the 17th of jan) which offers trips from Sofia to the rila monastery I thought that I wouldnt be able to visit the church on my trip to the monastery. I arrived in Sofia in the afternoon on jan the 16th,checked in my accomodation,rushed out to take the metro and a long bus trip( to metro station"Vitosha" next to the shopping centre"paradise center" and from there with bus nr64) out to the suburb where the boyana church is locacated and managed to enter the church shortly before closing time. Suprise,suprise,next day that agency 's minibus first made its way to the boyana church before heading to the rila monastery.

On the 16th shortly before closing time I had the church to myself .Beautiful frescoes,but I have seen more beautiful ones in other orthodox churches in eastern europe and russia. 

I understand the reasons why the boyana church is a unesco site,and rightfully so,but it is not my cup of teak,so to speak.

Visit 28-03-2023

On that day I visited Biertan( in german :Birthaelm) and Saschiz (in german: Kreisd).

I couldn't enter the fortified church in Saschiz as it was closed. And to be honest I wasn't impressed at all of what I could see from the outside. According to the locals the church is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The one in Biertan turned out to be far more interesting. The percentage of ethnic Germans, the so-called siebenbuerger sachsen/saxons is less than 10 % nowadays.

The entire church and its surrounding village can be visited within 45 minutes. A more impatient visitor may only need 30 minutes.

A taxi from nearby Medias to Biertan and return+ 1 h waiting time for the taxi driver costs around 20€.The visit to Biertan is certainly worthwhile and satisfying as one can enrich his knowledge by learning something about this German tribe and its unique culture.

Whoever visits Sighisoara should also visit Biertan. Saschiz can be skipped as it probably doesn't provide any additional information to the visitor's knowledge.

Biertan itself is certainly not the most impressive UNESCO site out there, but it for sure is worth a visit when in that region or visiting Sighisoara.

In the series “Revisiting the great cities of Europe”, I present Krakow. My first visit to Krakow was in early February 2005, and in the few pictures that I have left the buildings look gloomy and there’s a layer of snow on the ground. So I planned this return trip for April, confident in catching a few warm and sunny Spring days. Oh, how wrong I was! It was freezing. But I came prepared with a list of things to see gathered from previous reviews and other sources. And I read the original nomination file (1978), which has become available since it was attached to the 2010 minor boundary modification.

On my first afternoon, I joined a Free Walking Tour covering Kazimierz. No less than 36 foreign tourists showed up, which confirms Krakow as a popular city trip destination. The tour still milks the success of the Schindler’s List movie which dates from 1993. Fortunately, the group was split in 2 with a guide each. We walked a lot, also to the former ghetto across the river (outside of the WHS core zone). Several 16th and 17th-century synagogues and a cemetery have survived in Kazimierz, although hardly any Jews returned after WWII.

The next morning I set out from my hotel at 8 a.m., lured outside early by blue skies and sun. I started by walking anti-clockwise from Hotel Polonia to Wawel via Planty Park. This park isn’t located in the core of the city but encircles it …

I visited the Molino viejo de Zabala, west of Cartagena. It is indicated on this website as one of the locations of this nomination though I didn't find out why since I didn't find it in the nomination a there are hundreds more. There are also larger groupe of windmills what would increase the pleasure of the visit. As far as I could see they seem all protected. This single mill is small and about 300 years old. Tt is rightfully preserved but it is a very simple construction and I doubt it varies greatly from similar mills in Greece or the Balkan. If you have experienced the incredible complexity of dutch mills, for example at Kinderdijk or even more in Zaandam with many different functions and technical finesses there seems little reason to inscribe the Spanish mills. 

Definitely lots to see here. It's been a few years since my visit and I can't find my pics at the moment.

There used to be a flight before but when I asked at the Makassar airport office they just laughed. Instead there are overnight buses that arrive in the area early morning. I recommend booking a good place because the guest houses are quite baaaaaasic so after seeing that my bathroom was four grey walls with a hole in one corner that counts as toilet (no running water) I left to the main road and asked a moped to take me to a better place. A good place will also safely store your bags before checking in because early morning you can already go out the burial sites and villages with one of these mopeds. This was my favorite part of the trip even if the villages are often rebuilt over time I think the idea here aren't ruins (although the burial sites are definitely authentic) but continuous living in the same style. I only went to two sites and if you have more time you can obviously see more but I think they are all roughly the same.

Also inquire about a funeral for that day or the next. There is a high chance you get to see one if you stay three days minimum but not everyone will tell you when and where for "free". In my case there was a funeral after lunch time …

Out of 7 components of this serial nomination I contiously visited only one – Jabal Shada Nature Reserve. Looking at my itinerary, I must have driven near other components, such as Jaba al-Qahar, but do not remember anything except nice views.

Jabal Shada Nature Reserve is famous for its amazing rock formations. There is a road with such steep climbs leading to the reserve that I have never seen anything like it in my life. Here, many times, entering another curve, I did not even see the asphalt! After driving, I checked the average slope and it was a modest 10%, but I'm betting that there were places where the slope must have been over 20%, maybe even 25%. The roads are just different there.

My Hyundai accent managed to climb these steep slopes, thanks to which we could enjoy wonderful views. Thie place seems to be very popular among Saudi tourists, judging from remnants of campfires and ‘rock art’. During my visit, however, I saw noone. There are several viewpoints, where, besides the views and take walks in the labyrinths of huge stones. I visited this place with Artur Anuszewski, very experienced traveller and a member of this site, whom I met one day ago in Jeddah.

In a 5 day journey I have visited the Chiloé archipel with some friends with whom I have rented a car in Puerto Montt. With full insurance its quite expensive. We´ve paid around 76€ per day for the car but with 4 people it was worth the effort. The ferry to Chiloé costs 16€ for a car one way. We followed also the recommendations in this group that visiting all the churches without car will be quite complicated. In the end we visitied 14 out of 16 world heritage churches of which we could enter 8. We did not make it to the two more remote islands to which the ferry only goes once per day which means that you need to sleep there or organise a private ferry. Apparently there are 160 churches of the wood style with more or less Jesuit origin of which the more or less biggest communities and churches are the world heritage sites. We stayed 5 nights in Castro from where we visited all the churches which is easily possible as they are all within a 1 hour drive from the islands capital sometimes with ferry transfer in between.

Below follow the details I could find out about the churches as well as my opinions on them. Generally I must say a lot are quite similar and the joy of visiting many is more in driving around the island and discovering new places than being stunned by the new churches as many are …

It's been a while since the review and also since my visit which must have been 2019 or so. Your main gateway is Bharatpur Airport although some people do take a "7h bus ride" from Kathmandu. I say that in quotes because usually these journeys take longer and high chance you get sick on the way. Do yourself a favor and fly in and out, I even had a flight connection from Lumbini to save so much time and hassle.

The village outside the park has enough guesthouses/hotels for the guests and dining is also easy. It's all planned for a safari. The safari, unfortunately, is very mediocre. Yay you are almost guaranteed to see the Asian rhinos which in this part of the world isn't that rare and you see plenty in northeast India but all right you are already in Nepal and for some coming here is more favorably than India so you want to experience the safari here, don't blame ya.

The safari jeeps go out every morning in a group of 12 or so. You will spot rhinos somewhere and maaaaybe a few other highlights but both days it was so boring and not enjoyable. I almost feel sorry for the guide not being able to show us anything. I definitely don't want to recommend this place if you have the chance for better safari areas, then again it is inscribed on the WH list so for some of us it's a must see …

Well, 141 community members visited before me and no more than 3 managed to write a short review. The last review was in 2012. None have submitted photos, and the main site photo we had was from the Public Domain. Still, the site has achieved a decent 3.38 rating. So is there something wrong with Kinabalu Park?

Overall, I think it is a worthy WHS, but not a good day trip destination. The higher scores may have come from people who climbed the mountain. I think the benefit of climbing is seeing the change in vegetation, and that’s also Kinabalu’s main OUV.

Like most others, I had to make do with a few hours around the Park Headquarters. The entrance fee for foreigners now is 50 ringgit, which I find a lot – certainly compared to Gunung Mulu where you can enter for 5 days for 30 ringgit. And the visiting conditions at Kinabalu are much worse: I didn’t get a map or any instructions upon entering (they just took the money), trails don’t look maintained, and there’s car traffic, and poor signage. The only part I liked well enough was the small Botanical Garden, which has an additional entrance fee! I wanted close-up views of pitcher plants, and they have several species in a flowerbed accompanied by a large sign stating “Protected Plant. Do not Disturb”.

I suspect that one of the reasons for the lack of photos is that the peak of Mount Kinabalu is …

Kashan is a city you may well speed by on the 450km highway between Tehran and Isfahan (or vv in our case in 2017). You might stop briefly to see the Fin Garden situated around 8kms outside the city just off the highway, or you may even, as we did, go into the centre and give it a couple of hours or so to see some of its sights. You will find there yet another Iranian “continuity city” with evidence of human habitation at nearby Tepe Sialk, going back 9k years. In historic times it was significant through the Seljuk and Safavid eras (11th to 16th C). However, the town centre was destroyed by earthquake in 1778 and what is “on show” today is mainly an 18th/19th C historic core with just a few (largely reconstructed) pre-earthquake buildings. The town recovered rapidly, based on large volume silk weaving, and this wealth is represented in many of the sights which date from the Qajar period (1789-1925). Its population in 1960 was still only 50k and that core area has survived the subsequent rapid massive expansion to 400k well.

What are we to make of a T List entry titled “The Historical-Cultural Axis of Fin, Sialk, Kashan”? The concept of an “Axis” to justify the linking together of several sites into a single nomination seems to be a particularly Iranian approach; Its T list also contains the “Ghaznavi- Seljukian Axis in Khorasan”; once had “The Historic-Natural …

Site visited recently, February 2023. Modernist complex of buildings commonly known as Centro Cultural Miguel Ángel Asturias, located in the center of Guatemala City. Approximate Google coordinates of the place 14.62723007680044, -90.51759755769069.

Quaint project of leading Guatemalan architects, Efrain Recinos and Carlos Alberto Haeussler. Main building of the complex (theatre or cultural centre) was intended to resemble a sitting jaguar, ornaments were taken from Mayan culture. Complex is relatively young, it was completed in 1978 and dedicated to Miguel Ángel Asturias who was a writer and Nobel Prize winner.

The whole area looks as well maintained and fully utilized. Main theatre building houses also Hugo Carillo theatre. Other notable structures are: Escuela Nacional de la Marimba, Military Museum and my favourite Teatro al Aire Libre, Otto René Castillo (open theatre with external columns). Central part of the complex contains different fountains.

It may be interesting addition of modern architecture to Latin American sites as so far only limited places are inscribed on UNESCO list (just UNAM and Luis Barragan house from Mexico, none from other Central American countries). The only question that comes to my mind – isn’t it too early for inscription. We will see. For sure it would require a lot of efforts and publicity.

Practicalities:

The site is located on the small hill in the central part of Guatemala City (Centro Civico district, Zona 1), access to the site from the north via 21 Calle de Castillo or from the south via …

Bacalar Chico national park and marine reserve

Site visited recently, February 2023. With limited time (as always) I decided to visit only small part of the site. Also due to flights schedules I was unable to fly to Blue Hole (no flight on the specific day) I decided to limit my visit only to Bacalar Chico national park and marine reserve as the only relatively accessible (and inexpensive) land component of Belize Barrier Reef.

Access to Bacalar Chico looked as fairly possible form San Pedro town / Ambergris Caye. In fact I arrived by ferry from Belize City to San Pedro (route via Caye Caulker) and immediately started to find out the possibilities of reaching the site. On the map it looked as quite remote but accessible via local road north of San Pedro town. But my host at the hotel who was a former biologist once working for Bacalar Chico strongly advised not to go there alone and certainly not by ordinary bike (because of bad roads, occasional sharp objects or due to problems with security – smuggling narcotics towards Mexican border). He tried to find an organised tour (by boat) to go there but unfortunately there was nothing at my specific date. So his advise afterwards was to go there by golf cart (the most popular transportation mode in San Pedro). But as an experienced biker I decided to rent a bike anyway and realize where I would manage to get on my own.

Next …

After reading the description of this place provided by Egypt on the official UNESCO website, I could not quite understand what is to be the subject of the proposal. The state party refers to the ancient quarries of Widan el-Faras and Umm es-Sawan, where the remains of prehistoric animals were found. However, there is little information on the Internet about these places. So I decided to see for myself.

Google Maps probably shows the wrong route to Widan el-Faras. In fact, it is impossible to get there from the north. You have to drive from the south, preferably entering the road to Soknopaiu Nesos, the ruins of an ancient, well-preserved city from the time of the Ptolemaic. A few kilometers from Soknopaiu Nesos is the entrance to Lake Qarun National Park. You have to pay 5 USD per person for entry (no discounts for children, but the guard allowed my two children for one ticket). The exit to Gebel Qatrani is about halfway between the entrance to the park and Soknopaiu Nesos. After about two kilometers we came across a building where a guard was sitting. The guard checked our tickets, wrote down our phone number and gave his. Thanks to this, he saved us from serious trouble!

A few minutes further we came across a junction. The road to the left led to Widan el-Faras, to the right to the Petrified Forest. We chose the latter and almost arrived when we got stuck in the sand (we …

I visited the rila monastery on jan the 17th,2023, with a minibus of one of the few agencies which offer trips to the most famous and important bulgarian monastery. We first visited the boyana church(another unesco site) ,stayed there for around 20 min,and then headed for the rila monastery where we had around 2,5 hours at our disposal. First I discovered every corner of the impressive monastery,bought some candles,had some sweets from the monastery's bakery,also bought some bread there. Then I decided to try my luck and walk to the Ivan Rilski cave....when I reached the Sveti Teodisi church I realized that I wouldnt make it back in time to catch my bus to Sofia.I hurried back to the monastery-on the way I encounterd a pack of 5-6 street dogs in the middle of nowwhere,a quite scary surprise,armed with a big piece of wood I just left them behind,what an unpleasant situation it was-and just made it to catch my return bus to Sofia.The next day my flight to Abu Dhabi was from S ofia's airport.

Whoever is interested in unesco sites and whoever visits bulgaria has to visit the rila monastery. It is the most important and most beautiful place that country can offer to the world.

The only pity is that due to the massive influx of visitors( I was there in winter time,quite a few people there,but not overran or overcrowded) the place has lost its importance as a religious site.

I love those …

If there is one site that should be designated as a World Heritage Site as soon as possible, it is this one. During my visit to Udzungwa Mountains National Park, I was greatly impressed by the natural beauty of the area. I stayed at the Hondo Hondo camp and went on a 4-hour trek to the Sanje Waterfall, which is a very popular tourist attraction. The exceptional value of the site lies in the many species that are unique to this area, including two endemic birds (the Udzungwa Forest Partridge and the Rufous-winged Sunbird) and two species of monkeys (the recently discovered Sanje Crested Mangabey and the Udzungwa Red Colobus).

In my opinion, this area should be given the highest level of protection, if only for the Udzungwa Red Colobus, which is a beautiful monkey with impressive playful behavior. Unfortunately, on the east side of the park, the villages with large rice and sugarcane plantations are encroaching on the border of the national park, which detracts from the natural beauty and disrupts the peace with loud music.

It is concerning to hear the park ranger talk about how good the Udzungwa Forest Partridge tastes, as it is a red-listed species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Additionally, it is surprising for Dutch visitors to see many pictures of the late Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands around the visitor center, and even waterfalls named after him, as he officially opened the park in 1992.

I …

The Egyptian tentative list is a complete mess. Several proposals are placed twice. Among them are the tombs of Middle Egypt, placed as 'Minia' as well as 'The Necropolises of Middle Egypt, from the Middle Empire to the Roman period'. Anyway, of the four places covered by this proposal, me and my family saw two – Beni Hassan and Touna al-Gabal.

In Beni Hassan there are tombs of high dignitaries from the period of the twelfth dynasty, i.e. from the period between the twentieth and nineteenth centuries before Christ. Only four are available to visitors, each of them completely unique, with magnificent paintings and original columns. The whole place is well preserved and not much inferior to the tombs of the pharaohs, at least when it comes to wall decorations (see photo). We left this place delighted.

Getting to Beni Hassan is not difficult, Google Maps shows good coordinates. The end of the route is an unpaved road through the village. We visited the place in the company of two armed guards and a keyman who did not have any weapons – because there is no point, the place is safe, and the guards with pistols are just a testimony to Egyptian paranoia. The whole route takes about an hour.

Right next to Beni Hassan there is a noteworthy archeological site Speos Artemidos, but people in Beni Hassan could not show me the route to this place, and Google Maps led me to a point where there …

I do not drink wine regularly and champagne even less so; I’m fairly sure I could count the occasions on my fingers. Therefore, I was not particularly looking forward to this site and tacked on a tour of the Taittinger wine cellars to a daytrip to Reims from Paris. The tour begins from the Champagne House 2.5 km southeast from the main station of Reims. If walking, the route has a very gentle incline up Saint-Nicaise Hill and goes right past the Cathédrale Notre-Dame and the Palais du Tau. It is easy to divert to Basilique Saint-Remi to complete the set for the Reims site on the way there or the way back. Unlike some of the other manufacturers, which resemble grand mock castles, the Taittinger buildings above ground were unremarkable. I was a little afraid I would be the only one on the tour and my lack of knowledge about wine would lead to an awkward experience but I was, for once, grateful to see a reasonably large group gather in the reception/waiting room before the tour began. Decorative champagne bottles adorned the walls with a model of the old abbey that once stood upon this hill in the centre of the room. The cheapest ticket (as of late 2022) was 27€ including a single glass of champagne at the end. More expensive packages were available with additional glasses for the connoisseur. There was an option for a tour without tasting for 13€ but the website said this was …

Rising up a winding road, you begin to experience the decadence of Tivoli's premier villa before you've even reached it thru a magnificent view shooting straight to the horizon. It seems to yell, "you, Cardinal d'Este, hold dominion over the trees and the houses of the land through God." It also serves to forget that you, the modern public transport user, have arrived not via a direct link from the city centre but from a bus station on the outskirts of the city!

It's almost underwhelming in comparison when you step through the courtyard and into the actual Villa building. It's beautiful, of course, but it feels strangely sparse, a world populated not by objects but by painted doorways and faux-3D marble busts. Through an exhibition you go, the interesting but tenuously linked "Umano Troppo Umano" on depictions of the athletic (mostly nude) body on the day I went, and past all the usual rooms you'd expect from a mid-millennium wealthy religious European, and you finally reach the garden that has been teasing you since you looked through your first window.

On a hot and humid October day, something I'm ill-accustomed to coming from Ireland, I believe I discovered instantly what paradise feels like - fifty fountains, and ten times the spouts. You're immediately welcomed with a drinking fountain at the foot of the staircase, the first of many, which most people (including myself) felt invited to drink from. Ornary drinking fountains are here everywhere as in Rome, …

There are actually two similar sites on the tentative list, this one submitted 16/09/1998, and 'Canyon du Rio Peruaçu, Minas Gerais', submitted 11/03/1998. The latter is submitted by IPHAN, the institute that protects cultural sites in Brazil, but strangly this organization marked it a natural site. The organisation submitting this site is IBAMA, which manages the natural parks, and IBAMA is marking it as a mixed site. As both descriptions talk about archeology, it seems also the first submission should have been a mixed site. Anyway, IBAMA took 6 months longer and apparently took this time to write a proper description, so I will consider only this one.

In his review of Diamantina, Wojciech Fedoruk points out that Cavernas do Peruaçu NP is relatively close by. This drew my attention and I started looking into the possibility of visiting. I reserved three days in my schedule for a visit. Then, I found there is a daily Transnorte bus from Diamantina to Montes Claros at 6.00h, arriving 10.30h. However the busses to Januaria, which is still 40 kilometers from Peruaçu, leave at 10.00h and 18.00h. Very inconvenient, but I contacted the guesthouse nearest to the park entrance and the owner Kescia turned out to be a miracle of organising. I was lucky to get a ride from one of the members of their whatsapp 'hitchhike' group from Montes Claros straight to the guesthouse for only BRS 80. Having left Diamantina at 6.00h, I arrived there 15.15h.

The next day I was …

As I wrote in a recent blog post - this is a hellish site to visit. Thanks to the excellent previous review by Michael Kenyalang we got a sense of what is possible, and the e-mail address he gave to contact is the right one. But - somehow all e-mails from 'outside' (outside of Malaysia?) are bounced. The day before I planned to visit I scrutinized the internet again and found the Archaeological Museum's Facebook site. Via Facebook messenger, I was eventually able to chat with an understanding person, who finally hooked me up with a private guide. This was all on a Sunday evening, and she immediately filled in the form to request formal access to the caves.

The next morning I drove from George Town to Lenggong's Archaeological Museum. The good news about the museum is that the parking lot and toilets are in operation and that the temporary exhibition has moved into the museum building. Entrance is free, they log your arrival in a visitor book. There were a few other visitors present as well. The exhibition has a video about the site, the UNESCO inscription certificate, and a replica of the remains of Perak Man. The museum apparently is almost ready to reopen - but they are awaiting the original remains of Perak Man, which are still stored in Kuala Lumpur. 

Lenggong's tourism focus seems to be mostly on its status as a Geopark for its numerous rocks and caves. It still is …