Portugal - we add Guimarães..! :)

PORTUGAL - 2011

The old capital of Portugal, GUIMARÃES, was our new WH-point during this trip to Portugal - as always a lovely country, where friends and 'friends you didn't know you had' did their very best to help us feel at home. Thank you so much Paula & Gabriel, Carmen, José and Yolanda, Andrés and the rest of you!

Previously, for instance in 2001, and 2004, we have thouroghly visited Porto, Lisboa, and the Douro valley.. (and lots of other interesting sites in Portugal) so now we profonded the knowledge of those sites (i.e. by living next door to Palacio da Bolsa, eating _under_ the famous bridges, listening to Fado downtown Lisboa and waking up with the astonishing view of Rio Duoro just a few steps away). We also introduced the competition to our travel companions by forcing them to pose close to the Unesco signs and letting them know of other unwritten competition laws...

The so called "long weekend" felt too short, and next time we need to stay a little longer, in time to better visit Lisboa and the Porto wine caves, enjoy the Fado again, and the southern parts of Portugal, and its wine!

Visited by Isabella, Dennis, Mats & Monica in September/October 2011 - during the late harvest. :)

The World's Heritage

We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary by visiting one of our closest heritages - Skogskyrkogården (a cemetary) in Stockholm. At the visitor centre gift shop we found our anniversary present: a book listing the World's Heritages in cronological order from the first meeting in 1978 to 2008. The most recent heritages aren't included, but still. It's a beautifully illustrated book and it made our day!

Wieliczka Salt Mine

The second day of our weekend in Cracow we took a guided tour to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. Considering the weather it was actually a very good idea to spend the day underground, and the mines was a unique and fascinating experience. In addition to the insight into the historical value of the mines, all the amazing artwork carved out of salt (most of it by miners) was made the trip well worth while.


visited my Maria and Mattias, march 2009

Cracow's Historic Centre

In march 2009 we took a very short trip to Cracow to celebrate that I'd finally gotten my PhD in Medical Informatics. The weather wasn't the best, and we'd booked a cheap room which was cold, but in a good location so we could spend all our time in the historic centre. It would be nice to go back in summer time though, I'm sure you could really enjoy a cold beer or two in the sun at the central market square... however, nothing like cold winds and rain as an excuse to sneak into one of the many cosy cafés surrounding the square for a coffee and cake!

Of course, you also have to climb the hill up to Wawel castle and enjoy the view of the river and perhaps a visit to the dragons cave (which was unfortunately closed when we were there).

visited by Maria and Mattias, 7th march 2009

Elbe removed!

The World Heritage Committee has held its 33rd session and inscribed two new natural sites and 11 cultural sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, none that I have visited though... A more disturbing news is that for the second time in the history of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage adopted by UNESCO in 1972, a site was removed from the World Heritage List when the Committee decided that Germany’s Dresden Elbe Valley could no longer retain its status as a World Heritage site of outstanding universal value! The decision was due to the construction underway of a four-lane bridge in the heart of the cultural landscape.
We had the good fortune to visit the Elbe Valley in the summer of 2006, and the site is included in my list of visited world heritages. Today's question is of course whether or not I can still count Elbe as a visited world heritage or not. For now, I will.


visited by Maria, Mattias, Isabella and Dennis in June 2006

Historic Areas of Istanbul

In September, we took a weekend trip to Istanbul. A trip that surely left us all wanting more! The old centre of Istanbul was amazing, with the Blue mosque, Hagia Sophia and the Hippodrome. We visited during Ramadan, and at night the whole area turned into a festivale of music and light and happy people everywhere. Great!

visited by Maria, Mattias, Isabella and Dennis september 2008

The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik

An airconditioned bus (very comfortable) took us from Split to Sibenik where we had some time to visit the Cathedral of St James. The cathedral was not only unique in the technical construction of it's dome, it also boasted a fascinating frieze decorated with 71 sculptured faces of men, women, and children. Each face was unique and showed different expressions and was said to show common people rather than religious figures or nobles. Quite remarkable.

Visited by Maria and Mattias, august 2008 (as well as by Ester and the Hägglund/Alfredsson-family).