World Heritage Site

During the weekend of 27 & 28 August, the lovely Lithuanian capital of Vilnius was the venue of this year’s WH Travellers meeting. The location provided ample possibilities for sidetrips to the Lithuanian coast (for Curonian Spit), the other Baltic States and Belarus. We were 15 travellers from 8 countries, including for the first time someone that flew in from outside of Europe (Hi Kelly!). There were even spouses present from 2 further countries, plus 3 tiny globetrotters.

A captive audience at the Trakai courtyard

On Saturday we did a customized day tour by minibus, stopping at Trakai TWHS, Kernavé WHS, the geographical centre of Europe at Purnuskes and finally one location of the Struve Geodetic Arc WHS. We had to share Trakai with the tourist masses, but from then on fortunately it got more and more quiet and remote. The visitor experience at Kernavé was a surprise with no less than 2 new museums. One of them is Open Air, and the timber building style of the huts gave us the idea for a new Connection called No Nails. And we were all awarded with a certificate that we visited “a” geographical centre of Europe.

Our guide for the day Agnes did well in sticking to the programme, time schedule and answering odd questions about Lithuania. We ended late afternoon at the Struve site ‘Meschkanzi’ with celebratory drinks. Beforehand the tour company had suggested to me doing the itinerary in the reverse order, ending at the more impressive Trakai. But I was adamant that for our group of travellers a Struve location was the icing on the cake. I’ll leave it to Nan to write up a review of this WHS (his 300th), but I can disclose that he could not stop laughing when he saw it.

A highlight for many: Struve location #023

On Sunday morning, we finished it all off with a leisurely guided walk through Vilnius. The sizeable German-speaking WH travel contingent was present again, despite a late beer tasting session the night before. A few others had to catch early flights, but we welcomed Clyde as a new participant in our midst.

An occasion like this of course also is meant to exchange travel ideas and ‘learn from each other’. Had we always considered Iain’s self-imposed rule about ticking WHS only after they are included in the List as overly strict, his pure focus on stringing together WHS without ‘waisting’ time on TWHS now suddenly seems very efficient. Wojtek made a good case about Kazan, gateway to the Kazan Kremlin and Bolgar but also very close to next year’s Russian hopeful Sviyazhsk. It now has made at least my list of travel plans for the near future.

Strolling through Old Vilnius

So will there be another meeting next year? I guess so, if we manage to find a destination that is attractive to both seasoned and developing WH travellers. We would like to get into a difficult-to-access site, use the group leverage to make things happen that are off-limits for the individual. Gorham’s Cave has been mentioned. St. Kilda also has supporters. I am open to ideas, and especially to people with the right connections to make it happen. P.S.: Thanks to Hubert, group photos can be found here.