The water-powered carriages are long gone, but for over a century this funicular railway has been the fastest route to the highest point in Paris.

A Parisian cemetery where the elite and artistic are interred beneath an eccentric collection of tombs.

This statue was given to France by the United States to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution.

An "inside out" building in the historical center of Paris, featuring Europe’s largest modern art museum.

This charming cobbled backstreet is the most Instagramable street in Paris, much to the residents' annoyance.

This iconic Parisian bookstore doubles as the "Tumbleweed Hotel" for traveling writers.

The bronzed skull of a beheaded traitor was affixed to the city gate in the 17th century.

This gorgeous reading room houses the oldest and largest art history library in the Netherlands.

The compass on its front was a handy tool for 17th-century merchants who needed to know the direction of the wind.

A beer pipeline runs beneath Bruges.

Christ's blood preserved in a Belgian town.

This former Masonic lodge has been transformed into part museum, part bar, all awesome.

This heavily worn bas-relief was once an honored fertility symbol.

This legendary giant, born from vegetables, terrorized townspeople and cheated local children in games.

A man throwing a giant severed hand towers over Antwerp’s main square.

This statue dedicated to the story of a Flemish boy and his dog was relatively obscure in Belgium, but a cult sensation in Japan.

Rare wooden escalators lead deep down into an otherwise staggeringly monotonous tiled tunnel.

The "lost friend” is the most famous of the six moai statues that were removed from Easter Island.

A naturally mummified 2,000-year-old man.

London's last remaining public soapbox site has seen speeches from Karl Marx, Vladmir Lenin, and George Orwell.

Legend says these colorful, invasive residents are the descendants of birds released by Jimi Hendrix.

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

Thanks to modern navigational tools we now know that the true prime meridian runs through a park next door.

19th-century scientists would make the pilgrimage here to verify the precision of their measuring sticks.