An alleyway plaque is all that remains of the independent Texas' envoy that forgot to pay their rent for over a century.

The longest hedge maze in the world.

Banksy gives themself artistic license with this piece of London street art.

Accessible only at low tide, the deserted island is dotted with World War II ruins.

A vast overgrown cemetery, once known as one of London's "Magnificent Seven."

Northern Ireland's Brobdingnagian stepping stones.

An unusual round church in London with a Templar past.

An easily overlooked stretch of ornate window fronts and gaslight lamps that could be right from the pages of Dickens.

This collection of illusory paraphernalia has been culled from the history of London's premier magician's club.

This ornate Victorian marketplace was the setting for Diagon Alley and the Leaky Cauldron in the Harry Potter films.

This shop and gallery is a modern-day cabinet of curiosities, unassumingly positioned along an urban thoroughfare.

A 300-year-old tea shop that brought tea to the English people, not to mention the Queen herself.

A studio devoted to keeping hundreds of unique Chinese arts alive.

This probably wasn't what Mao had in mind.

There are no crying babies in this neck of the woods.

Stockholm's last remaining paternoster elevator.

A botched 18th-century canal silenced one of Sweden's most magnificent waterfalls.

Eat a Nobel banquet from any year in the basement of Stockholm's City Hall.

This encrypted monolith protected a secret of Norse mythology by hiding in a church wall for over a millennium.

It's always game time at Stockholm's only museum devoted solely to video games.

An ancient Viking runestone hidden in plain view in Stockholm's old town.

In downtown Oslo, a menacing and terrifying relief clings to a church wall.

According to the locals, the sands of this secluded Norway beach are infused with gemstone particles.

A stunning silver lining to global warming's gloomy cloud.