Places maren Wants to Go

Potato-peeling mannequins, Inca art, and a dangling tuber mobile help trace the history of fries at this Belgian museum.

An all-female order shares an ancient culinary art with visitors at their mountaintop monastery.

A lavender labyrinth so large it’s visible on Google Earth.

Each spring, a dreamlike carpet of bluebells overtakes the forest floor.

It is locally loved and ridiculed for literally looking like poop.

Berlin's natural history museum houses the world's largest mounted dinosaur and the late beloved polar bear Knut.

A slice of central Asia in the middle of Berlin.

A quirky bookstore hidden beneath a sea of whitewashed Greek villas.

A DIY art gallery/music venue/lecture hall dedicated to video game culture.

Hans Christian Andersen for the postmodern world.

Sacks of potatoes, made of cast stone, mark where the iconic potato sheds once stood along the river.

The de facto symbol of Copenhagen is this bronze fairytale which cannot seem to keep its head for very long.

Copenhagen's celebrated theme park and gardens.

Macabre astrological automaton clock dating to the late 1400s.

Drinkslinger is an unlikely vocation for a Buddhist monk, but at this Tokyo bar the enlightenment is served in a martini glass.

A plaque marks the site directly below the mid-air detonation of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima.

Peace Park and the Atomic Bomb Dome.

A museum dedicated to the history and exploration of both popular music and science fiction.

A whimsical village of unique treehouses resides in a Washington forest.

This private home is famous for appearing in the cult-classic "Twin Peaks" series.

This semi-secret garden in south Seattle emulates a traditional Japanese garden using the plants of the Pacific Northwest.

Xul Solar was an artist of alternate worlds, inventor of languages, and dreamer of utopias.

This historic, palatial theater is now one of the world’s most beautiful bookstores.

Twin Peaks' real life Double R Diner has been restored to its damn fine television look.