Traveller, blogger and videographer from Australia, retired at 35 and travelling the world, aiming to visit every UNESCO World Heritage site.

Documenting our journey on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/WorldHeritageJourney

This was the second site we visited on our tour through Finland. Generally speaking I've quite enjoyed industrial Heritage sites like those in Germany and England, and I quite enjoyed this one as well. The large main mill building is excellently preserved, and is apparently much as it was when the factory shut down in the 1960s.

Read on

We visited Petäjävesi on an overcast day in early July, as part of our tour around southern and central Finland. This really is a very small site, just the church and it's surrounds. We've seen lots of small wooden churches now on the World Heritage Journey, in Slovakia, Poland, Romania, and neighbouring Norway, and this one felt quite similar as well.

Read on

This was our last site visit in Finland. We visited in the late afternoon after spending most of the day wandering around nearby Rauma, and only spent a couple of hours here. But that's really all you need to see the majority of the cairns. Call me a little uncultured, but ultimately, these are just piles of stones. The large rectangular-shaped cairn was interesting, though the intricacies of the others (spirals, cisterns etc) went largely unseen by my non-expert eye. We've been to quite a few other Bronze Age burial sites now, and this unfortunately is not one of my favourites.

Read on

This is another in Norway's collection of slightly oddball World Heritage Sites. It reminded us both of the Copper Mining Town at Falun in Sweden, just across the border (though admittedly Falun was far more developed). It was a surprisingly popular spot for Norwegian tourists, lots of them around enjoying the mid-summer sunshine. Not many internationals though, still too far off the beaten path I guess. My favourite part was the well-preserved old wooden houses in Slag Road, where people lived quite literally in the shadow of the slag heaps. The large "smelting building" is actually a 1980s reconstruction, though admittedly quite well done.

Read on

I'm a little surprised there isn't already a review of this site, as it's slated for inclusion in 2019 and also one of the most visited locations in Austria. The Road itself was constructed in the 1930s as a Depression-era employment for Austrians, and was one of the first automobile roads constructed specifically for tourism purposes. It passes through some incredible scenery, with magical views of the Austrian alps on both sides. We visited on a sunny Monday in August 2018, and it was very busy already!

Read on