James Bowyer Profile

From the North of England, became interested in World Heritage Sites just before all international travel was banned in early 2020 - what luck!

United Kingdom Last Update 02.11.24 99 WHS Visited 26 Reviews 99 WHS Rated 24 TWHS Visited

Visited Sites James Bowyer

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Legend

  • ●● Cultural
  • ●● Natural
  • ●● Mixed

Recent Reviews James Bowyer

Valletta

James Bowyer United Kingdom - 19-Nov-23

Valletta

Other reviewers have spoken about the highlights of Valletta: the magnificent interior of St John’s Co-Cathedral (despite its plain exterior), the hilly grid layout with many Baroque buildings, and the spectacular view of the Grand Harbour from Upper Barrakka Gardens. One aspect that has not been mentioned, probably because it only opened in 2021, is the tour of underground Valletta. For 15€, one can join a tour of the tunnels that lie beneath the city. The tour begins from MUŻA, the art museum located in the Baroque building that was the Auberge d’Italie. There are several such auberges throughout Valletta, each of which hosted knights of the Order of St John from the various countries

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Megalithic Temples of Malta

James Bowyer United Kingdom - 19-Nov-23

Megalithic Temples of Malta

Whilst Malta may bear many cultural and linguistic similarities to nearby Italy and North Africa respectively, prices seem to be more influenced by the period of British rule than their Mediterranean neighbours. In 2023, Heritage Malta offered a pass for 50€ that covers most of their sites, but not all. Indeed, the Hypogeum requires a separate ticket at an eye-watering 35€ and a reservation long in advance. The multisite pass does include all of the temples inscribed as WHS so I bought one for convenience in spite of the high cost. All of the temples are easily accessible by Malta’s extensive bus network, which I found very easy to use with the contactless Tallinja card purchasable from vending machines in Luqa airport

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Gorham's Cave Complex

James Bowyer United Kingdom - 12-May-23

Gorham

Before I was ensnared by World Heritage Sites, the geographic and cultural list that most intrigued me were the British Overseas Territories. Unfortunately, these last small vestiges of the empire tend to be the small outcroppings of rock nobody else wanted to claim in the middle of distant oceans and so are rather difficult to reach from the UK. There are a few notable exceptions, one of which is Gibraltar. Ceded “in perpetuity” by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 from Spain to Great Britain, although modern Spanish governments have pushed to reverse this, Gibraltar is the last British foothold on mainland Europe

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Etruscan Necropolises

James Bowyer United Kingdom - 09-Apr-23

Etruscan Necropolises

I have only visited one of the two components to this site, Tarquinia, and I picked it only because it was closer to a train station than Cerveteri. There was a train every two hours out from Rome to Tarquinia, on the line up to Pisa, and the railway gave a great view over the Mediterranean as it passed close to the shoreline. From Tarquinia, there was a little shuttle bus up the hill into the town or, if you have time, the walk was only about 3 km or so into the town centre although it was quite steep and the countryside was not that interesting to walk through

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Champagne

James Bowyer United Kingdom - 07-Mar-23

Champagne

I do not drink wine regularly and champagne even less so; I’m fairly sure I could count the occasions on my fingers. Therefore, I was not particularly looking forward to this site and tacked on a tour of the Taittinger wine cellars to a daytrip to Reims from Paris. The tour begins from the Champagne House 2.5 km southeast from the main station of Reims. If walking, the route has a very gentle incline up Saint-Nicaise Hill and goes right past the Cathédrale Notre-Dame and the Palais du Tau. It is easy to divert to Basilique Saint-Remi to complete the set for the Reims site on the way there or the way back. Unlike some of the other manufacturers, which resemble grand mock castles, the Taittinger buildings above ground were unremarkable

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Profile Data

Name
James Bowyer
Country
United Kingdom
Most Impressive
Rome/Vatican City
Proposal
Chernobyl Exclusion Zone/Polesie State Radioecological Reserve

Recently Visited WHS

Update 02.11.24
  • Pompei
  • Naples
  • Royal Palace at Caserta
  • Costiera Amalfitana

    • 3 Countries Complete

    Holy See . Luxembourg . Malta .

    Rating Stats
    Pompei 5
    Rome 5
    Vatican City 5
    Auschwitz Birkenau 4.5
    Brugge 4.5
    Neolithic Orkney 4.5
    Paris, Banks of the Seine 4.5
    Royal Palace at Caserta 4.5
    Stonehenge 4.5
    Versailles 4.5
    Vienna 4.5
    Villa Adriana (Tivoli) 4.5
    Acropolis 4
    Archaeological Site of Delphi 4
    Brú na Bóinne 4
    Costiera Amalfitana 4
    Durham Castle and Cathedral 4
    Edinburgh 4
    Epidaurus 4
    Etruscan Necropolises 4
    Fontainebleau 4
    Giant's Causeway 4
    Gwynedd Castles 4
    Hal Saflieni Hypogeum 4
    Hallstatt-Dachstein 4
    Kraków 4
    Megalithic Temples of Malta 4
    Museumsinsel (Museum Island) 4
    Mycenae and Tiryns 4
    Plantin-Moretus Museum 4
    Potsdam 4
    Rhaetian Railway 4
    Schönbrunn 4
    Sintra 4
    Villages with Fortified Churches 4
    Warsaw 4
    Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines 4
    Amiens Cathedral 3.5
    Amsterdam Canal Ring 3.5
    Blaenavon Industrial Landscape 3.5
    Blenheim Palace 3.5
    Canterbury 3.5
    Champagne 3.5
    Chartres Cathedral 3.5
    City of Luxembourg 3.5
    Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape 3.5
    Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios 3.5
    Forth Bridge 3.5
    Frontiers of the Roman Empire 3.5
    Graz 3.5
    Mafra 3.5
    Maritime Greenwich 3.5
    Naples 3.5
    Reims 3.5
    Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy 3.5
    Sighisoara 3.5
    Studley Royal Park 3.5
    Torun 3.5
    Valletta 3.5
    Venetian Works of Defence 3.5
    Villa d'Este 3.5
    Westminster 3.5
    Belem 3
    City of Bath 3
    Dorset and East Devon Coast 3
    Funerary and memory sites of the First World War 3
    Gorham's Cave Complex 3
    Ironbridge Gorge 3
    Jodrell Bank Observatory 3
    Kew Gardens 3
    Lake District 3
    Notre-Dame Cathedral in Tournai 3
    Pienza 3
    The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales 3
    Tower of London 3
    Wachau Cultural Landscape 3
    Belfries 2.5
    Berlin Modernism Housing Estates 2.5
    Derwent Valley Mills 2.5
    Flemish Béguinages 2.5
    Fortifications of Vauban 2.5
    Grand Place, Brussels 2.5
    Great Spa Towns of Europe 2.5
    Kalwaria Zebrzydowska 2.5
    La Lonja de la Seda 2.5
    Mining Sites of Wallonia 2.5
    Palmeral of Elche 2.5
    Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal 2.5
    Semmering Railway 2.5
    The Flow Country 2.5
    Val d'Orcia 2.5
    Fertö/Neusiedlersee 2
    Moravian Church Settlements 2
    New Lanark 2
    Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France 2
    The Four Lifts 2
    Saltaire 1.5
    Danube Limes 1
    Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin 1

    Reviewed TWHS