BAARLE-NASSAU

Know nothing about it? Do not even know where it is? No problem, it is not that important, it is more about the fun! It is about enclaves and exclaves: the concepts are not so complex in themselfes - but its praticalities always seem funny and odd. Notice for instance another case: Ras al-Kaimah Emirate has a round enclave inside an Oman territory, which is itself a round enclave of Ras al-Kaimah.
I kown about Baarle-Nassau since the winter of 1982, when I took a trip from my Luxembourg base to the Netherlands. After visiting the mushroom-like building of the science and technology Evoluon museum in Eindhoven, raised to celebrate the 75th aniversary of Phillips, a careful looking on a small entry of my travel guide led me to Baarle-Nassau.
Rights, claims and arrangements,in short History as it happens, are responsible for the strange situation. When Belgium separated from the Netherlands in 1830 the odd forms of "borders" simply followed the status quo dating back to XII century feudal times, when the Duke of Brabant and the Count of Holland were having conflicts about their respective possessions. We can now take advantage of such conflicts by seeing houses which are half in each country, passing to Belgium though an enclave to go to a sub-enclave of the Netherlands, having a drink - if my memory is still reliable! -in an "international" coffee shop which has a table with half of it in each country and other subtilities of the kind. Enjoy your drink and pay it now in euros, while earlier you could be tough with the owner about how to pay: dutch guilders or belgian francs.

SINTRA

Of all 890 WH sites, the nearest to my Estoril home is Sintra (and the nearest to my Brussels apartment is the Grand-Place). I shall not self-complain!
In fact Sintra's nomination does not pertain to any specific building or monument and is officialy labelled "Cultural Landscape of...". Anyhow some architectonical and vegetal structures are remarkable and must be considered: The Royal Palace in town, the Moors Castle, the Romantic Pena Palace, the Seteais and Monserrate Palaces, the masonic Quinta da Regaleira, the Capuchos Frairy, plus several ancient churches, parks, forests and the narrow crooked streets in the urban centre. Are the well known and well eaten "queijadas" (cheese cakes) also part of Sintra's cultural landscape? And what about Lord Byron verses in "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" where he writes "Sintra's glorious Eden intervenes in variegated maze of mount and glen."? The word is for the heritage specialists - but for me both are also part of it: I have made up my mind since when I begun visiting Sintra, well before it was appointed a WH site.
In the picture: Quinta da Regaleira in a winter foggy day.

ADEN

I have never visited Aden, or better said have only been once in its airport. It was in 1976 on an Aeroflot flight between Maputo and Moscow, with outbound stops in Aden and Cairo and inbound in Mogadishiu. All the family was in the plane, wife and three children.
I still remember perfectly well two things about this stopover.
First: as soon as the Tupolev touched down and braked, I begun seeing from my window seat some MIG15 jet fighters semi-hidden in between airfield buildings, a sequence of hangar-aircraft-hangar-aircraft-etc.. At the time Aden, as an independent country under a marxist regime, was a stategic ally of the Soviet Union, with strong air and sea facilities for the soviets. Years after and some conflicts, revolts and peace arrangements later, Aden (or South Yemen) agreed a reunification with North Yemen, to form what is today Yemen.
Second: the free shop was open (not sure how marxist-leninist the concept is!) and I got a bottle of VAT69 whisky for thee american dollars. Very cheap even by then prices and my first experience of spending dollars at the profit of communism.

TROMSO

The city has not much to offer indeed, but this is not an argument for a tourist who feels itself to be of a strong reputation. It has the Artic Cathedral, a modernist church from 1965 and a bridge linking downtown (in an island, which also contains the airport) with the mainland; both are visible on the back of the picture. Plus the Hurtigruten, the famous ferry line: a big one was on the port when I passed by.
With the exception of the Svalbard Islands, about which I will make entries later, Tromso is the northernnost city I have visited, more than Kiruna in Sweden and Rovaniemi in Finland. And of course at 69.4 degrees it is upper the Artic Circle. When I was there it was the midnight sun period, but frankly I can not confirm it: having already seen it in Narvik, I went to bed by 11pm and it was not dark.
Tromso has also an University, "the northernmost University of the world" and a beautiful well structured Artic-alpine Botanical Garden, where I strolled for more than an hour.

TSAVO PARKS

Suddenly the buffalo attacked and the driver speeded up the jeep without warning. The man on the left fell on his wife, the wife fell on me and hopefully I did not fell on the driver. Not because of these falls, I supppose, the bufallo decided to stop the atack and we all laughed.
I do not know whether this is a dayly scene in Tsavo East Park, but it happened! The rest of the day passed with less emotion but more beasts. Lunch was in the hotel inside the park, with a view to a herd of elephants. Later we left the park at the Voi gate, passed the town and drove to Tsavo West Park. The two parks have a long common border, the highway and the railway separating both, but not at Voi. The night was passed at Salt Lick Safari Lodge, a surprising hotel with the rooms built in hut-like houses above wet grassland, the dining room with direct view (not even glass windows) to elephants drinking on a pool and the reception door shut by night to avoid animals entering. From my room I saw elephants passing by!
The following morning we were graced with a tour to see buffalos, girafes, deers, zebras, cobras,monkeys, pheasants and so, including a somnolent lion lying around bushes. As a standard extra for everyone on gorgeous sunny days we saw perfectly Mount Kilimanjaro in the distance, at the best of its superb.

BAALBEK AND ANJAR

From Beirut it is up and up and up the mountains. No harm anyway, the enthusiasm to see Baalbek is too great. You look left and it is a nice valley, green and populated. You look behind and it is the magnificent coastal plain of Great Beirut. Then you reach Mt. Lebanon' hights and it is down and down and down. The Bekaa Valley, extense and fertile-looking, is in front of you, the syrian mountains also, more in the distance. As you reach the valley continue eastwards till Anjar. It is a huge ruined city, said to be "a unique testimony to city planning under the Umayyads". Take your time and stroll around, think about how all great human achievements do perish. When your soul is happy return back, go to Zahle and proceed North through the valley, in the middle of fruit trees and other plantations. When arriving in Baalbek breathe fully and begin enjoying such a marvel: a phoenician city, then Greek Heliopolis, then romanized to huge structures un-paralleled anywhere. The Temple of Jupiter, the Temple of Bacchus and the Great Court are some of the features not to miss. Once again take yout time and try to feel in your skin as in your mind how much History is made of change.
On the return do not miss one of the vineyards chateaux which accept visits and wine tasting. Take your time and think how, whatever the changes of History are, there is allways some pleasure along the road.

422 METERS BELOW SEA LEVEL

This is currently were stands the water level of the Dead Sea; later it will be even lower, as the volume of liquid is receding every year, due to the capture of the river Jordan waters.
I have been three times at this lowest area on the land surface of Earth. The first, coming from Amman, was on the Jordanian side of the lake and included a lunch in a hotel facing the waters and a bath on its greasy waters with the classic picture of reading a newspaper while floating. The second, coming from Jerusalem, was on the Israeli side with a very similar tourist programme. The third, a few days later, was just passing by on a trip from Tiberias to Jerusalem and bypassing Jericho, which was not possible to visit because of the state of play of the relations between Palestine and Israel.
While descending from any of the two capitals, which are built on high ground, one must obviously pass by level zero. In both cases the points of the mean sea level are duly indicated by marks. You can see a picture of me on the Jordanian mark and imagine as if half my body was under water and the other half above water.