jim van dyke's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Highland, Scotland

Inchindown Oil Tanks

This abandoned oil depot produces world's longest echo in a manmade structure.
Bulls, New Zealand

The Town of Bulls

The "punniest place on Earth” has nearly as many bull-themed puns as it does people.
Angoville-au-Plain, France

Angoville-au-Plain Church

Bloodstains can still be seen in this medieval church where two medics saved lives on D-Day.
France / Spain

Pheasant Island

This tiny river island switches sovereignty every six months as part of a rare, centuries-old agreement.
Barcelona, Spain

Street Performers of Las Ramblas

The iconic boulevard is the perfect place to catch sight of a bicycling skeleton, a levitating Satan, or a chef with his head stuck in a pizza.
Osijek, Croatia

The Red Fićo

A tribute to an iconic act of defiance from the Croatian War of Independence involving a small car.
Hanoi, Vietnam

B-52 Wreckage

Monument to a brutal, ineffectual US bombing campaign and a sobering reminder of the human cost of the Vietnam War.
Park County, Montana

Grasshopper Glacier

A rapidly disappearing glacier filled with extinct grasshoppers, perfectly preserved in the ice.
Trinidad, Cuba

Discoteca Ayala

This subterranean disco dance club in a Cuban cave comes with bright lights and a dark legend.
East Lansing, Michigan

Moist Towelette Museum

Housed in the university planetarium, the thousand-strong collection of tiny towelettes includes a used one from the hosts of Car Talk.
Chicopee, Massachusetts

Edward Bellamy House

The home of a famed utopian science fiction author has been preserved long after his predicted future in the year 2000.
Cusco, Peru

Museo de la Coca (Coca Museum)

A fascinating little museum all about the rich history of Peru’s famous plant.
Krásno, Czechia

Spiral Tower of Krásno

A spiral staircase twists to the top of this unusual Czech lookout tower.
Stazzema, Italy

Monte Forato

A massive natural rock arch gives the Tuscan mountain its own window to the sky.
Salzburg, Austria

The World of Puppets Museum

A small marionette collection located within the dark cellars of an 11th-century Austrian castle.
Hanoi, Vietnam

Hanoi's Train Street

Twice a day a speeding train passes only inches from the homes of this residential neighborhood.
Davis, California

Davis Toad Tunnel

Special tunnels built so that frogs won't be killed when crossing the highway.
Byron, California

Byron Hot Springs Hotel

A ruined hotel with an unlucky history and an eerie present.
Berkeley, California

Fish Shaped House

A private home built to resemble the shape of a microscopic creature.
Oakland, California

Phap Duyen Tu: The Buddha Shrine of Oakland

A hardware store Buddha statue installed to deter vandalism wound up attracting Vietnamese immigrants who came to pray.
Livermore, California

Centennial Bulb

The longest burning light bulb in the world.
Fremont, California

The Secret Sidewalk

The old Niles Canyon Aqueduct in the San Francisco Bay Area is a bemusing and secret trail through nature for wayward travelers.
Las Vegas, Nevada

Big Rig Jig

Temporary Burning Man sculpture made of two 18-wheelers.
Oakland, California

Kaiser Convention Center

An abandoned convention space that has been left to the homeless and the radical.