World Heritage Sites

[atiguhya padma]

I recently went to Brussels for a long weekend, and visited two of the cities World Heritage sites: the Grand Place and some of Victor Horta's Houses. I thought the first was an exceptionally well preserved old town square, with great character and atmosphere. I don't think many, if any, places in the UK have anything like this Grand Place. Victor Horta's House (now a museum), is a wonderfully creative piece of art nouveau architecture and design (its actually several wonderful pieces). There is a stairwell in this house that has beautifully ornate design, with lots of spiralling curves and rounded features. On one side of the stairwell is a mirror that sits opposite an identical mirror on the other side. The effect this creates is the sense that you are in an infintely regressing room.

Anyway, I decided to include this link here http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31 and ask you whether you have been to any of these World Heritage Sites and if so, would you care to share your impressions with us?

[Shea]

I've been to the Everglades (obviously a short road trip for me), but its actually been a while so lets see if I can remember... There were mangroves everywhere and the entire area was very gator oriented. I remember going on an airboat ride and seeing tons of gators. We also went to a gator farm where there was even gator wrestling. I also had gator tail (it tasted like chicken, only tougher). I was just a kid and I think my parents took us to all the touristy things to keep us amused. I do remember that the landscape was amazingly green and beautiful. I'd like to go back there soon.

I also went to the Statue of Liberty when I was a about 10. All I really remember though is being exited about going all the way up, looking around, then coming back down. To be perfectly honest, I was quite surprised that Ellis Island wasn't on that list. That was far more interesting to me.

[Shea]

Oh, I also went to Paris, I've seen the Notre Dame and quite possibly many of those other cathedrals, but I went with a catholic youth group for a catholic function (World Youth Day) at a time when I had to pretend to be catholic to appease my family, so my opinion may be tainted.

[Logos]

Thanks for the site's link.

I've been to many of these sites apparently in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, United States and on my way to visiting more in France, again some I've been to many times, next month!

I will get back to you with some more recent impressions.

[Koa]

I think the place where I live is one...wait...*checks site* ...Yeah, there it is... city of Verona. :D I guess the area where I live is not included in the world heritage thingy lol.

Ok as I am a show off I'll read through the list and put what i find... it's easier for europeans than for Americans though, we probably have smaller distances...

Austria, Schonbrunn (dont remember much :blush:)
Austria, city centre of Graz (the ugliest place I've ever seen...I hated it. It felt like a fairy tale village. But I was there after seeing Budapest so many things would have seemed ugly to me in that moment...)
Austria, city centre of Vienna (not bad, but Austria is definitely my least favourite place)
Prague (cool!)
France, Mont Saint Michel (really cool)
Budapest, one of my favourite cities ever
Italy:
rock drawings in Valcamonica (wow, my first school trip when I was like 8 years old! And my parents complained cos I took many pictures of rocks...well what am I meant to take pcitures of, if Im taken to see rocks...)
Florence (I didnt visit it in the best of ways but quite at random...it's nice but I prefer Verona)
Venice (I dont even like it that much, even if last time I was there, 2 years ago I think I grew to appreciate it enough. It's less than 2 hours by train from where I live so i've bene there a few times)
Pisa (it was ok...the tower is not as impressive as most people think though...)
Ferrara (I would have never guessed it but it's really lovely)
the 'trulli' of Alberobello (holiday with my parents at least 15 years ago)
Portovenere and Cinqueterre (other holiday wiht my parents some years ago...quite pretty)
Modena (not that impressive, but again i would have never thought it would be cool)
Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park with the Archeological sites of Paestum and Velia, and the Certosa di Padula (Cilento is the area where my grandfather was born and I've spent my first 15 summers there...very interesting area thoug I havent been back there often in the past years cos I dont have good memories from my childhood, I fouind it boring. Last time I was there was in 2001 I think and I noticed how different it is from the north of Italy, the landscape and the trees and everything...Wait, I'm not sure I've been to Paestum, if I've been I was too young to remember, but I've seen so many picutres that it feels like I've been...)

And that's it...feels silly that I've never been to Rome, nor to Vicenza and the villas, which are in the list and are ridicolously near to where I live.

As I expected Italy has quite a lot of sites in a relatively small territory...ehehe we are spoilt :D I actually think that even the most insignificant, tiny city in Italy has some wonderful spots to discover, and I say this for experience...

[mono]

Firstly, I have travelled very little, unfortunately, not even outside the U.S.
Out of the selections from the wonderful site you provided a link for, AP, I have visited:
Yellowstone Park: a stunning place with much open nature, wildlife, and active geysers. The crowds of visitors seemed relatively small and under control; during my visit, I expected to see large numbers of people, but, even with all of the visitors, they never subtracted from Yellowstone's peacefulness and serenity.
Redwood National Park: this place contained MANY visitors and tourists, but it seemd an exceedingly large area, which spread most crowds. I fell in love with the area, it having enormous trees, and having not the capacity of thought on how long they had grown there; there also seemed a distinct, nature-like smell in the area that the redwoods emitted heavenly.

Out of all two places, I would recommend both, personally, though I have visited so few. I have visited ALL of the Oregon National sites, which consist of quite a number, and loved many of them, especially Crater Lake.
Thanks for the link, AP.

[subterranean]

The places that I went so far are Borobudur Temple Compounds and Prambanan Temple Compounds. If I'm not mistaken, the Borobudur is a Budhist temple and Prambanan is Hindu's.
Walls of these temples, especially Borobudur, are filled with relics consist of story about all things happening during the era of the making, such as the life of people, King's travels, wars, foreign ambassadors visit, etc. It is said also that workers at that time used the white part of the egg to combine one stone with another. Borobudur is a huge complex, which consist around 1000 small temples. And on top of it there is this special temple. It is special because inside of this temple there's a Buddha statue and if someone can touch it, his/her wish will be fulfilled.
I went there when I was a kid, and thats to UNESCO the temples can be restored well. They used to be damaged really badly and many Buddha's statues and stones were stolen.

I read in last week's newspaper that Christie's were doing an auction to seel a Buddha statue taken from the Borobudur, and my goverment believe that it's one of the statues which were stolen and it insist to be returned to Indonesia. But ironically, there is this scupturer who comment that Christie's is selling fake one. He is an expert of ancient stuffs and he stated that the statue has different patterns with the real ones. The one sold by Christie's probably just an ordinary statue made by local artist in Indonesia, which is very perfect indeed..But I dont know, this is Christie's we're talking about...

Now, Borobudur and Prambanan are not as nice as before, as in there are too many gifts/trinkets vendors near the locations, cause they are not manage well.