Thousand-year-old Viking runes adorn an ancient Greek lion at the entrance to the Venetian Arsenal.

This Venice bookstore has resigned itself to constant flooding by keeping its books in bathtubs and boats.

Where Venice's gondolas go for a tune-up.

In the past, Renaissance sex workers were encouraged to entice customers on this bridge.

Las Vegas's very own 40-foot-tall fire-spewing praying mantis.

One of the world's tallest Ferris wheels takes visitors high above Las Vegas in a spinning party room.

“Live hard, ride fast, eat pizza” at this joint filled with Evel Knievel memorabilia.

Millions of years of oxidation make a drive down this winding Death Valley road surprisingly colorful.

The lowest point in North America is home to an undrinkable pool surrounded by fields of geometric salt flats.

This giant, 83-year-old ship elevator is an engineering feat to behold.

A hidden gem, named after a San Franciscan icon, offers spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean.

Beneath the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge is the “Gibraltar of the West Coast,” a fort built to protect the San Francisco Bay from naval attack.

Once the largest windmill outside of Holland, with enormous 114 foot sails.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.

A whimsical bridge adorned with decorative dragons.

This one-time health resort was used by aristocrats around the world.

This unreal Portuguese palace looks as though it's made from a pile of different castles.

One Portuguese poet described this cape, the westernmost point in mainland Europe, as "where the land ends and the sea begins."

In Portugal, a secluded stretch of untouched natural beauty hides at the bottom of a steep hill.

Leave a button on the jacket of this iconic Seattle clown.

Statue of Lenin, from Cold War era Czechoslovakia, now in a neighborhood of Seattle.