Aspasia Profile
Recent Reviews Aspasia
Danube Delta
Aspasia Luxembourg - 20-Aug-21
Where's the pristine nature? Remoteness? Θάλασσα?
In May 2011 I had the exam session in front of me, so I told mom I would switch off the phone to study and I went to the Delta. Chilia carries 60% of the water and is lazy. On the NAVROM boat from Tulcea to Periprava I got into Shrek mood (''are we there yet?''). Ukraine is across the water, phone on plane mode. The plan was ''wait and see''. We found the Lipovan priest of the village, asked where we could sleep (we were 3) and he said we could do it at his place. Periprava has 200 inhabitants and if you look on google maps, the roads are ways in the sand. Now they have one place to sleep on booking.com. Back then there was a dog who barked at us for 2 days because we weren't locals
Read OnVézère Valley
Aspasia Luxembourg - 06-Aug-21
This is not a review about what you see, but about how to do it without a car. Since I don't drive, I knew from the beginning that I would need to hitchhike. This was August 2020 and although not all the sites were open or they were already fully booked (as was Cap Blanc when I called, several days before going), I assumed that fully booked meant tourists, hence people I should be able to convince to take me, in spite of the mask. I based myself in Bordeaux and the initial idea was easy: take morning train to Les Eyzies via Périgueux, visit the museum + Cro-Magnon, reach Rouffignac and Lascaux (I had booked a few days before a tour in French for Lascaux II at 5 pm), then evening train Sarlat to Bordeaux.
Read OnPadmanabhapuram Palace (T)
Aspasia Luxembourg - 18-Jun-21
The trip started off the wrong foot. We had booked a tour through the tourist office in Trivandrum and as we got halfway, the minibus had a breakdown and all the tour director could say was that we had to wait. After 2 hours of eating red bananas, drinking coconut water and cursing next to a church (this is Kerala, after all), we finally started moving, but all I wanted to was to be done with the visit quickly.
Once on the premises though, I regained my excitement: the woodwork is impressive. One such example is the pillar in Thai Kottaram (pictured). After reading here about the murals, I started checking the photos frantically, but then I realised that the access Upparikka Malika's topmost floor was restricted to visitors in order to preserve the paintings.
Read OnVal di Noto
Aspasia Luxembourg - 18-Jun-21
''Less is more'', they say. To me it seemed feasible to cover Noto and Modica by train with enough time to return and sleep in Catania, but then I was told at the train station: "Yes, there is a train doing Siracusa-Catania at those hours, but you cannot get a ticket for it. If you go to Modica, you will have to spend the night in Siracusa''. Right. Change of plans, skipping Modica and getting more time in Catania.
Since reviews have been written on Noto, I will just say that as of June 2021 the Duomo's renovation is done (the cupola has hipster-saints, if you ask me) and they are renovating now San Domenico (the one in Els and Ian's photos).
Read OnMount Etna
Aspasia Luxembourg - 15-Jun-21
Mount Etna had been on my list for quite a while now, but some of the reviews here made me curious and disappointed at the same time: is it that boring and ugly? I started my trip on the 12th of June 2021 with the bus from Catania train station to Rifugio Sapienza. The bus driver got chatty once we left Nicolosi and by the time the bus arrived its destination, I was hooked. Together with a French couple we went for a guided tour (45 euro), first through the compulsory dress-up (only my jacket was deemed suitable) and then we took the cablecar to 2500 m (30 euro return trip). The cablecar is indeed pricey, but I felt it worth it for the spectacle we were about to enjoy.
Read OnProfile Data
- Name
- Aspasia
- Country
- Luxembourg
- Most Impressive
- Persepolis
- Proposal
- Cold Desert Cultural Landscape of India
Recently Visited WHS
- Update 18.08.24
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11 Countries Complete
Armenia . Cyprus . Holy See . Lebanon . Luxembourg . Malta . North Macedonia . San Marino . Singapore . Sri Lanka . Zambia .Visited WHS
Rating StatsBrugge 5Budapest 5Carthage 5Cordoba 5Florence 5Granada 5Hué 5Kraków 5Meteora 5Prague 5Ravenna 5Reims 5Rome 5Tallinn 5Trier 5Vienna 5Visby 5Warsaw 5Abbey of St Gall 4.5Assisi 4.5Belem 4.5Ephesus 4.5Evora 4.5Fatehpur Sikri 4.5Golestan Palace 4.5Hoi An 4.5Istanbul 4.5Jantar Mantar 4.5Kronborg Castle 4.5Medina of Tunis 4.5Modena 4.5Mostar 4.5Nancy 4.5Pompei 4.5Riga 4.5Salzburg 4.5Segovia 4.5Strasbourg 4.5Valletta 4.5Yazd 4.5Albi 4Angkor 4Arles 4Avignon 4Bukhara 4Kotor 4Matera 4Naples 4Oporto 4Potsdam 4Seville 4Siena 4Sintra 4Split 4Tarraco 4Trogir 4Verona 4Vilnius 4Ahmadabad 3.5Bamberg 3.5Burgundy 3.5Canal du Midi 3.5El Escurial 3.5Itchan Kala 3.5Kairouan 3.5Orange 3.5Pasargadae 3.5Pienza 3.5Poblet Monastery 3.5Toledo 3.5Villa d'Este 3.5Aranjuez 3Avila 3Ferrara 3L'viv 3Le Havre 3Lyon 3Mafra 3Paphos 3Syracuse 3Urbino 3Vézelay 3Belfries 2.5Bordeaux 2.5Cuenca 2.5Genoa 2.5Provins 2.5Quedlinburg 2.5Reichenau 2.5Rila Monastery 2.5Saint-Emilion 2.5ShUM Sites 2.5Thang Long 2.5Úbeda and Baeza 2.5Corvey 2Lübeck 2Nice 2Danube Limes 1.5Stoclet House 1.5Visited TWHS
- Brazilian Fortresses Ensemble (T)
- Classical Karst (in Slovene language: Klasicni kras) (T)
- Cold Desert Cultural Landscape of India (T)
- Delhi - A Heritage City (T)
- Dreams in Stone - the palaces of King Ludwig II of Bavaria: Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee (T)
- Eglises byzantines et post-byzantines de Curtea de Arges (T)
- European Paper Mills (from the era of hand-made paper) (Poland) (T)
- Gdansk - Town of Memory and Freedom (T)
- Historical Lisbon, Global City (T)
- Late Medieval Bastioned Fortifications in Greece (T)
- Le noyau historique de la ville d'Alba Julia (T)
- Le Palais de Justice de Bruxelles (T)
- Les passages de Bruxelles / Les Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert (T)
- Mdina (Citta Vecchia) (T)
- Metz Royale et Impériale, enjeux de pouvoir, confrontations stylistiques et identité urbaine (T)
- Modernist Centre of Gdynia — the example of building an integrated community (T)
- Nasqsh-e Rostam and Naqsh-e Rajab (T)
- Padmanabhapuram Palace (T)
- Pombaline Lisbon (T)
- Princely religious foundations in Wallachia and Moldavia (T)
- Rade de Marseille (T)
- Royal Residences of Sinaia (T)
- Sri Harimandir Sahib (T)
- The Architectural Works of Alvar Aalto - a Human Dimension to the Modern Movement (T)
- The Historic Centre of Sibiu and its Ensemble of Squares (T)
- The Historical Port City of Izmir (T)
- The Jewish Cemetery of Altona Königstrasse. Sephardic Sepulchral Culture of the 17th and 18th century between Europe and the Caribbean (T)
- Torfajökull Volcanic System / Fjallabak Nature Reserve (T)
- Trakai Historical National Park (T)
- Zadar - Episcopal complex (T)
Reviewed TWHS