Places Kris McCracken Wants to Go

This community on a small Venetian island has taken to painting their houses in bright neon hues.

One of the largest caves in the world open to the public.

This solitary convex mirror sculpture at an abandoned ferry station at the edge of a fjord reflects the scenery back at the viewer.

A microbiologist-chef is slinging noodles with hyperlocal Nordic ingredients.

Mysterious man-made rock piles form an ancient cemetery on this rocky beach in Norway.

The last fully functional fortress of Germany's World War II Atlantikwall.

The largest cave in Northern Europe.

The world's northernmost ice hotel.

A reconstructed farm shows what life was like in Norway 1,500 years ago.

A thin pane of glass keeps visitors from sliding off this futuristic skywalk.

Across the Pacific in a raft, a museum dedicated to Thor Heyerdahl's now legendary expedition.

For six months of the year, three giant mirrors direct a pool of sunshine onto this otherwise occluded town.

Monuments don't get much more metal than these three giant viking swords planted in a Nordic hill.

One of the most breathtaking railways in Europe also takes one of the steepest climbs, from fjord to mountain plateau.

One man's exploration of the human form, including the bizarre and delightful "Man Attacked by Babies."

An intricately carved Viking church overlooks a glistening fjord.

This giant boulder is pinched over a 1000-meter abyss by two mountains.

Walk 2,300 feet above the ground on the "Troll's Tongue."

The world's northernmost brewery uses water from a 2,000-year-old glacier to create its beer.

The world's largest underwater restaurant is submerged off the southern tip of Norway.

A Viking-style brewpub named for a Norse sea giant, in the heart of fjord country.

The only natural cave bath in all of Europe.

This pair of unsuspecting buildings are in fact the very first modern skyscrapers in Europe.

A cenote sitting in the middle of a parking lot shows the Yucatán Peninsula at its most urbanized.