Westwards

A visit to bulbous hills in the Gyeongju Historic Areas

The group of grassy, strangely globular hills in Gyeongju looks like an oversized playground but without slides and climbing frames. It is a rather unique sight, which we immediately remember from when we first visited the Royal Tumulus Park on a previous journey in 1992. Meanwhile, the Gyeongju Historic Areas have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list and we have come back to have another look.

On our journey on the fast KTX Train from Busan, we had a taste of the Korean high-tech shift in the past 25 years: We had reserved seats, but the train conductor never looked at our tickets. He just walked past, looking at his tablet and comparing which seats should be taken and which were supposed to be free. No need to disturb the passengers if everything appeared in order. Later we found out that an even more developed system worked when travelling on highway buses.

From the Gyeongju Train Station, we were quickly shuttled to the central sightseeing area on a local bus, and proceeded to explore the Royal tombs and some other historically important and UNESCO-listed areas. The route recommended by the tourist office was about 6 km. Many travellers rented bicycles, but as we had nearly the whole day we decided to walk – which worked out fine for us.

Until the 1970s, the tumulus tombs were still overgrown with grass and untouched – although it was obvious that the hills contained important tombs, the archaeologists were reluctant to open the tombs of previous kings. When they did eventually, they found a wall painting of a flying horse and golden crowns from the Silla period (around 6^th c AD). The Cheonmachong Tomb is now open for visitors, with a small exhibition of replicas from this find.

The sightseeing route then leads us to an ancient astronomical tower – a small stone structure from which you wouldn't see any star in South Korea's bright night sky today – to some more tumulus tombs, and to an old Confucian Temple near the Woljeonggyo bridge. This section is rather a relaxed countryside walk without amazing highlights. We cross the huge excavation site of the Wolseong Fortress – there's not a trace of fortress buildings to be seen, but a bunch of Korean archaeologists we meet assure us that they are going to discover more foundations and figure out where the actual castle was. They seem rather confident that there will be a reconstructed fortress here in a few more years.

For some more visual stimulation we make a detour to Anapji, a garden around Wolji Pond. Between Lotus flowers and fields, a number of open pavilions (now called the Eastern Palace, or Donggung) are strewn around a meandering pond. This makes for a nice stroll garden and some good views, although we are, as often during our Korea trip, not sure how much of this is really old and original.

One of the highlights of our sightseeing day in Gyeongju is the National Museum at the edge of town: There's much more to it than the golden crowns from the Royal tombs, but also a lot more golden grave goods, intricately decorated 5^th century pottery, and fantastic Buddhist statues. We also like the bird-shaped vessels from 3^rd century burials – they were used in the funeral rites, and presumably the deceased then hoped to fly to heaven with them.

Are the Gyeongju Historic sites worth visiting?

Definitely yes! The strangely shaped tombs are really unique and it is fascinating to imagine the old Silla culture thriving during the 1st - 10th century. It might be a good idea to start with the National Museum though, in order to acquire sufficient historical background for your walk.

***NB: Our 10-day visit to Korea was not sponsored or supported in any way; all expenses were paid for by ourselves. ***

Warm autumn days in Thessaloniki

Young men in formal robes stand in front of gleaming golden walls and porticoes. Above them, wings of the Archangels can be seen. The mosaics of Thessaloniki's ancient Rotunda are included in the UNESCO World Heritage “Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of Thessalonika,” and rightly so.

In terms of sightseeing, we always try to eat our cake as soon as possible – that is: not to save the highlights for the end but to go immediately and see the things on top of our wish list. Decades of travelling have taught us that unexpected changes of plan can occur …. So on our first day in Thessaloniki, as soon as we have checked in, we walk down into the town and enter the Rotunda.

30 m high and round, it is a sturdy building from antiquity – the Roman Emperor Galerius had it built in the 4^th century, perhaps as a mausoleum for himself. Galerius was a strict persecutor of Christians for most of his life – but soon after, the Empire became Christian and quickly, Galerius' Rotunda was turned into a splendid Christian church. The golden mosaics in the cupola and on some arches are still partly preserved and still magnificent. In 1591, the building became a mosque and was fitted with a free-standing minaret. After all that back-and-forth, today it is a non-religious historical site.

Over the next few days, we seek out many more churches, archaeological excavations from the Roman period such as the excavated Roman Forum, and walk along the remnants of the sturdy city walls. Yet five days are not enough to see all the Palaeochristian and Byzantine sites on the UNESCO list and everything else we thought we would like to see in Thessaloniki. Especially as we spent the better part of two days on excursions travelling into the nearby countryside (see our previous post, "Philipp's II tomb in Vergina/Greece").

The second big item on our sightseeing wish list of "cakes" was the Byzantine Museum. Thessaloniki was from the start one of the most important cities in the Eastern Roman / Byzantine Empire, and there are a lot of early Christian objects on display: The marble columns and huge stone sarcophaguses look quite Roman to us. In the early years, the burial rules were apparently quite lax – short of cremation, the early Christians could do everything as in heathen times, including extravagant grave goods, painted tombs and funeral banquets.

Later on, the style shifted to the typical Byzantine mosaics and frescoes, and painted wooden icons of saints and holy martyrs we had never heard of. This even increased after the Ottomans had conquered Constantinople in1453 and ended the Byzantine Empire. Church authorities then promised every martyr for the Christian belief the same status as the traditional saints. In those days, martyrdom was quite easily accomplished, so it became rather popular for Christian losers to run out into the street and insult Islam in public. Muslim authorities at times were rather annoyed that they had to behead all those people in order to prove their authority.

In the Archaeological Museum (another sightseeing highlight), we especially liked the stylish bowls from the Island of Chios, and the statues of the Egyptian gods the Romans started to worship in the later years of the Empire. At least in Makedonia, there was also a custom of putting spells written on a strip of metal into the tombs, which reminds us of the Book of the Dead in Egypt. But we also noticed with delight some details like the profession of "flatterer" at formal banquets, the manufacturer's name on stones for slingshots, or the sales contract for a little slave girl written on a huge stone slab certainly heavier than the girl.

Oh, and then of course, the cakes themselves. Both guidebooks we used for our travel to Thessaloniki had a special section on the best confectioners in town, with suggestions on how to incorporate several of them into a day walk. So we sampled our way through Trigonas (cream-filled triangles) at Stratos, Tsoureki (yeast loaves with sweet fillings and a chocolate icing) at Terkenlis bakery, and variously filled Koulouri (sesame rings – similar to Turkish Simit).

Strong Greek coffee goes quite well with all of this.

And when the weather returned to summer on our last evening of the journey, we even did a short boat cruise along the coastline of Thessaloniki.

Notice: Our trip to Thessaloniki was organised and paid for entirely by ourselves, we do not have any association with the sites and shops mentioned or depicted above, and we did not receive any sponsoring.

We used two travel guidebooks and one history book:

DuMont Reise-Taschenbuch Chalkidikí & Thessaloníki. 2017.
Lonely Planet Greece. 2018 (we had the previous edition).
Mark Mazower: Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews. 2005

Philipp's II tomb in Vergina/Greece: Tracking down the father of Alexander the Great

Eagerly we stare at the winding road and the fields around us with occasional houses, rushing to the exit at the sight of a sidewalk and a restaurant sign. Road signs have been pointing to the UNESCO-designated Vergina Archaeological Site for at least two kilometres now, and we are keen to get off the bus in order to visit the Makedonian royal tombs. Alexander the Great must have been here before us we think. But, "Not yet, not yet", the bus driver and several locals in the bus hold us back. Finally, at a deserted road corner seemingly in the middle of nowhere, we are allowed to get off the bus. "This way up to the royal tomb!"

Indeed, it is only 50 metres or so to the entrance of an inconspicuous garden with a ticket office. Inside the gate, there is only a large green hill with a ramp leading down into it as in an underground car park. We haven't seen any tourists yet – the parking and souvenir stalls are on the opposite site of this road, it turns out later.

The hill in the countryside of Vergina had always looked man-made – in the 5^th century BC the kings of Makedonia resided in this village, and although they were not particularly powerful, the archaeologists expected to find some tombs of nobles or even kings in the tumulus. In 1977, they came across a stone chamber filled with expensive weapons and grave goods – among them golden greaves of different length. They turned out to belong to a king who had one shorter leg: Philipp II of Makedonia.

Philipp II was the father of Alexander the Great. He was also the first important king of Makedonia, a military commander who turned a rural hinterland into a leading force in Greece. The civilised ancient Greeks with their democracies and city-states tended to look down on the Makedonians as barbarian country bumpkins who still had kings. It was Philipp who turned the Makedonian warriors into a strong army, defeated the other Greek states and became leader of the Greek forces whom he organised in a campaign against the mighty Persian Empire. Eventually, the king was killed before the start of the war, and his successor Alexander fought that great war against the Persians (very successfully so, which made Alexander famous and a god, and earned him the epithet "the Great").

Philipp's tomb, thus, was a major discovery for the archaeologists, and also a perfect opportunity for Greek nationalists to reinforce their claim on the heroic Makedonian kings. It is also a great sightseeing spot and tourist attraction.

Inside the green hill, there is no earth and rubble these days. Only the stone chambers of several tombs are untouched, the rest of the tumulus has been replaced by a tumulus-shaped museum displaying many of the most spectacular finds in glass cases.

The exhibition starts with some old tombstones of local people found in the rubble used to fill in the tumulus: These tombstones, a large panel explains with a certain excitement, are much older than Philipp's tomb, and they display Greek names (at least this is what the panel claims). So, this is proof that the Makedonians were Greek! Okay – we wouldn't have thought about it without the exclamation marks, but apparently their Greek-ness isn't undisputed if such proof is needed.

Whether Greek or not – the Makedonian graves contained some beautiful artefacts – figurines and crowns, sets of silver dishes for the funerary feast. We wonder what the "chryselephantine couch" may have been, until we realise that was a heavily decorated ivory daybed used to heap all the grave goods onto. So “chryselephantine” is ivory, the curators just didn't bother to translate the Greek word.

Inside the Royal Tumulus, we have to look twice to find the actual tomb of Philipp II, Alexander the Great's father. The stairs are hidden behind a small modern door, and they only lead down to the large, decorated gates of the ancient tomb chamber. The gates are closed, but Alexander the Great must have stood exactly here when his father was entombed. The whole site was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, since when travellers and sightseers have arrived in droves.

A few days later, we endeavour a similarly complicated excursion by public bus to Pella, the ancient Makedonian town where Alexander was born in 356 BC. Most of the remains are from a slightly later period, but the mosaics are worth seeing and the museum is quite good.

How to get to the Vergina tourist site by public transport

Our sightseeing day trip to Vergina took us several hours each way by public transport, including transport within Thessaloniki. Rush hour is between 9 am and 10 am – during that period walking is probably faster.

From Thessaloniki Makedonia Bus Station (at the far Western end of town, city bus 12 and 33), busses to Veria leave not exactly regularly, but more or less twice per hour from bus stand 20. The express bus takes one hour. Busses from Veria to Vergina take only 20 minutes or so, but they are scarcer, so it helps to plan backwards. Since they backtrack a part of the route, it is possible to get off the first bus some stations before Veria Central Bus Station in order to catch the Vergina bus if the connection is tight. The bus driver will be able to advise. We found bus timetables at https://ktelmacedonia.gr/gr/routes/tid=12  and https://www.ktel-imathias.gr/ (only in Greek).

We used the layover in Veria to visit the Byzantine Museum there.

Is Vergina worth the journey?

We are glad that we went: the exhibits at the museum are quite stunning, but it is also the sheer historical weight of the place – going back to the origin of Alexander's empire … Okay, access on public transport is somewhat complicated, but travelling with the locals is also a good experience that you would miss out on, going with organised tourist outfitters or rental cars.

***All expenses for our sightseeing trip to Thessaloniki and Vergina were paid and organised by ourselves and we did not receive any funding.***

‪A windmill in Berlin – and some more visits to mills elsewhere

The guide at the Britz Windmill tightens a rope hanging from a beam and then shows how the mechanics work to make the mill grind a little finer. "A professional miller would be able to hear and feel the wind quality, and know immediately how tight to fix the millstones," he sighs. "But here, all of us are just hobby millers. We have to check the milled flour every so often and then adjust the stones."

The historic smock mill in the South of Berlin was built by a miller called Stechhan in 1865. It was a family-run grain mill until the 1930s but was partly destroyed in World War II. For decades, nobody cared about the old mill in the suburbs of then West Berlin, until it was restored for a horticultural show in 1985.

Since then, interest in the mill has grown, and these days there is a voluntary association for the maintenance of the mill, which also offers guided tours for tourists and weddings in the mill.

"The Britz Mill is by far not the oldest or largest mill in the country," our tourist guide admits, "nor does it have a very special history or technology. But we are proud to be the only mill in Germany offering training courses for millers." Even a professional milling process technician took the course recently, just to get an idea how food technology worked in former times. The hobby millers actually use the mill to produce flour, and yes, they do bake bread from it for the visitors.

Indeed, the technology of the smock mill itself is not very old – invented in the Netherlands in the 16th century, only the upper part of the mill had to move with the wind. Before that, with the earlier post mills, the miller (and his family) had to turn around the whole mill building whenever the wind changed direction. That wasn't a very convenient system and so post mills are relatively rare – in the course of our travels we have come across several old post mills a few years ago on a cycling tour along the Elbe River.

Historical windmill in Castro Marim, Algarve Coast, Portugal

Interestingly, most of the windmills we have seen (mostly travelling in the Northern part of Germany, or on windy islands and coasts) seem to have been used to mill grains.

A water wheel (noria) in Hama, Syria

In more mountainous areas (but also some others), water mills were more popular – and these were often used for all kinds of technologies such as forging and sawing, grinding and polishing, or just fetching water. Water energy was more consistently available, so professions who needed constant energy preferred to travel to and settle in areas where they could build watermills.

The mill in Schwerin was used to polish marble fixtures for the local palace

Have you visited a working windmill, perhaps accessible for sightseeing? And which do you like more, windmills, or watermills?

***Note: We did not receive payment or sponsoring for this article from any of the above mentioned places.***

Ancestor Worship at Jongmyo Shrine in Seoul

10 am on a blistering hot summer day in Seoul. Our Korean tourist guide arrives with a battery-powered handheld fan tucked into her belt. She is very professional about her sightseeing tour to Jongmyo Shrine and admonishes the travellers in her group:

"Jongmyo is the memorial shrine for the Royal Ancestors of the Yi Dynasty of Korea. It is still a place of worship: no loud noise or undue behaviour! Please stay on the marked paths!"

More than 100 years after the fall of the dynasty, the descendants of those Korean kings still regularly hold Confucian memorial services for their ancestors. This longstanding tradition of complicated rites has been named a UNESCO intangible heritage in 2008 and also made Jongmyo Shrine a UNESCO world heritage site. It is also the reason why Jongmyo is probably the most solemn and tranquil place in the 20-million megalopolis of Seoul. Visitors are only allowed in on guided tours.

Our sightseeing tour starts at Hyangdaecheong, a small building complex exclusively used for the preparation of the rituals: The ancestors' souls would get offerings consisting of a whole banquet of dishes. These days, a recreated model of such a memorial buffet is displayed in the kitchen and pantry block for the benefit of curious tourists.

There was also a separate courtyard (Jaegung) for the king and crown prince to change into special ritual robes for the event. For ritual (and perhaps also literal) cleansing they would also take a bath in this place, only a few steps from the main shrine.  The layout of all these buildings was dictated by complicated geomantic rules (feng shui): East of the palace, but before the mountains, and so on. "They even had to add a small man-made hill in the Southern part of the precincts to get it right", our guide claims.

Finally, we reach Jeongjeon itself, the large shrine for the royal ancestors – that is, for their souls: The ashes are buried in a different location. The centre of Jongmyo Shrine is a very long building with wings extending to the sides, consisting of 19 chambers all opening to the front yard. Each chamber is for a different royal ancestor –the first shrine established in 1395 for the first king's immediate forebears was later extended to both sides as the dynasty continued. The Yi Dynasty turned out rather long-lived – it ruled Korea until 1910 (then as "emperors") and when space got scarce at the Jeongjeon main building, the kings even built a smaller shrine (Yeongnyeongjeon) somewhat to the side.

Everyone still wanted to be honoured in the main shrine, however, so the new appendix became a kind of second-rate shrine: Kings who had ruled only briefly, and those very first ancestors who had not yet been kings were moved to the less important Yeongnyeongjeon. The last to be enshrined with the second league was Yi Un, Crown Prince without a kingdom, who only died in 1970. Confucianism, we learn, is very competitive even in death. The kings were probably used to constant rankings, as our resolute guide explains: They were supposed to continue studying the old scriptures for all their life. During their reign as well as posthumously they were awarded scholarly titles for their achievements (complete with certificates and seals).

The main shrine's courtyard is rather similar to other Confucian palaces and buildings we have seen, from the Imperial Palace in Beijing to the restored Shuri-jo Royal Palace in Naha/Okinawa. The stone platform in front of the ancestral chambers used to have fittings to add sun shades, and markers for the different ranks of officials who had to line up for the rites. Shortly after a king's death, such rituals had to be conducted quite often, but there are some ceremonies that are to be held even after many years.

Similar to Jongmyo Shrine: Shuri-jo Palace in Okinawa (Japan)

Obviously, guided tours would not be held when rituals are under way, so all the royal cubicles in the ancestral shrine were closed to ensure the royal ancestors' privacy and solitude.

But as soon as we leave the Jongmyo Shrine compound, we are propelled back into the noise and tourist activity of central Seoul – Jongmyo Shrine is within walking distance from Seoul tourist attractions such as Insadong pedestrian street and Gyeongbokgung Palace with their international travellers.

***All expenses for our trip to Seoul were paid and organised by ourselves and we did not receive any funding.***

Bukhara – our sightseeing highlights from numerous travels over the last 14 years

We visited Uzbekistan for the first time in 2004, but we had been dreaming about travelling there since 1992 when we accidentally laid hands on an Intourist sightseeing brochure about the country. And it turned out the monuments, such as the Kalon Minaret in Bukhara and the Registan in Samarkand, were even more awesome than we had imagined. Since then, we have returned many times on private trips, research journeys for our travel guide book "DuMont Reise-Handbuch Usbekistan" (in German), and as tour guides for German tour groups.

Last July, we did another four week research trip for the guide book's new edition and still found new favourite places, both for sightseeing and enjoyment. And now we feel it is time to share our list of personal highlights in the UNESCO World Heritage site Bukhara from years of travel:

Tourist sights

The whole old town of Bukhara is basically an open-air museum and you can spend hour after hour just strolling around. If you are in for shopping you will find fabrics, carpets, ceramics, miniatures, hand-made knives and so on: To get a fair price, you have to haggle fiercely! As for the tourist must-sees, every travel guide book lists them – but having seen them all, we recommend especially the Mausoleum of the Samanides and the Kalon minaret.

Mausoleum of the Samanides

The Mausoleum of the Samanides, dating from around 900, is one of the oldest Islamic mausoleums in the whole world (building pompous tombs was not considered proper in early Islam). Almost cubic, it is quite small and, at first sight, plain – without the glazed tiles so common in Uzbek architecture. But the brick patterns and the harmonious proportions are superb. Inside there are always pilgrims and you can join into their prayers for Ismail Samani, who is buried here. We like it for the architectural beauty, the setting in a park, and for the fact that it is not only a tourist spot but also a living pilgrims' site.

Kalon Minarett

Like the Samanid mausoleum, the Kalon Minaret is made of bricks and also very old: The 12^th century Kalon Minaret with its height of over 45 m was such an engineering feat that Genghis Khan who destroyed most of Bukhara at the beginning of the 13^th century in his raids, left it standing . Today you can only admire it from below, but when we travelled Uzbekistan in 2004, on our first visit to Bukhara, we could still climb up the narrow dark spiral staircase.

At the Zindan, the old citadel prison, there's a small postcard shop where we bought a black and white photo of the partially destroyed minaret after the Soviet victory in 1920: Soldiers of the Red Army riding in front of the Kalon minaret on one of the elephants from the private zoo of the last Emir of Bukhara.

Hoja Zaynuddin Mosque

Not many tourists visit this community mosque in the alleys of the old town, but we love the beautiful 16^th century interior with intricate patterns on the tiles and kundal paintings. Unlike many tourist places in Bukhara, Hoja Zaynuddin Mosque is not over-restored and not full of souvenir stalls, but an operating place of worship. Moreover it has a tranquil, pleasant atmosphere and is surrounded by a carved summer mosque and a garden. Entrance is free; do not visit during prayer times.

Paikent

Silk Road history is one of the reasons we were fascinated by Uzbekistan in the first place. Up until the 8^th century, Sogdian traders who travelled all over the neighbouring countries were the beneficiaries of the Silk Road trade. Paikent was one of their main towns. There are only ruins left of Paikent, but the town is excavated and can be visited. Paikent is more accessible than Varakhsha, another silk-road town in the area, and the finds in the on-site museum bring the city alive.

Food and accommodation

Beer garden behind Bolo Hauz

Our favourite place to chill in the centre of Bukhara is the open air beer garden behind the Bolo Hauz mosque. The beer from the tap is fresh, most customers are locals and for carnivores there is shashlik, too. 

Dilkor Laghman Center

While food within the touristy old town is average at best, there are some real finds if you venture a bit further. The Dilkor Laghman Center in the fifth micro-rayon is the new big thing: a huge hall serving yummy Uighur noodles in spicy broth. They have also a good variety of fresh salads (brought to the table to choose from) and beer from the tap.
Address: Corner of Pindastgir Street/ Alisher Navoi Street, 5th Mikro-rayon, Monday to Saturday 10-22 h. A taxi from the old town should cost around 5000 Som.

Old Buchara

Bukhara has an enormous range of accommodation options, but only a fraction of them are old and authentic, comfortable, and well-run. A new one we highly recommend is the small Hotel Old Buchara, run by a very friendly Tajik family.  Their breakfast is great – at least for vegetarians.

Minzifa

Minzifa was one of the first Boutique hotels in Bukhara and is still one of the best for mid-range travellers. Their rooms are so comfortable and decorated with traditional textiles, wall paintings, and carvings that you feel instantly at home. Again - we especially like the breakfast (with a lot of fresh fruit)

Komil

Another longstanding place and excellent choice in the old town is Komil. Komil's is situated in an old Jewish merchant's home with restored rooms that are fitted with new bathrooms. The dining room still has an ancient feel and oozes atmosphere.

Other things we like in Bukhara

We do admire the glorious visitors' toilet in the Summer Palace. It is at the end of the premises behind the pool and the harem building.

What we also like is the small bread bakery near Ulug Beg Madrasa close to the tourist spots. 

As elsewhere in Uzbekistan, we always appreciate the decorative flower beds from basil and Thai basil which also smell good. Practically nobody in Uzbekistan uses basil as a seasoning.

What a hilarious experience to discover a working, although very, very slow Wifi in city bus No. 8! And that was even two years ago!

Our most impressive experience this year was when the dragon staffing the cashier for the citadel suddenly told us the correct price in 2018 – after years of haggling with her inflated demands whenever foreign travellers showed up. It is 15 000 Sum per person (as of July 2018). 

And of course we have to visit the Kalon Complex after nightfall at least once during each visit. The Kalon mosque is always open and you might be able to sneak in for a while. Otherwise you can just sit on the open area and dream of the Orient and the old Silk Road. Easy if you have the stars and the moon above you.

Note: We did not receive payment or sponsoring for this article from any of the above mentioned places. We make our living by writing travel guidebooks, travel content and by our work as tour guides. The blog is independent and we do not generate any money out of it. But – we appreciate your feedback!

A trip to the shores of the Aral Sea (in Uzbekistan)

How to swim in a dying sea

The water is shallow, and the ground covered with soft mud. Wading through it, we sink into it with a slurping sound, sometimes up to our knees. And finally, about 30 m into the shallow water, we are able to lie down and drift. But swimming is still not possible: Because of the high concentration of salt, arms and legs bounce out of the water as soon as we try to make some swimming stroke, and we only end splashing ourselves (and our fellow-travellers) with salt water.

The Aral Sea is actually an undrained inland lake, which is why all the water coming into the lake evaporates at some point, leaving behind lots of salts and minerals. Just like the Dead Sea, the remaining water in the Aral Sea has a very high salinity, and that's why human bodies don't sink into the water so much.

The salty water is also the reason why no fish can survive in the lake (and not a lot of other animals, either). But the Aral Sea is not only dead, but also dying: The enormous lake used to be about the size of Ireland. Massive irrigation and the diversion of water from the two rivers replenishing the lake – Amudarya and Syrdarya – led to a shrinking of the surface over the course of the 20^th century. By now, there are only two small arms of the former lake left, with a total surface of about a tenth the original size.

To reach the water, we have to take a tour from the regional capital Nukus, sharing the cost of a 4WD with other travellers to cross the desert now covering the former sea bed. Even when the Aral Sea was still a prospering fishery location it was surrounded by the Karakum and Kizilkum deserts, but roads led along the delta of the Amudarya River to towns at the seashore. Nowadays, the river bed is dry, and we follow sand pists along the Ustyurt Plateau on the western shore of the former lake. Below us, occasional saltwater ponds dot the desert which has been given a new name: Aralkum, the Aral Desert.

Along the journey we come by the site of a former labour camp, where Tsarist Russia sent prisoners to work in the fishery industry.

Apart from a ruined factory building, the orthodox Christian graves are all that remains. Elsewhere, we pass a nomadic cemetery overgrown with wild thyme, with a mix of Arabic inscriptions and shamanist runes and totem signs – the local population is Muslim in name, but many pre-Islamic customs are still common practice.

Eventually, a large body of water comes into view, more than 300 km from Nukus. Two yurt camps have been installed not far from the edge of the water, but first our drivers stop a little distance from the lake, occupying themselves with the cars (for privacy, presumably), while the tourists strip and head into the water.

As we happened to arrive in Nukus in a heat wave even in terms of Uzbek summer, the Aral Sea felt pleasant and refreshing although it had almost bathtub temperature – quite the spa experience. Afterwards, we had a (quite water-saving) hand-pump shower in the tourist yurt camp where we spent one night.

The next day, we took a different route along the dry bottom of the former sea bed, arriving at Moynak, a former sea shore town, at lunch time. The old port town is famous for its cemetery of ships – fishing trawlers that were stranded when the water disappeared. The rusty boats (those that haven't been pilfered for scrap metal) are lined up near the Aral Sea Monument, as a memento to the doomed Sea. They are now a major tourist attraction.

How to take a tour:

We went on a Two-day/one-night trip with Ayimtour in Nukus, which included 4xe4 transport, accommodation in one of the yurt camps, and food. The tourist camp has only opened recently and was very clean and comfortable and the food was really tasty. We are vegetarians and that did not pose any problems. Additional costs were some entrance fees, but formal sightseeing is rather limited. Ayimtour tries to match your visit with other tourist to share the costs. Have a look at their website: www.ayimtour.com.

If you start your trip from Nukus you will need accommodation before and perhaps after the tour. Most travellers will stay at one of the Jipek Joly Hotels that work with Ayim Tours. A decent and cheaper alternative is the Art Hotel (Turtkul Prospekt,behind Restaurant Versal, +998 61 222 46 46). 

However you have to make your way to Nukus first. Another possibility is to take a tour from Khiva. Especially if you are looking for other travellers to share the costs it might be easier to find someone in Khiva. In that case the tour operator sends you by normal car to Nukus, where you change to a jeep. Surprisingly, some of the sightseeing tours from Khiva are slightly cheaper in spite of the longer distance. You will have two very long days, but on the other hand also save the costs of getting to and from Nukus. You can organize your trip in Khiva for instance via the Tourist Information Office, Hotel Old Khiva, or Hotel Silk Road.

***We paid the full price of the tour ourselves (170 $ p/P) and we did not receive any sponsoring from Ayimtours (our group got invited to a vegetarian dinner after the tour, though).*

If you are interested in off-the-beaten track travel destinations in Uzbekistan, check out our posts about an old Soviet solar furnace at Paikent (near Tashkent) and a visit to two forgotten Silk Road towns near Buchara.

Highlights of a weekend in Bologna

Earlier this summer we did a weekend trip to Bologna – just because it was one of the most reachable cities south of the Alps for us, about 7 hours by bus. One of those historical North-Italian cities that are generally pleasant to explore, Bologna is also a city that we hadn't been to already.

Before we went, we consulted a travel guidebook, Bologna City's website, and some other online resources and blogs – coming up with a mix of sights, exhibitions and food that sounded interesting. In the end, some of the experiences we liked most were those that we hadn't seen in any of our resources for preparing the trip, while we wouldn't have found others without the preparation (both online and offline).

Back in Berlin we ranked our five favourite travel experiences, each giving five points to the best, four to the second and so on. In the end we came up with eight activities and sights that impressed us.

So here comes the list of our top-ranked Bologna sites and activities:

No. 1: Japanese woodblock print exhibition at the Palazzo Albergati (10 points)

Searching for special exhibitions in Bologna, Natascha had come across a Japanese-themed exhibition: Giappone: storie d’amore e guerra” (Japan. Tales of love and war) at the Palazzo Albergati in Via Saragozza. We knew we wanted to see it but we hadn’t expected it to be quite as fantastic. The exhibition – mostly of woodblock prints from 19^th and early 20^th century – came out on top of our list of highlights. All exhibits were from a private collection, well-presented, with an interesting focus on items from Bakumatsu and Meiji periods, i.e. rather late examples of ukiyo-e woodblock printing. We just loved it.

No 2: A glass of ecological red wine in the porticoes of Oberdan Street (7 points)

The many porticoes of the Old Town were of course mentioned in all our sources – they are atmospheric and also classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site. We walked along the old streets, up and down cobbled lanes, and explored the historic quarters. Obidan Street next to the former Jewish Quarter was particularly lively and popular, and walking past we noticed Medulla Vini, a tiny organic Wine Bar where everyone was just taking their glasses outside in the portico although there were no tables or seats outside. It was a very relaxed setting, and the Sangiovese Superior was just right for a balmy night.

No 3: Cimitero della Certosa (4 points)

The enormous Certosa Graveyard was only recommended in our printed guidebook. It was not far off the way from St. Luca (see below), so we made a detour and were amazed: not only by the size of the graveyard, but by the unusual architecture with large halls and courtyards, huge mausoleums, layered urn graves rising several metres from the ground (rather similar to the Roman-era tower tombs of Palmyra / Syria). Walking the graveyard felt like exploring a solemn old monastery, with new discoveries at every corner: Huge old memorials and mausoleum buildings, war memorials, a whole row of lavishly decorated children's graves …

No 4: The Porticoes of San Luca (3 points)

No 4 on the list is one of the "must-see" attractions that everyone recommends: After all it is usually not without reason that they are popular (and on the UNESCO World Heritage tentative list). There must be very few Bologna tourists who don't walk the 4 km of porticoes leading to the church of San Luca – and rightly so, for the walkway for the yearly procession is picturesque and pleasantly shaded, it has a historic air and religious significance. As the church is situated on a hill, the walk includes quite many stairs but also affords nice views over the countryside, and sometimes there's a welcome breeze. And it is not only tourists who love the traffic-free arcades: Locals go running there, or for a walk with their dogs.

No 5: The Anatomical Theatre, the modern art exhibition “That's IT”, and ice cream at Vecchia Stalla (2 points each)

Finally, there was a mixed bunch of sights and activities that we also particularly enjoyed:

The Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio is another one of Bologna's tourist highlights. Built in 1637 as a lecture room for anatomy – then a rather new and daring subject, given the church's aversion to scrutinizing human bodies – the wooden auditorium is decorated with statues of famous scholars – and with two carved representations of men without skin, in order to show the location of their muscles.

We also visited the Modern Art Museum of Bologna (Mambo) and particularly liked the special exhibition "That's IT" – with IT standing for Italy, and contributions only from young Italian artists born after 1980 who presumably grew up with a more European than Italian identity. The attendants' sliver jackets were hilarious and we especially liked Margherita Moscardini's Atlantic Wall Project. 

And, of course, we found our favourite ice cream: The last day, we spotted the Cremeria la Vecchia Stalla not far from the church and monastery complex of San Stefano. An old-fashioned ice cream shop, they don't display their flavours in a glass vitrine but store them below metal lids – you have to guess at the Italian menu and select some that you can both pronounce and memorise until the crowd has swept you from the list of flavours to the cashier and on to the actual ice cream counter. We had Cioccolate extra fondente with Pistacchio Bronte, and Croccante Amarena combined with Divine, respectively, and we were very happy with it.

Have you been to Bologna and what were your favourite things to do? Leave a comment below!

***All expenses for our trip to Bologna were paid and organised by ourselves and we did not receive any funding from the above mentioned links.***

The old woodblock print matrixes at Haein-sa Temple in South Korea (UNESCO World Heritage)

The morning bus from Daegu is not particularly crowded, but on leaving the highway to tackle smaller roads into the mountains and towards UNESCO-designated Haein-sa Temple, it fills up. A number of old Korean peasants get on: They are wearing polyester dresses with floral patterns, and their shopping bags smell of fish and garlic. A huge radish tumbles out of one of the bags and rolls around the bus. The peasants, the bags, the fish and the vegetable – they all get off at another village, and after a short while we pass the Tripitaka Theme Park (hmmm – an amusement park built around Buddhist sutras?) and finally stop at a large but modern temple gate. A man gets on the bus to sell tickets to the passengers, or at least the tourists travelling on the bus, although it doesn't become altogether clear what they are for: For Haein-sa Temple? For the Gayasan National Park? Whatever, as everyone is buying one and at 3000 Won (about 2.30 €) they are not overly expensive, we pay up.

A few minutes later (and still further up in the mountains), the bus lets us off at the entrance to the temple precincts, from where a footpath leads to a modern museum building. And another 20 minutes' walk then brings us to the Haein-sa Temple itself.

The stump of a tree near the entrance gate is said to have been planted in 802, at the establishment of Haein-sa Temple. Most buildings and facilities in the front part of the temple are much newer reconstructions, however – we pass a number of accommodation facilities for pilgrims and lay visitors on a "temple-stay" programme also open to tourists, a larger gate housing the souvenir shop and a shop for devotional objects where visitors can also pay for prayers and other religious services.

Stairs then lead up to the main courtyard with the prayer hall and an old stone pagoda dating from the Unified Silla Period (668–935), when the temple was built. A few elderly women are walking anti-clockwise around the stone monument. The main hall behind is temporarily closed, with preparations under way for some religious celebration. No problem for us: it is a relatively new building – last refurbished in the 1970s – and the main reason for coming all this way is the plain wooden building further up the hill – the depository hall of the temple.

The depository hall, Janggyeong Panjeon, is indeed just an old storage room. Built in the 15^th century, it houses around 80,000 woodblocks which are even older: print matrixes for 80,000 pages of Buddhist texts, all very accurately executed in Chinese characters (back then, Chinese ideographs were the only writing used in Korea) without any known error. This enormous body of text, commonly called the Tripitaka Koreana, includes many more related texts, stories and commentaries than the standard Buddhist canon of Sutras (Tripitaka). They were carved in the 13^th century when Korea was faced with Mongol attacks, perhaps as a sort of spiritual defence measure against likely destruction. It is utterly astonishing that this huge old library has survived the ages intact.

To our disappointment, however, it is not possible for tourists to enter the storage rooms or even go near them – when we visited Haein-sa Temple on our Korea travels over 20 years ago, we remember, there was at least a small area open to visitors. We were so impressed back then that we have always wanted to come back. But alas, the only glimpse we can get of the woodblocks is from several meters away through an open, but latticed window.

When we pass the stone pagoda on our way back, another group of elderly women is debating the proper direction of the circumambulation – they end up walking clockwise around the pagoda. And in the museum down at the road, we can at least admire a replica of the woodblock storage shelves.

Is Haein-sa Temple worth visiting?

Yes, it is. Although you cannot see the old woodblocks close-up, it is a worthwhile daytrip out there. If you are interested in Korean Buddhism their overnight programs are in English and easy to arrange (Templestay Korea). The hilly surroundings are pleasant and the atmosphere with all the pilgrims is authentic.

How to get to the Haein-sa -Temple

Haein-sa is an easy day trip (or a longish half-day trip) from Daegu.

Daegu is a major city and transport hub in the centre of South Korea. From the Western Bus Station of Daegu (Seobu Intercity Bus Terminal, 서부 시외버스 터미널, reachable by metro) there are regular intercity buses to Haein-sa (about every 40 minutes) which take 1.5 hours. From the bus stop it's a pleasant 20 minute walk through the National Park, slightly uphill but on good broad paths. There are several cafés and small restaurants in and around the temple.

***All expenses for our trip were paid and organised by ourselves and we did not receive any funding or sponsoring.***

Eating out vegetarian at Con Tho in Berlin

On a beautiful mid-week day in May, we didn't think we would need a reservation for two people – but at 18.30 it was already difficult to get a seat on the pleasant terrace of the Vietnamese Restaurant Con Tho, and half of the tables in the restaurant were also already occupied. The vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant seems to be quite popular, and rightly so, it turns out.

The setting is very nice, with both the terrace pleasant enough in spite of the busy road in front (but with a public park on the opposite side) and a stylish modern interior that somehow manages to be also warm and comfy.

We had a small bowl of "Rabbit's Favourite" to bridge the waiting time – two large slices of sweet potato with a garlic mayonnaise, which was amazingly good and intensified our anticipation. The main dish didn't take very long to arrive anyway.

For main dishes, we tried the "Happy Monk" rice bowl with some seitan, marinated tofu, spinach and different vegetables on rice; and also one of their Banh Xeo (rice flour pancakes). The "Afternoon Break" is a light pink pancake (the colour stems from beetroot) filled with vegetables and a lightly cooked egg. All the Banh Xeo variations are accompanied by summer rolls, or rather the ingredients for summer rolls: rice paper and lots of herbs and salad ingredients, as well as a spicy sour dip. The rice paper was already prepared and moistened and it was quite easy to stuff a roll. All the dishes we had had a distinct taste and were strong on individual herbs and spices rather than MSG.

To accompany the food, we had home-made lemonade, called "Red Lampion", which tasted intensely of cloves and mint (and perhaps of pandan, a herb that was also on the list of ingredients but that we couldn't identify). Hibiscus gave the drink a rich red colour.

We would have liked to try the desserts, but the mains were rather large servings – and also we had to vacate our table for the next guests. But we will come back for sure!

Con Tho Vegetarian Restaurant: Hasenheide 16, 10967 Berlin, Tel. 030 22456122. https://www.facebook.com/pg/ConThoBerlin

Read also the blog post about our visit to Chay Village, another vegan/ vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant in Berlin.