The remains of a 12th-century chapter house in Golden Gate Park.

Under the shadow of its towering parent tree, a rare specimen of sequoia produces ghostly white leaves.

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

This teeny-tiny park built by a San Francisco man in 1962 is mostly stairs.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

Wander down a side street dedicated to one of the members of the Beat Generation.

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.

A giant chess set, minus the psychedelic drug trip.

This restaurant's marvelous musical machines include a self-playing violin.

The first high-tech company in the valley that actually worked with silicon devices.

The headquarters of the semiconductor giant has a 10,000-square-foot museum.

One of the largest Marian shrines on the West Coast stands rather unexpectedly in Silicon Valley.

A quiet nook at the top of a little-known hilltop park named after California's first poet laureate.

America's oldest Italian restaurant is a San Francisco institution.

Prague's "Little Hanoi" is one of the commercial centers of Czechia's Vietnamese community.

A steampunk-styled three-floor factory churning out art, activism, and electronic beats.

What looks like a crashed Zeppelin is actually a bright, airy reading room perched atop a modern museum.

The first museum in the world devoted to sexual gadgetry.

Around 100,000 bodies are buried below the medieval headstones, many of which mark graves with multiple bodies stacked up to 12 deep.

Synagogue built from the stones of Solomon's temple contains the golem of Prague.

A surreal statue honoring Prague's favorite literary son.

This spooky statue sits outside a famous Prague theater.

A 400-year-old mummified arm dangles from the ceiling of St. James the Greater, serving as a warning to thieves.