Places obstakel Wants to Go

Sacked by Vikings, blessed by William the Conqueror, dealt a fatal blow during the French Revolution—these ruins have seen it all.

This French ghost town from World War II has been left as a memorial to German atrocities during World War II.

This frog-themed restaurant was frequented by Picasso, Saint-Exupéry, and more.

This whimsical castle of grottoes was the labor of love of a French postman, and one of the greatest achievements of outsider architecture.

An off-the-beaten-path boutique stuffed with an eclectic collection of upcycled goods.

A mechanized clock where a man fights off a dragon, crab, and rooster.

A subterranean shelter remains intact under a busy Paris railway station.

Behind the pink curtain, Au Bonheur du Jour, an art gallery of erotic archives.

Egyptian Revival movie palace abandoned for decades and restored in 2013.

France's national museum of scientific and industrial instruments.

The last surviving submarine from a strange chapter of Finnish history.

Hundreds of signs pointing to the birthplaces of current Helsinki residents form stalactites on the ceiling of the cave-like Kamppi metro station.

One of the oldest structures in Helsinki is this burrow grave that dates back to the Bronze Age.

Atop this electronic store resides a massive fighter jet.

On a small island, a replica of a Finnish village from the Iron Age.

The tiny, studious rodents greet visitors to the National Archives of Finland.

Finland's oldest astronomical observatory once played a crucial role in seafaring and timekeeping.

A small island dotted with old, historic Finnish buildings.

An alien church provides much needed silence in the midst of a Finland shopping center.

Hidden tunnels have sheltered the people of a Czech town for centuries.

Dedicated to the history of mining and minting in a region rich in silver and radium.

Hundreds of "animals" created from scrap metal, alongside a collection of other oddities.

This trio of reliefs—an ear, a mouth, and a pair of eyes—carved into the walls of flooded quarries is a monument to spying.

Human figures and faces are carved into the sandstone surrounding this cave in Czechia.