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).

Historic City of Trogir

Having spent much too much of the past months finishing my PhD thesis, I will now get back to updating this blog and hopefully visit some more fascinating world heritages. Before embarking on new adventures, I still have some Croatian heritages to describe, starting with the historic city of Trogir.
We took a bus from Split to Trogir. It was hot. And crowded. And hot. It was cheap, and didn't take that long, but I wouldn't recommend it. Especially not if you have a 2 year old child with you! I was honestly worried that she might get sick from the heat. But we survived.

Trogir is a beautiful city! Set on a small island, you can quickly walk around it, or why not get lost in all maze of tiny cobbled streets. Our visit was made on a HOT day, probably better spent on a beach, but we still had a good time. In order to avoid taking the bus back, we chose to go by boat from Trogir to Split. It was tiny but completely filled with people. It was an open boat, and it would have been a nice trip if our daughter hadn't screamed the whole way, exhausted after a hot day of sightseeing and not particularly delighted with having to sit on a crowded boat.

visited by Maria and Mattias, august 2008