The original toys that inspired the beloved children's stories are on display at the New York Public Library.

A DIY art gallery/music venue/lecture hall dedicated to video game culture.

These "anatomical machines" are only one of the many strange items in this Italian crypt.

This micro-industry of Latino cuisine along Red Hook's Ball Fields represents a victory in a food fight with the city.

The factory for the popular Dumbo location, the Greenpoint shop is a quiet gem.

This little slice of the Netherlands in the Pacific Northwest blooms in a rainbow of color each spring.

A nostalgic restaurant evokes life in Taiwan from the 1940s to the 1970s.

One of New York's best collections of pinball is hidden in a secret bar in the back of this laundromat.

The one-stop shop for all of your superhero (or evil arch-nemesis) needs.

This unique preservation is one of the only taxidermies in the world made with real whale skin.

A fantastical bed and breakfast with magically unique rooms.

A curious museum of old video game consoles hidden in the back of a store.

This enormous spiral sculpture looks strangely out of place on the edge of a housing development.

Crop circles inspired this whimsical garden in Germany.

This sacred fig tree with a link to the Buddha is one of the oldest human-planted trees in the world.

This traditional Japanese-style house doubles as one of James Turrell's colorful works of art.

When Motown musicians came to Nashville in the 1960s they stayed at this historic record-pressing company because hotels wouldn't host them.

This 700-year-old street food market features baby octopus and soy donuts.

Deceased nuns were placed on stone chairs to decompose, while the surviving nuns prayed near the lifeless bodies.

The bartenders at this crime-fighting theme cafe are actual private detectives by day.

Seemingly grown on some other world, these New Mexico rock formations look like a disused science fiction set.

This museum started as a collection of Manhattan Projects and continues to add exhibits as they are declassified.

The magical, mossy forest that inspired Princess Mononoke.

For two weeks every June, fireflies in the Smoky Mountains perform an astonishing light show.