James Bowyer Profile
From the North of England, became interested in World Heritage Sites just before all international travel was banned in early 2020 - what luck!
Recent Reviews James Bowyer
Valletta
James Bowyer United Kingdom - 19-Nov-23
Other reviewers have spoken about the highlights of Valletta: the magnificent interior of St John’s Co-Cathedral (despite its plain exterior), the hilly grid layout with many Baroque buildings, and the spectacular view of the Grand Harbour from Upper Barrakka Gardens. One aspect that has not been mentioned, probably because it only opened in 2021, is the tour of underground Valletta. For 15€, one can join a tour of the tunnels that lie beneath the city. The tour begins from MUŻA, the art museum located in the Baroque building that was the Auberge d’Italie. There are several such auberges throughout Valletta, each of which hosted knights of the Order of St John from the various countries
Read OnMegalithic Temples of Malta
James Bowyer United Kingdom - 19-Nov-23
Whilst Malta may bear many cultural and linguistic similarities to nearby Italy and North Africa respectively, prices seem to be more influenced by the period of British rule than their Mediterranean neighbours. In 2023, Heritage Malta offered a pass for 50€ that covers most of their sites, but not all. Indeed, the Hypogeum requires a separate ticket at an eye-watering 35€ and a reservation long in advance. The multisite pass does include all of the temples inscribed as WHS so I bought one for convenience in spite of the high cost. All of the temples are easily accessible by Malta’s extensive bus network, which I found very easy to use with the contactless Tallinja card purchasable from vending machines in Luqa airport
Read OnGorham's Cave Complex
James Bowyer United Kingdom - 12-May-23
Before I was ensnared by World Heritage Sites, the geographic and cultural list that most intrigued me were the British Overseas Territories. Unfortunately, these last small vestiges of the empire tend to be the small outcroppings of rock nobody else wanted to claim in the middle of distant oceans and so are rather difficult to reach from the UK. There are a few notable exceptions, one of which is Gibraltar. Ceded “in perpetuity” by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 from Spain to Great Britain, although modern Spanish governments have pushed to reverse this, Gibraltar is the last British foothold on mainland Europe
Read OnEtruscan Necropolises
James Bowyer United Kingdom - 09-Apr-23
I have only visited one of the two components to this site, Tarquinia, and I picked it only because it was closer to a train station than Cerveteri. There was a train every two hours out from Rome to Tarquinia, on the line up to Pisa, and the railway gave a great view over the Mediterranean as it passed close to the shoreline. From Tarquinia, there was a little shuttle bus up the hill into the town or, if you have time, the walk was only about 3 km or so into the town centre although it was quite steep and the countryside was not that interesting to walk through
Read OnChampagne
James Bowyer United Kingdom - 07-Mar-23
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
Read OnProfile Data
- Name
- James Bowyer
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Ranking
- 777
- Most Impressive
- Rome/Vatican City
- Proposal
- Chernobyl Exclusion Zone/Polesie State Radioecological Reserve
Recently Visited WHS
- Update 28.01.25
-
10 Best Missing
Visited WHS
Rating StatsPompei 5Rome 5Brugge 4.5Istanbul 4.5Neolithic Orkney 4.5Stonehenge 4.5Versailles 4.5Vienna 4.5Kraków 4Potsdam 4Sintra 4Warsaw 4Amiens Cathedral 3.5Blenheim Palace 3.5Canterbury 3.5Champagne 3.5Forth Bridge 3.5Graz 3.5Mafra 3.5Naples 3.5Reims 3.5Sighisoara 3.5Torun 3.5Valletta 3.5Villa d'Este 3.5Westminster 3.5Belem 3Pienza 3Belfries 2.5The Flow Country 2.5Val d'Orcia 2.5Saltaire 1.5Reviewed WHS
- Valletta
- Megalithic Temples of Malta
- Gorham's Cave Complex
- Etruscan Necropolises
- Champagne
- Val d'Orcia
- Pienza
- Fontainebleau
- Lake District
- Maritime Greenwich
- Dorset and East Devon Coast
- Saltaire
- New Lanark
- Warsaw
- Blenheim Palace
- Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal
- Plantin-Moretus Museum
- Torun
- Sighisoara
- Villages with Fortified Churches
- Frontiers of the Roman Empire
- Derwent Valley Mills
- Ironbridge Gorge
- Durham Castle and Cathedral
- Forth Bridge
- The Flow Country
Visited TWHS
- Ancient Greek Theatres (T)
- Birkenhead Park, the pioneering People’s Park (T)
- Cittadella (Victoria - Gozo) (T)
- City of York: historic urban core (T)
- Coastal Cliffs (T)
- Head Office and Garden of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (T)
- Knights Fortifications around the Harbours of Malta (T)
- Late Medieval Bastioned Fortifications in Greece (T)
- Le champ de bataille de Waterloo, la fin de l’épopée napoléonienne (T)
- Le noyau historique ou la 'Cuve' de Gand, et les deux abbayes qui sont à son origine (T)
- Le Palais de Justice de Bruxelles (T)
- Le Panorama de la Bataille de Waterloo, exemple particulièrement significatif de « Phénomène de Panoramas » (T)
- Les citadelles mosanes (T)
- Les villes bastionnées des Pays-Bas du nord-ouest de l'Europe (T)
- Maltese Catacomb Complexes (T)
- Mdina (Citta Vecchia) (T)
- Mousa, Old Scatness and Jarlshof: the Zenith of Iron Age Shetland (T)
- Noyau historique d'Antwerpen -Anvers- de l'Escaut aux anciens remparts de vers 1250 (T)
- Nuruosmaniye Complex (T)
- Pombaline Lisbon (T)
- Qawra/Dwejra (T)
- Trading Posts and Fortifications on Genoese Trade Routes from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea (T)
- Victoria Lines Fortifications (T)
Reviewed TWHS