2015 opened with me sitting in Alabama with my parents, watching the Ohio State Buckeyes rout the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl. The year segued into 2016 with me sitting on an airplane in a holding pattern above Istanbul, Turkey for over two hours because of bad weather on the ground.
In between 2015 was my first full calendar year out of Northern Norway since 1991. I played respectable (for my age, anyway) baseball again for the first time since I was 17. I hiked the Hardangervidda Plateau alone with all I needed in my backpack.
I visited several countries this year: chronologically, the USA, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Poland, Italy and Turkey, visiting (aside from the USA and Scandinavia) such major cities as Cracow, Berlin, , Bologna, Pisa, Genoa, Milan and Istanbul, and experiencing such attractions as the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz, Birkenau, Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrück, the salt mines 1000 feet beneath Cracow, the Berlin Wall, innumerable cultural-historical-religion sites of interests in Italy and in Istanbul. Noteworthy examples are medieval cathedrals in Bologna, Cortona, Montepulciano, Siena, Pisa, Genoa and Milan (all Italy) as well as the 5th century Byzantine mosaics in Ravenna, Italy. As a bonus because of being grounded in Istanbul for 72 hours, I had the opportunity to visit Hagia Sofia/St. Sophia Cathedral which was built in the 6th century.
I've become somewhat of a 'collector' of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. This year, I visited several. Here are the ones I've visited. Those marked with an asterisk were seen in 2015:
La Grand-Place, Brussels, Belgium
Historic Center of Prague, Czech Republic
The Banks of the Siene in Paris, France
Piazza del Duomo, Pisa, Italy*
Historic Centre of Siena, Italy*
Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna, Italy*
Le Strade Nuove and the system of the Palazzi dei Rolli, Genoa, Italy*
Bryggen, the old wharf of Bergen, Norway
Urnes Stave Church, Norway
West Norwegian Fjords - Geirangerfjord and Nærøyfjord, Norway
Rjukan-Notodden Industrial Heritage Site, Norway*
Historic Centre of Krakòw, Poland*
Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines, Cracow, Poland*
Auschwitz Birkenau, Cracow, Poland*
Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments, Russia
Historic Areas of Istanbul, Turkey*
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA
Monticello, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
I will in the coming weeks be adding pictures and comments regarding the places I visited in the course of 2015 - before I start my 2016 travels, which I assume will start sometime around Easter.
