When I visited the cave it was possible to just 'walk in'. There is no museum or visitor centre (there are plans to build a visitor centre), just one or two people who give some explanations or offer a guided tour if someone is interested (in German only). The cave isn't very large, though it is the largest of the six inscribed caves. Seems, that currently the cave is open also on weekdays.
http://www.museum-schelklingen.de/oeffnungszeiten-fuehrungen

The coordinates in the nomination file indicate the locations of the caves, at most locations you have to walk a few minutes from the parking lot to the cave (see my Review). The archaeopark should be signposted.


I am not sure, because I travelled by car. Trains between Ulm and Blaubeuren should run frequently even on Sundays. I guess there are also busses from the train station in Blaubeuren to Schelkingen, but I'm not sure if there are stops along the Bundesstraße. In the Lone Valley Niederstotzingen is the largest town, I guess.

clyde and nfmungard
when do you plan to be there?
I will visit the caves on August 12th (will drive there from Holland the night before, and pick up Worms or Mathildenhöhe on the way back on Sunday)

elsslots

I shall be visiting next Sunday by car. I plan to drive very early from Luxembourg to arrive at the Archaeopark after 10am. Unfortunately I already have plans for the following weekend.

elsslots

Planning to combine this with a private appointment I have in Frankfurt on August 25. Frankfurt, Ulm, same neighborhood. And Germany needs to be complete again ;)

I will also try to make it to Mainz and Darmstadt on Saturday/Sunday. I am pretty sure I have seen the Shum sights, but I did not take note then.

I am not sure if the Jewish cemetery in Mainz has regular opening hours. Part of the nomination is only the Old Jewish cemetery Judensand ("Denkmalfriedhof") in the Mombacher Straße, near the main Train station.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judensand

In Worms, the Synagogue and mikvah are open daily, also the Cemetery Holy Sands (only closed on Saturdays):
https://www.worms.de/en/tourismus/sehenswertes/juedisches_worms/
https://www.worms.de/en/tourismus/sehenswertes/juedisches_worms/juedischer_Friedhof_H eiliger_Sand.php
https://www.worms.de/en/tourismus/sehenswertes/listen/synagoge-und-mikwe.php

I contacted the Jewish community in Mainz. Let's see what they say. Worms is just too far off for me that day. I wonder if I have seen the site in Speyer. The town isn't that big.

After finally finishing my Uzbekistan reviews, I'll write a review with some more practical pointers for those who would like to visit all the caves as well as the most important museums in the area. Germany is complete again :) thanks a lot hubert for your valuable information.

I also wanted to recommend an interesting book which is sold at the Archaeopark Vogelherd or the Museum in Blaubeuren in German and English : Welt Kult-Ur Sprung, World Origin of Culture (ISBN 978-3-7995-1168-1). It's an excellent souvenir with information and photos of all the inscribed caves, the 3 nearby museums and the main findings.

The Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth reopens in April 2018 with opera performances of Artaserse by Johann Adolph Hasse.
It is not mentioned but I expect that they will also offer guided tours.
http://www.bayreuth-wilhelmine.de/deutsch/aktuell/oper_eroeffnung.htm

And a flyer with information on the restoration:
http://www.schloesser.bayern.de/deutsch/service/infomat/screen-pdf/bayreuth_opernhaus _engl.pdf

Just to second that recommendation, the Deutsche Bahn website and app are endlessly useful all across Europe (incl UK). National train companies tend to be improving, but as a catch all site DB has been a really useful tool, especially if local providers can seem impenetrable on first viewing. Also the ticket machines at German Stations are so much better at providing relevant information (in English as well) than many I have encountered.

I have recently came across a decent book about the world heritage sites in Hamburg:

https://www.amazon.de/Hamburgs-Welterbe-Speicherstadt-Kontorhausviertel-ELBE/dp/38850 6765X

The book is bilingual German/English, it includes historic explanations and mostly many nice photos of the ensembles and single monuments. You can also see the inside of many buildings of the Kontorhausviertel you can't enter.

Assif mentioned under a different topic (WHC 2018) three German sites with WH potential: AEG-Turbinenfabrik, Olympia-Stadium, Tempelhof
https://www.worldheritagesite.org/forums/index.php?action=vthread&forum=16&topic=1836 &page=18#msg18761

These sites would be worthy additions to the list, also in my opinion.
In all of these cases commercial interests seem to be the major issue that affect a potential nomination.

AEG-Turbinenhalle: owned by the Siemens AG and still used for the original purpose, the production of turbines. But in contrast to the Fagus factory, where the private owner was a driving force in the WH process, the Siemens Group obviously has no interest.

Olympiapark Munich: owned by the Olympiapark München GmbH, which is owned by the city of Munich; today the Olympiapark is only rarely used for sport events, but for concerts, festivals, fairs, even for a car race. However, recently a private initiative was lauched to promote a WH nomination.

Tempelhof: owned by the city of Berlin; the building is protected as a historical monument, the airfield is a huge undeveloped area close to the centre of the city. Currently there are no activities towards a WH nomination. Next week I will visit Berlin and I already booked a guided tour to the Tempelhof building, so I can verify whether it would be a worthy WHS.

Well, after further dwelling on the topic it seems the information mentioned before (cited from the official website of Doberaner Münster) wasn't that accurate. The DDR T list existed for two years only: 1989-1990, not before. It included many more sites that the three mentioned, five of which were submitted to Unesco by the DDR. Potsdam was inscribed (although after unification), whereas Dresden, Quedlinburg, Magdeburg und Wörlitz were withdrawn.
http://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/3551

The full DDR T list is available here:
https://www.mdr.de/zeitreise/dokumente-unesco-100.html
Interestingly, it includes lots of sites that were dropped after unification. This means the West German cultural authorities did not accept the judgment of the former East German ones as to what could make a good WHS candidate.

It was quite interesting to see, in the first part of the document, the complete DDR tentative list. Both for the sites that eventually became WH completely, partially or as part of another WHS (Bauhaus Dessau, Dessau-Wörlitz landscape, Stralsund, Quedlinburg, Wartburg, Bad Muskau, Wittenberg HC, Classical Weimar), the ones that have been nominated since and failed (Halle, Freiberg, Karl-Liebknecht-Schacht, Naumburg), and the ones that are not even on the T list today.
Also interesting to see the unified TL, of which all properties, except Magdeburg's cathedral, have succeeded in being inscribed.

Great find Assif.

Interesting that at one stage three different bits of the Mitte district in Berlin were being considered separately (Museuminsel, Unter den Linden and Gendarmenmarkt).

Also interesting to note Buchenwald Concentration Camp being considered.