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Perhaps I don't quite share the same enthusiasm as my predecessors because we were less lucky? We had decided to stay at the municipal campsite in Zaragoza, which was nice in itself, and to reach the city by bike, which was less so due to the lack of infrastructure. Probably because cycling is less common among the Spanish: a policeman made us dismount in the old town.

Since the Seo was closed, we took the opportunity to have lunch in the Plaza de Nuestra Senora del Pilar where the atmosphere was festive: the people of Zaragoza were celebrating their children's first communion. Then we cycled around the Seo before visiting the Aljaferia. The problem with the Seo is that there is not enough space to admire it in its entirety; it is crammed into a dense building, even though only certain parts of the cathedral are listed: the apse, the wall of the "Parroquieta" and the Cimborio according to the official UNESCO website. Note that the church of Santa Maria Magdalena and its bell tower, a stone's throw from the Seo, are interesting and not listed, but there too there is not enough space to fully admire it.

I am a fan of Islamic art, but I must admit that I felt less enthusiasm at the Aljaferia than in Andalusia, such as Seville, for example, or in Cordoba or Granada.

Jean-Paul Roux gives the following definition in the dictionary of Islamic arts, ed. Fayard, 2007, Mudejar art "designates …

Time of the visit: the 15th of oct.,2025

I would like to focus a little on logistics, including the routes between the individual sites and the ideal route for visitors using public transport.

There are two options if you come from Busan

1) take the kmx train from Busan station (subway stop:Busan station) to the KMX train station Ulsan,you can either take a taxi from there or the bus 383 to the Ulsan Petroglyp Museum,

2) take one of the frequent buses(every 40 min) from Busan Central Bus Station to Eonyang Intercity Bus Terminal, you can either take a taxi (there is no taxi rank near the terminal but I counted at least 4 taxis passing by while waiting at the bus stop for bus 383) from there or the bus 383 to the Ulsan Petroglyp Museum.

The bus from Busan is a direct express bus with a fixed route from Busan to Tongdosa and Eonyang Bus Terminal. During weekdays, the buses are quite empty, and most of the few passengers get off at Tongdosa Station. The Tongdosa Temple is part of the Sansa UNESCO World Heritage Sites and probably the most impressive individual World Heritage Site in South Korea, with Gyeongyu as a whole probably earning the title of best WHS.

Which option is better depends a bit on where you stay in Busan. For me, both the train station and the bus station were the same distance away. In the morning, the subways towards downtown are packed with …

During our 5 nights resort holidays on Djerba, I managed to visit most of the components spread over several mornings. The WHS can roughly be divided into mosques and agricultural zones. Plus, a church, a synagogue and 2 town centres. Mosques clearly make the biggest part, and it was fun to hunt them down. It required a fair amount of dirt and sand road driving to tick them all. Many mosques are still in use and thus closed for visitors, but from those I saw the interior through the windows I can confidently say, that you don’t miss out on anything for not entering them. Other mosques are no longer in use, and you can freely enter all rooms of these complexes.

What is quite special about this site is that, even though looking at the map it feels like the whole island is inscribed, it’s actually easy to miss. Even the reviews of those who visited before inscription show that. Not counting the mosques you probably drive by but would not notice as WHS material, your best chance to enter the core zone is probably visiting the old part of Houmt Souk for shopping. None of the component are that remarkable, that you would have visited anyway.

Do you need to visit that many components? Certainly not. But I can’t just sit an entire day by the pool, so here we are. For those who are as dedicated as I am, here’s an overview of my visits:

Sidi Ismail

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Our second World Heritage Site on our Uganda road trip september 2025.

We started our day hike from the Mihunga main gate (Nyakalengija), heading into the Rwenzoris. As others have noted, it takes several days of trekking to reach the alpine zone with its unique flora – similar to what we were lucky enough to experience on Mount Kenya around 3,500 meters, earlier this year.

Our hike covered about 10-11 kilometers return with 500–600 meters of elevation gain. The first four kilometers were fairly gentle, following a good trail through lush rainforest and fern forest, with two river crossings and a few ladders, before reaching the first shelter.

From there, the trail became much steeper. We had hoped to climb high enough for a clear view of the peaks, but to get there you’d likely need to continue all the way to the first camp at Nyabitaba – about 1,000 meters of ascent and 10 kilometers one way. That makes for a very long and strenuous day, more than we were ready to take on.

Even without the big panoramia, the hike was rewarding. The rainforest was vibrant and full of life, with butterflies, wildflowers, wild bananas, and dense ferns creating the atmosphere of true wilderness. We also spotted both red-tailed monkeys, colobus monkeys and even an chimpanzee along the way. An armed park ranger accompanied us – and while I believe that’s mandatory, the path was easy to follow and well marked.

The drive to Mihunga gate added to …

Visiting FRIM was a rather plodding experience. Firstly, the site is not as easily reachable as I had hoped. The local mass transit in Kuala Lumpur seems to be much less efficient than expected. Trying to reach FRIM during a stopover on Sunday, I discovered that the public rail system is quite slow - the trains crawl along the tracks, the frequency was very low ( about one train per hour), and none of the major tourist spots seemed to be on the same line. Every change of a train added at least one more hour to the travel time - I was faster walking than taking a train. As a stopover from the airport, this means at least 40 minutes with KL express to KL Sentral station, than 60-90 minutes with a local train in the direction of FRIM. However, none of the trains actually reaches the FRIM garden, so you have to take a bus or walk for half an hour in the tropical sun. FRIM itself obviously expects the visitors to arrive by their own car - there is no support for other possibilities. The bottom line is that I think the 4-5 hour minimal stopover time mentioned in another review is unrealistic - I wouldn't risk it even with an 8 hour stopover time. You need to assume a three hour connection time (one way) from the airport, and this is assuming that nothing major goes wrong. Zipping around the city with local trains like in …

Our first stop on our road trip through Uganda was a visit to the Kasubi Tombs, the resting place of the Buganda kings. To be honest, we didn’t have very high expectations before going, and some in our group weren’t even planning to join. In the end, we all went together – and everyone agreed it turned out to be a truly memorable experience.

Much of this was thanks to our guide, Fredric, whose knowledge and engaging storytelling brought the history to life. He guided us through the traditions of the Buganda kingdom, the lives of the four Kabakas (kings) buried here, and how their legacy connects to the wider history of Uganda.

The tombs suffered a devastating fire in 2010, which destroyed the main building. Fortunately, the graves themselves were untouched, as the kings are buried deep underground. Rebuilding the tombs was a challenge, since much of the old construction knowledge had been lost. After several attempts, they returned to the architectural style of the original 1882 structure. This time, the process has been carefully documented, and photos of the restoration are displayed on site.

Built in traditional style with natural materials, the tombs are considered the largest grass-thatched structure in the world. While modern reinforcements like concrete have been added for stability, the architectural style remains striking and unlike anything we have seen before.

The hight inside is 9,5 m, with a beautifully patterned ceiling. Inside pillars – including the concrete ones, are covered with …

Visited August 2025

Do not expect anything! This is the best advice I can give you. On UNESCO website you can read: From transition in architecture to development in tool-making techniques to introduction and diffusion of lentil in the north-western India, the site of Burzahom is a unique comprehensive story teller of life between 3000 BCE to 1000 BCE. Yes, storyteller. Or rather storywhisperer, so quietly… You cannot see it.

Yes, the site is very important for the development of agriculture and house building, not only in this part of India, but in the whole area at the border of Deccan and south-east Asia. Neolithic period, aceramic culture. From oval subterranean dwellings with wooden post for protecting plant cover to mud houses on level ground. Next step: Neolithic period, first ceramic, probably imported and locally copied. More mud brick construction, more wood used in construction techniques. Many artefacts (few of them in the National Museum in Delhi), burial pits and trepanned human skulls. Next step: Megalithic culture. With menhirs, more pottery and more remains of cultivated plants.

You can read this in many articles – and the reading suggests more than you can see.

Artificial hill on the outskirt of Srinagar town. Easily reached by rickshaw or city bus. No ticket counter, but cows enjoying the fresh grass. Undulating terrain. A temporary roof over the archaeological digs from Y2K. Menhirs not in their original position (but the most spectacular). Reconstruction of wooden piles. Muslim cemetery on the norther edges of …

I visited three component parts in August 2025: 1) Panhala Fort, 2) Vijaydurg Fort and 3) Lohagad and Visapur fort complex.

Just a short introduction: all forts are liked with Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj… The only problem with this inscription is that the forts are located in pretty remote areas and it takes time to get there using public transportation, but it is not impossible. Panhala and Vijaydur were kind of natural choices because I was coming from the south, from Belur and Halebidu – there’s at least two buses daily (check and book on https://www.redbus.in) going all the way from Mysore to Pune calling at Banavara (30 km from Halebidu) and at Kolhapur located just 20 km from Panhala. Kolhapur is also a good starting point to tick Western Ghats with a half day visit to Radhanagari Wildlife Sanctuary (only part of the reserve was open to public during the rainy season).

To get to Panhala fort I took a rickshaw, but it is possible to take a bus from the bus station (the first one is at 7:30). Today Panhala looks rather like a village then the fort – there are house, hotels, shops around the central part of the fort. To appreciate its strategic location and the military architecture you have to follow the path connecting the “points of interest” as marked on the old map placed on the board close to the main round point on the main street. And these points of interest are (as I …

I was on Reichenau last week and it appeared that elements of the special exhibition in Konstanz (mentioned by Caspar) have now been given a place in the new building next to the main museum on Reichenau in Mittelteil. I found this a very informative multimedia experience. Of course, it doesn't change that the original paintings, manuscripts, etc. are kept in various other places, but that is about the first thing that you read when entering the museum. Still, judging previous reviews, this modernisation of the museum seems a good step forward in demonstrating the history and importance of the island. So do go there, before visiting the churches.

Or, as they say themselves: "Zum Jubiläum wurde auch das Museum Reichenau unter Mitwirkung des Badischen Landesmuseums neu konzipiert – mit dem Ziel, neueste Forschungsergebnisse und fundierte Fakten ebenso verständlich wie anschaulich zu vermitteln. Die durch archäologische Grabungen oder neue Ansätze in der Handschriftenkunde gewonnenen Erkenntnisse flossen in das Ausstellungskonzept mit ein. Eine innovative mediale Vermittlung schafft nun ein Besuchserlebnis für ein breites Publikum am historischen Originalschauplatz. Diese neue Dauerausstellung auf der Insel Reichenau bleibt natürlich auch nach Ende der Großen Landesausstellung bestehen. Zudem werden zwei interaktive Medienstationen, die für die Ausstellung in Konstanz entwickelt wurden, in das Museum Reichenau gebracht und dort nachhaltig weitergenutzt."

Time of the visit: 24+25+27th of june,2025

Naha is a somewhat over-the-top city and has American elements to it ... something untypical of Japan..it feels more like Hawai.

I first visited the Shuri Castle.I took one of the monorail trains and got off at the stop "Shuri station"

From there I walked to the castle,but had to flee into a small Japanese restaurant when the sky opened its gates flooding the streets with heavy rain.I was trapped in the restaurant for 45 minutes before the rain turned into a light drizzle.

Shuri Castle is a historic Ryukyuan gusuku (castle) located in Naha, Okinawa's capital. Once the royal palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom (1429–1879), it served as the political, cultural, and diplomatic heart of the islands.Perched on a hill overlooking Naha, Shuri Castle combines traditional Ryukyuan architectural style with influences from Chinese and Japanese design, reflecting the kingdom’s position as a hub of maritime trade and diplomacy in East Asia. At the center of the complex stood the Seiden (Main Hall) — an elegant wooden structure where royal ceremonies, audiences, and important state rituals took place. Shuri Castle was destroyed during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, later reconstructed in 1992, and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the “Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu.” Tragically, a major fire in 2019 destroyed much of the reconstructed main hall, but restoration work is actively ongoing, with efforts to faithfully rebuild it using traditional methods and …

There are sites that, despite their seemingly innocuous appearance, hide a striking reality!

We visited the site of the former Schokland Island in August 2024. What a shock!

We had an excellent approach to this site because, as there is no campsite in Schokland itself, we camped a few kilometers away in Urk, which is another former island in the Zuiderzee. The day before, we had decided to visit this port village by bike, crossing a wood from the campsite. In this wood, there are glacial stones discovered during the creation of the polders. Legend has it that the future father of a child from Urk had to go to Schokland to fetch "a key" which he then placed on his return on one of these half-submerged stones. At the exit of the wood, another forest is revealed: wind turbines! And then once you climb onto the dike, it is the North Sea that reveals itself. The strong impressions announce the island of Schokland because the sea is very powerful and the icy wind violent.

So the next day, we headed to Schokland. We couldn't understand the WHS site and its universal scope without a historical explanation:

In prehistoric times, the area around Schokland consisted of a large peat bog covered with sphagnum, a succulent plant. A landscape somewhat reminiscent of the Hooge Veluwe National Park or the High Fens Nature Park in Belgium. Semi-nomadic hunter-farmers lived there. This was roughly between 4,900 and 1,800 BC. Afterwards, the peat covered …

We visited the pumping station near the town of Lemmer during our stay in the Netherlands in August 2024. It is said that Dutch hydraulic engineers are among the best in the world and that their expertise is sought after worldwide because they share a long history of coexistence with the sea and water management in general. The visit to the pumping station, which is still in operation, albeit in occasional support of the more efficient Stavoren pumping station from 1967 PC (+/- 12,000 kW), seems to illustrate this point well. Its name comes from its designer, Engineer Ir D.F. Wouda.

Its purpose is to lower the water level of the Friesland. It is capable of pumping 4 million liters of water per minute at full capacity, or +/- 6,600 kW. The Friesland watershed covers 3,400 to 4,000 km2. This station is the largest steam-powered pumping station in the world! Initially, the fuel was coal; the boilers were converted to run on oil in 1967 PC.

From a practical point of view, a parking lot has been set up a short distance from the station; you can get there on foot, by bike, or by organized shuttle. The buildings are a nice way to get around. A contemporary building containing the reception, a shop, an educational museum, and a restaurant has been built next to the pumping station. This is where you buy your ticket and follow a volunteer guide, either in Dutch or English.

We decided to follow the …

Time of the visit: june the 26th+27th,2025

I took one of the hourly buses in Naha, Okinawa's capital, to Nago, the second biggest city on that island. My intention was to kill two birds with one stone, visiting Nago and the world heritage site. I locked my luggage in the lockers at the Nago bus station. Nago was a disappointment. Nago turned out to be a faceless little town, only the beach was really worth mentioning. Bus 67 connects Nago to the north. It had been incredibly hot until the bus departed. During the journey, it poured with heavy rain. I somehow forgot to buy a SIM card when I arrived at the airport, and afterward, I simply had no time and no possibility to buy one.I communicated with the owner of the jungle guesthouse via email, as I couldn't phone him (he didn't speak English anyway), nor did he have WhatsApp or telegram. He wanted to pick me up at the nearest bus stop, "Okuma Beach." Conveniently, the last grocery store is right next to the stop: a Family Mart convenience store. I recommend anyone following this route to stock up on drinks, food, and instant soups there.

The guesthouse turned out to be the last building before leaving civilization. I had booked a spot in the traditional common room for a small fee. There were no other guests, and I had the entire building to myself. I was offered a room, but I preferred the large common area. …

Time of the visit: the 1st of oct.,2025

At 11.30 am I took the direct bus(every 40 min) from Busan Central Bus Terminal,next to the metro stop " Nopo",to Tongdosa-Sinpyeong Bus Terminal.The journey took about 25 min.

The walk to the temple is very easy. You turn right when you leave the bus station and keep walking straight ahead... straight ahead. The path leads directly to the temple. After about 5 minutes, you reach the Yeongchuisanmun Gate. From there, you walk along a charming pedestrian path, separated from the cars by the river. This path is simply beautiful, lined with large old stone lanterns, a cafe in a sort of small temple replica, and Buddhist inscriptions on stone blocks.

GabLabCebu's review hits the nail on the head, but more on that later.

After about a 20-minute walk along a truly fantastic path, you reach a fenced-in area with giant tortoises. I stayed there for a few minutes and took a close look at them. The main gate is directly adjacent. I first visited the wonderful Tongdosa Museum (free entrance), which explains the history of the temple and displays some of its treasures, such as tablets, Buddhist images, statues, prints, and printing plates. I stayed there for about 20 minutes.

The 600 Buddhist paintings rival any other leading museum in the field of Buddhist paintings.Impressive.

Through another gate, the Buriman Gate, the last of four entrance gates, I entered the main complex of smaller and larger temples. Based on our fellow …

How can you not love the WHS Wadden Sea? First attempt to dip your toes into the Wadden Sea in August 2024, return in October 2024.

The destination of the first trip was the island of Ameland, Friesland, The Netherlands. To get there, you have to take a ferry from Holwerd, which we hadn't booked. Be careful, the price is expensive for a mobile home, but it is possible to leave it in the parking lot at the pier. And we crossed the Wadden Sea to the island where we stayed for 2 days at a very nice little farm campsite.

We had fixed our bikes to the back of Wilson so we could cycle around the island to Het Oerd nature reserve, which is included in the WHS area. It is possible to enter the reserve on foot by following the Wadden Sea from an observatory. There is also a huge beach to the northwest of this observatory overlooking the North Sea, which is very impressive when the tide is low, as the water is so far out on the horizon. There was a warden there, so we thought that when the tide is in, you'd better be able to run well! We saw quite a few birds both on the banks and in the meadows of the island, to our great delight.

This excursion will undoubtedly remain in your memory for a long time: the colors of the vegetation, the sky, the passing clouds and the showers, the …

Ever since I learned that I’d be dispatched on a month-long business trip to Panama, I’ve been trying to figure out how to get a real taste of the Camino de Cruces.

The Colonial Transisthmian Route of Panamá was the most puzzling new inscription from the 2025 WHC. I couldn’t understand why it was designated as a replacement for the former Panama City site rather than as its own separate entry. It was only after reading some research papers that I realized this was a tactful move to prevent Panama City from being completely delisted. The threat comes from large-scale urban development projects, most notably Cinta Costera 3 which encircles the whole Casco Viejo, cuts it off from its surrounding seascape, and undermines both its integrity and OUV.

The new nomination of the colonial transisthmian route effectively rewrote the OUV of Archaeological Site of Panamá Viejo and Historic District of Panamá, repositioning the 2 major components rather as terminal stations of an overland crossing than as harbors on the Pacific front. This narrative shift intentionally dissociated the sites from their maritime setting, and thus downplayed the negative impacts of the coastal construction projects that definitively altered the shoreline. In fact, the concerns of WHC were never addressed at all, only evaded.

Nevertheless, the inclusion of 3 sections of the Camino de Cruces illustrates another layer of the strategic importance of Panamá Viejo and Casco Viejo, and clarifies how goods and wealth once flowed between both sides of the isthmus. …

By crisscrossing France in all directions every other year in summer, of the 78 places listed on the site of the Way of St. James of Compostela in France, I visited 33, some before showing interest in UNESCO, and others even before they were listed.

So I will only highlight here those that are a favorite, without mentioning the 4 places also listed elsewhere that I have already visited:

Le Puy-en-Velay, Haute-Loire :

Le Puy-en-Velay is the starting point of the Way of St. James via Podiensis.We had the chance to visit Le Puy as a family on August 15th, the feast day of Mary, patron saint of the Notre-Dame Cathedral of Le Puy-en-Velay, and witnessed a candle-lit procession through the town's streets, where the Black Virgin is carried by white penitents in a wooden shrine. Le Puy is an impressive place because it is so special, with not only the magnificent Romanesque cathedral built between the 5th and 12th centuries overlooking the city but also the Saint-Michel d'Aiguilhe chapel perched on a volcanic peak and a huge modern statue of Mary on another rocky peak. It is easy to imagine pilgrims climbing up to the main porch of the cathedral at the very top of the street... It is special in that it is, to my knowledge, the only cathedral with two floors; when you enter the porch, you arrive in the middle of the main nave by a staircase! It is a strange feeling to enter a cathedral …

When I visited the castles in Bellinzona a little over a week ago, there was a UNESCO exhibit in one of the rooms allowing visitors to vote for their favorite Swiss World Heritage Site. Not surprisingly, the local site took first, but I was a bit surprised to see that the least popular site (underperforming against both pile dwellings and a beech forest) was the Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona. That's a shame, since it was quite an extraordinary place to visit. I can only assume the tectonic arena may be just off the beaten path for most visitors to Switzerland, who gravitate to more popular mountain peaks.

The Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona is a photogenic region of mountains south of the Walensee in eastern Switzerland, not far from the border with Liechtenstein. The site was inscribed as a World Heritage Site under Criteria VIII for its rich geologic history. Two Swiss geologists, Arnold Escher von der Linth and Albert Heim, and a French geologist, Marcel Bertrand (son of the mathematician Joseph Bertrand), studied the mountains in this area extensively in the 19th century to determine why exposed layers of older rock were found over layers of younger rocks. Their research led scientists to ultimately recognize that the older layer was pushed atop the younger layer as a result of tectonics -- a geologic process called a thrust fault. The scientists named this example the Glarus Thrust (or Glarus Overthrust), after the canton many of the outcrops can be found in.

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It's good this site was added to the UNESCO list, not only because it's a great inscription but also because it made it worth taking a tour into the area again. I added Rani-ki-vav, the sun temple and the other Harappan site to make it an easy 2 day trip. The smaller Harappan sites should be included in this inscription and I think an extension would be required so if you don't want to go all the way south for that I would understand and skipping it is totally ok. There are several of these kind of sites including over in Pakistan so it's probably not gonna be extended anytime soon.

Because I had more sites to add it was worth doing a trip from Ahmedabad which requires staying on Khadir Bet island or maybe somewhere nearby. It takes a good 7h from Ahmedabad to get here thus it's probably the best. There is also a closer airport at Bhuj which only takes 4 hours so if that is your only site to visit then I would attempt that way - there are flights from Mumbai, however it's a military airport and getting close to Pakistan already raises attention for flying to Ahmedabad. Nothing you can do and being honest about your wishes to see the area as a tourist still gets a funny look from immigration. As if I were to do anything naughty...

There are a several places to stay on the island (with roads by the way …

Time of the visit: august the 18th,2025

After some days in Takayama I took an early bus to Shirakagawa/Ogimachi where I put my baggage in one of the bus station's lockers.I had more than 6 hours time before my bus left for Kanazawa.

Shirakagawa is a popular place for organised bus trips for foreign visitors,mainly Chinese ones.

The town was overcrowded with tourists and felt more like a Disneyland village than a still inhabited country hamlet.

I decided to climb to the Ogimachi Castle observation deck first. My maps.me map showed me a small side path leading up, which was steep but easy to navigate. Once at the top, I saw a sign warning people to avoid this path because a bear with her cubs had been found there at 9:00. It was about 10.00.

The observation deck was already full with tourists taking pics or selfies or buying souvenirs.

From there, you get a good overview of the town. Then I followed the crowd down into the village, where I visited various historic houses( in the Gassho-zukuri style), as well as a small museum. The entrance fee deterred many Chinese tourists, so that the historic houses were relatively empty.

I also visited the Myozenji Temple and the Hachiman Shrine (both were closed).There, I came across a resting snake, of which I took a few close photos. I later learned that it was a mamushi, the most common venomous snake in Japan.

Before coming to Shirakagawa, I had already …