This iconic L.A. bookshop is housed in an abandoned bank—both symbolic and chic.

The Cimetière des Chiens et Autres Animaux Domestiques is one of the oldest pet cemeteries in the world.

César Baldaccini's iconic sculpture of a 40-foot thumb stands tall in La Défense.

This ancient hydrological marvel is now the base of a modern outdoor cinema.

The mile-long pier stretches from a ruined fortress out into the Baltic.

Latvia's symbolic mountain-shaped national library is home to millions of cultural tomes.

A railway bridge leading nowhere stands lonely in the middle of a meadow.

The widest waterfall in Europe is a natural wonder and one of the only places where fish are caught in the air.

A former Latvian headquarters of the brutal KGB secret police is now open as a grim reminder of their atrocities.

These crumbling Latvian forts make for some haunting seaside ruins.

A beautiful, dense forest in the shadow of Mount Fuji, with a tragic reputation.

A remarkable lava formation encloses a line of Buddhist statues that can't be accurately counted, according to local mythology.

Bioluminescent firefly squid light up this Japanese fishing port.

Beneath the most controversial monument in Mexico City is a cultural center that exhibits only digital art.

The only castle in North America to ever house European sovereigns.

66,000 pieces of art, donated by one of the world's richest men.

Frida Kahlo's childhood home, now a museum of her life and works.

Part bookstore, part café, and part forest.

Gilded heaven for philatelists and architecture freaks, still in full working order despite sitting atop tremulous ground.

A museum in the former home of Marxist revolutionary Leon Trotsky.

A dark tunnel leads to a striking white crater that seems to be from another planet.

There is nothing like a religious festival celebrated with blow-up sledgehammers.

Cave where bat-eating snakes hang down from the ceiling.

The winter home of millions of migrating monarch butterflies.