Historical Complex of Split with the Palace of Diocletian

When in Split, you would have to make a serious effort to avoid visiting the Palace of Diocletian. It is the centre of the city, and there are heaps of restaurants, shops and museums inside the palace walls. Underneath the palace, there's also a touristic market for those of us who loves bringing more or less tacky souvenirs with us home.

visited by Maria and Mattias (+ Ester and the Hägglund/Alfredsson family), aug 2008 (we spent a week in Split and visited/walked through the palace almost daily)

High Coast

We have just spent 4 days in a world heritage area, the high coast of northern Sweden. We climbed the Skule mountain (rather, some of us climbed and some of us rode the linbana - skii lift), and visited the World heritage museums interesting exhibition.

The area is breath taking and well worth a visit. In summer, it's great spending time at the coast, swimming, taking boat trips to the islands, and climbing the steep mountains. In winter, there's of course skiing and lots of activities requiring snow (I prefer summer, but to each his own).

A special event is also to attend a proper "surströmmingsskiva". Traditionally held in august, it's a great party eating the fermented herring which is produced in the area. The smell of the fish can be quite overwhelming, but once you get used to it you might actually enjoy it. Do I have to add that enormous amounts of alcohol is normally consumed together with the small smelly fishes?

visited by Maria, Mattias, Ester, Isabella and Dennis (who actually live at the High coast), 2008-07-30

Royal Domain of Drottningholm

Yesterday we visited Drottningholm in Stockholm. A bit embarrassing that neither of us had visited before, but it finally gave me a new point in the competition, after a looong year of revisiting world heritages...

In comparison with other similar world heritage palaces (Versailles, Schloss Schönbrunn, Sans-Souci) Drottningholm scores high on surrounding and environment. The palace is beautifully located, and you could easily spend more than a few summer days lazily relaxing in the parks... That's pretty much what we did, after attempting a guided tour of the palace with a hungry, tired and hot two-year-old. Not appreciated by all. We actually left the tour half-way through, quickly walked through what was left of the beautiful rooms and proceeded to have cookies on the stairs outside. But the park was full of children, no guards yelled at you for having a pick-nick on the lawn, and Ester loved running through the labyrints and looking at the swans and geese in the lake. So it's definitely a good world heritage to visit with children!

visited by Maria, Mattias, Ester, Sofie and Fredrik, 2008-07-27

Historic Centre (Chorá) with the Monastery of Saint John "the Theologian" and the Cave of the Apocalypse on the Island of Pátmos

We took the flying Dolphin from Pythagorio on Samos to the island of Patmos. Arriving in the port town Skala, we immidiately started our walk up the mountainside to reach the Cave of the Apocalypse. The heat wasn't too bad yet, and we were lucky to arrive just between two tourist groups and had a few moments almost alone in the cave where John is said to have composed his gospel and the apocalypse after having visions of God.

We then continued our climb up to Chorà and the monastery. Chorà is a beautiful city, and if you (like us) only do a one-day trip to Patmos, I can recommend exploring the narrow white streets around the monastery rather than going back down to Skala which is not very exciting...

visited by Maria and Mattias 2008-07-15

Pythagoreion and Heraion of Samos

On the beautiful island Samos you can find the city Pythogoreion, birth town of Pythagorio. It is a touristic small town, whose harbour is lined with restaurants. A small castle still overlooks the town, and excavations are scattered almost everywhere between the narrow greek streets. Just outside the town, close to the village Ireon, is Heraion, an antique temple of Hera. Or rather... there's not much left of the temple, but walking through the area gives you an idea of how great the temple must have been. I would however, recommend a visit to the museum of Samos before going to Heraion, since most of the artefacts found in the excavations are kept there. It becomes easier to imagine the great temple after having seen the huge statues found there, now on display in the museum.

A visit to the impressive tunnel of Eupalinos is also recommended. Not only to get an idea of the amazing technical achievement it represents, but also to enjoy the cool air of the tunnel...

visited by Maria, Mattias, Isabella and Dennis, 2008-07-10

Engelsberg Ironworks

On the 13th of August 2006 we (me, Mattias and his mother) took a trip to the Engelsberg Ironworks. It happened to be the yearly celebration of the Ironworks, so there were heaps of activities... and it's a very nice place to go for a day visit! It's really beautiful, and captures a lot of typical Swedish environments. To our surprise (and joy) there was even a small world heritage exibition.

visited by Maria & Mattias, 2006-08-13

Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape

I forgot! We actually visited 3 WH sites on our trip to Austria in november. How could I forget Fertö/Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape? When visiting our good friends in Gols, we practically live in the Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape and we even made a very cold and very uncomfortable visit to the lake itself. In November, Neusiedlersee isn't a very nice place, but I really wish I could go back in summer...

visited by Maria, Mattias, Isabella & Dennis 2007-11-09

Historic Centre of Rome

Historic Centre of Rome, the Properties of the Holy See in that City Enjoying Extraterritorial Rights and San Paolo Fuori le Mura

Perhaps the longest name of a world heritage I've visited... And since it's been embarrassingly long since I visited any sites (I haven't touched WH ground since november!), I will backtrack my way down my list... starting with a classic: the Historic Centre of Rome.

I've been to Rome a few times now, and my last visit was in march 2007, together with Mattias, our daughter Ester, Mattias' brother and my parents. In other words a family vacation. And Ester is getting a good start on her WH career, having been breast fed inside the Collosseum, and on Forum Romanum.

visited by Maria & Mattias 2007-03-11