A modern mechanical planetary system, part of a 10,000 year clock.

A small park on Bourbon Street features life-size bronze statues of New Orleans musicians.

A little piece of Paris in the sultry south of the U.S.

A theme park that suffered massive flooding during Katrina was abandoned, and now proves irresistible to trespassing explorers.

Once the fastest ship from San Francisco to Tahiti, the Galilee now lays in pieces in three different cities.

The first AIDS memorial chapel in San Francisco and one of only a few in the U.S.

Not merely a museum – but a whirring powerhouse that offers a subterranean peek into the heart and soul of cable car operations.

San Francisco's oldest surviving monument and meeting place for 1906 survivors.

An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

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

San Francisco's newly reopened hands-on science museum.

This shop specializes in oddities and Victorian-inspired wonders.

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

The centuries-old obelisk may have inspired J. R. R. Tolkien.

A miniature village mimics the surrounding buildings so well it includes itself.

A 26-foot shark sculpture—a statement about bombs—set off a municipal battle royale.

Home to the most complete dodo remains known - one head, and one foot.

The fantastic charm of England's oldest botanical garden has made it a place of writerly inspiration for centuries.

Oxford University's stateliest library seems designed to make students truly feel the weight of knowledge.

One of Europe's oldest libraries.

A theatre built to house the rowdy Oxford graduation ceremonies became the stage for a debate about God's existence.

A museum and shop on Bourbon Street located in the French Quarter.

The second oldest continuously operating bar in Louisiana.

The curiosities and wonders of pharmacy in a delightful historic building.