Places alecbaechle Wants to Go

Hundreds of stone stairs and a winding medieval bridge connect this haunting Spanish island to the mainland.

This narrow path was cut right into a French mountainside to feed the country's early naval expansion.

A museum dedicated to the Spanish occult in a town that was terrorized by the Inquisition.

A Franco-era dam flooded (almost) everyone out of this centuries-old Aragonese town.

This huge abandoned fortress hidden inside a mountain holds a world of subterranean secrets.

A landscape decorated with enormous skull sculptures.

One of Antoni Gaudí’s earliest buildings, built between 1886 and 1890 for the industrialist Eusebi Güell.

One of Antoni Gaudí's least-visited works, an homage to Catalan patrimony that mixes neo-Gothic with Modernista forms.

The studio of Catalonia's most famous theatrical designer remains exactly as he left it.

This cafe offers a curated collection of treats and tipples made by monks and nuns.

The largest Art Nouveau complex in the world is a Barcelona hospital with a 600-year-long history.

Bask in the 19th century grandeur of an eccentric Freemason millionaire's private gardens.

Barcelona's historic 19th-century sewers, whose foundations were laid in medieval times, are open to the public for exploring.

Gaze upon chocolate sculptures depicting everything from chariot races to Gaudí's famous church at this shrine to sweets.

A beautiful but toxic fountain of mercury.

This cemetery features modernist statues as strange as its name.

Gaudí's famously flamboyant architectural style is on full display in this sprawling park and garden.

This semi-secret storybook hedge maze is also the oldest garden in the city.

This unreal Portuguese palace looks as though it's made from a pile of different castles.

Feast on buckets of garlicky snails.

This oddly shaped church resembles a rocket.

This museum contains a vast array of puppets and marionettes from all over the world, featuring incredible works by Portuguese creators.

Catering to broken dolls for almost 200 years, this repair shop is now a charnel house of doll parts.

Located in the thermoelectric factory that once powered the entire city, this Portuguese museum is shockingly fascinating.