Places MatthewSperling Wants to Go

Hundreds of people walk past this palm tree every day without spotting its secret.

The ruins of a once prosperous power station have become a mouldering seaside gem.

These lights mark the area of Rotterdam that was bombed and burned in 1940.

These slanted cubic abodes are a creative if odd solution to a zoning pickle.

Four giant movable street lights decorate this modern Rotterdam square.

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

A king's pet, a pope's gift, an artist's inspiration, and a tragic shipwreck.

Elaborately carved to showcase the glorious wealth that the age of exploration brought to the Portuguese empire.

Visitors are treated to a stained glass kaleidoscope interior inside this work of art.

This Paris art space celebrates the creativity and ingenuity that springs from abject poverty, especially in Africa.

The world’s only museum dedicated to baked beans.

Quirky Welsh observatory unites art and science.

A rocky sea serpent hides caves, blowholes, and a spectacular natural bridge.

This lonely cast-iron structure is the only wave-washed lighthouse of its kind left in all of Britain.