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Wikivoyage:Discover/2008

December 2008

 * Cologne's Kölner Seilbahn claims to be the only chair lift in Europe that crosses a river.

 * Flights landing in Trondheim, Norway are only two minutes away from Hell — the train station, that is.

 * Tired of your boring old 4x4? Rent a llama for cruising around Mitzpe Ramon.

 * Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show originated in North Platte, Nebraska and is memorialized there -- by a statue donated by the United Kingdom.

 * Ughatasar Mountain in Southern Armenia has thousands of petroglyphs which are thousands of years old.

 * The musical accompaniment to Mainz's culinary speciality of Handkäse mit Musik is produced by your own gastrointestinal tract.

 * The water tower in Vaasa, Finland plays host to a challenging indoor climbing wall.

November 2008

 * São Francisco de Assis Church in Belo Horizonte, Brazil has such out-of-the-ordinary architecture that the Catholic Church refused to consecrate it for a time.

 * Eger, Hungary is the site of the northernmost Turkish minaret in Europe.

 * Bintan Resorts is a district of Indonesia, but most trade there is conducted using Singapore dollars as the preferred currency.

 * Among the never-ending stream of adult oddities in Las Vegas is Bite, a show claimed to be a vampire-themed topless revue.

 * If you visit the Chinese city of Lijiang, make sure to pick up a comb carved from the horns or hooves of a yak.

 * Helsinki's Tin Tin Tango is a combination of café, restaurant, bar, laundromat and sauna.

 * Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio has only existed under that name since the year 2000, but it's already the fifth busiest of all United States National Parks, measured in annual number of visitors.

 * The Puppenhausmuseum in Basel claims to own the world's greatest collection of teddy bears.

 * On Tuesdays, the musical selection at Fiszbah in Mainz is described as Discopogo for Punks in Pumps.

 * The great Santa Fe Opera performs in an open-air theater, with scenery of the Jemez Mountains in the background.

October 2008

 * Ko Kret Island in Thailand is less than 300 years old.

 * Northern Avenue opened as Yerevan, Armenia's first pedestrian avenue this year, linking the two main hubs of Republic Square and the Opera.

 * White-painted rocks in Bamiyan, Afghanistan delineate paths that have been cleared of mines.

 * Pecherska Lavra, Kiev's celebrated cave monastery, dates to the 11th century and still contains the mummified remains of monks.

 * Bird Rock (Craig yr Aderyn), near Tywyn is the only site in Europe where cormorants nest inland.

 * One of Vienna's draws is the Bestattungsmuseum, a museum devoted to coffins and mortuary science.
 * One of the bits of folk history underlying the Rogers Park district of Chicago is the Cabbage Head War.

 * Opened in 1900, Wuppertal's Schwebebahn is the world's oldest monorail, and they still use Emperor Wilhelm II's original train for special events.

 * Don't be surprised to hear explosions when walking around Helsinki: thanks to the rock-solid granite bedrock, most new construction work involves some blasting.

 * Spare change? Singapore issues a ten thousand Singapore dollar note, worth over US$7000 at current exchange rates.

 * Mumbles, a seaside resort in Swansea, UK, derives its name from the French word mamelles (meaning breasts) - so called due to the appearance of the two islets off Mumbles Head.

 * If you hike in the Maze district at Utah's Canyonlands National Park, you can cover ground once trod by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

 * If preserved people are your thing, visit the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano; it's not only the resting place of the Iceman Ötzi, but also (through October) the host for visiting Chachapoya mummies from Peru.

 * The Mauritius dodo bird is long extinct, of course, but if you visit the islands, you might still see the rare pink pigeon, the green gecko phelsuma and the Aldabra giant tortoise.

 * Hankering for a new spin on the hot dog? Try one in Nokia (yes, that Nokia), where they like to replace the plain bun with a sugary donut.

August 2008

 * Hankering for a new spin on the hot dog? Try one in Nokia (yes, that Nokia), where they like to replace the plain bun with a sugary donut.

 * The remote, jungle-covered Japanese island of Iriomote receives 100 visitors per resident every year.

 * Saint Petersburg (Florida) came by its name by way of a coin toss.

 * Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu both grew up and live on the same street in Soweto, Johannesburg.

 * Chakhar is an 8th century castle located in the Bhutanese town of Jakar. Although now a small stone building, the original structure was said to have been nine stories high and made completely of iron.

 * The Bushwacker Festival, an annual event in Pensacola, Florida, honors a mixed drink.

 * Zeno, Lazarus, and Umm Haram are all celebrated in sites and statuary around the city of Larnaca, Cyprus.

 * The arches around the town square in Jackson (Wyoming) are made of hundreds of elk antlers.

 * Travelling by KFC is common in Indonesia — it's the local abbreviation for "fast ferry boat".

 * The mythology behind the creation of the Indian state of Kerala prominently features decapitation.

 * Among the hotels and other accommodations in and near Las Vegas, New Mexico is the Star Hill Inn, an "astronomy resort" featuring a 29-inch telescope.

 * The quiet little town of Kamakura was the capital of Japan during the Kamakura shogunate, from 1185 to 1333.

 * Dodo birds are long extinct, but you can still see the bones of one at the Naturalis museum in Leiden.

 * Aberdyfi, Wales is home to Del-Boy, officially named (by The Donkey Conservancy) as Britain's best beach donkey for 2008.

 * The hiking at El Malpais National Monument is good, but stay within monument boundaries; terrain nearby was a bombing range during World War II, and unexploded bombs may still be present outside the monument.

 * Thorups Kælder, a beer cellar in Aarhus, Denmark, reputedly dates to the 13th century.

 * If you get hungry while driving the Route 66 itinerary and don't care about aesthetics, pause in the semi-ghost town of Adrian, Texas (near Vega) and get an ugly crust pie.

 * You can see remnants of gold and silver mines on the Greek island of Sifnos that extend more than 2500 years back in time.

 * Sightseeing in Shibuya? Recharge your electrolytes at either the Electric Energy Museum or the Tobacco and Salt Museum.

 * Winnipeg's signature "Golden Boy" statue is a World War I veteran of sorts: the French foundry where it was cast was bombed, but the statue escaped damage.

 * During World War II, the parklands of Cuckmere Haven were dotted with lights to distract Axis bombers away from nearby Newhaven; some WWII leftovers are still visible there.

 * A characteristic product of the Mexican town of Guanajuato is the confection "Charamuscas" -- figures made of caramel resembling mummies.

 * In a fine display of even-handedness, the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History in Bardstown, Kentucky displays not only whiskey memorabilia, but also Carrie Nation's hatchet.

 * If just bathing at Helsinki's Kotiharju Sauna isn't extreme enough for you, try their traditional bloodletting service.

 * The Museum of the History of Science (Museo di Storia della Scienza) in Florence, Italy has the middle finger of Galileo Galilei's right hand on display.

 * If you're a country music legend, think twice about visiting Nashville's Grand Old Opry; with more than 35 stars dying in mysterious ways after performing, some say it's haunted.

 * The grand prize for the yearly Wife Carrying World Championships in Finland is the wife's weight in beer.

 * Nyonya Meneer, a museum in Semarang, Indonesia, is dedicated to exhibits about the traditional Javanese drink Jamu.

 * Summer highs in Saudi Arabia often exceed 50°C (120°F), but it can still snow in the winter.

 * Are you fluent in nerdspeak? If not, visit Tutti Frutti in San Francisco's Avenues district and pick up some flashcards on the "language."

 * The pool at Helsinki's Olympic Stadium was previously used to store potatoes and herring.

 * The Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw was a "personal gift" from Joseph Stalin -- for better or worse.

 * It rains rather than snows at Point Reyes National Seashore, but that doesn't keep it from being habitat for the endangered snowy plover.

 * Scuba divers visiting Thailand's Ko Lanta district have a chance of sighting whale sharks that's among the best such opportunities in the world.

 * Decode the validity of your Saudi visa carefully; it's counted in Islamic lunar months, not Western calendar months.

 * The emblem of Finland's Nuuksio National Park is the Siberian flying squirrel, but don't expect to see one there; they're nocturnal and live in the tree tops.

 * The seasonal trolley service that runs around Falmouth (Massachusetts) is known as the WHOOSH.

 * If you should somehow find yourself in Yakutsk, be sure to pick up some Pantoff, a vodka made with the extract from the velvet of reindeer antlers.

 * At the Food Fusion food court in Bangkok's Silom district, you place your order using a bar-coded baton.

 * The sports stadium in Novi Sad is known, locally and colloquially, as Silicon Valley -- but you'll have to read the article to see why.

 * Among the bits of statuary in public places in Detroit is a sculpture of boxer Joe Louis' fist.

 * Timbaali, a restaurant in Porvoo, Finland, specializes in a decidedly un-Finnish delicacy: snails.

 * Osaka's Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum offers an instant noodle workshop, where you can cook up and take away handmade instant noodles.

 * Of course you know that London's Wimbledon district figures in the history of tennis, but did you know it also contains a museum that depicts the history of windmills?

 * When you visit Las Vegas, take your climbing gear; in addition to the night life, there's high-quality rock climbing nearby at Red Rock Canyon.

 * Kugelmugel, a spherical house in Vienna, declared independence from Austria after its owner failed to get a planning permit.

 * A golden bust of Lenin rises from the flat icy wasteland at Antarctica's Pole of Inaccessibility — the terrestrial world's single most difficult point to reach.

 * Pick your exit carefully at Basel's airport — one door leads to France, the other to Switzerland.

 * The Manayunk district of Philadelphia reportedly derives its name from a Native American word meaning "where we go to drink."

 * Thinking of visiting the Motor Show in Frankfurt? Book your hotel early, as you'll be joined by almost a million other gearheads.

 * There's smoke in the air in Singapore in August, as locals burn hell money for their relatives and chow down at the Hungry Ghost Festival.

 * The World's Only Thermometer Museum (that's the name of the place) is in Wareham (Massachusetts), with thousands of thermometers on display.

 * Takin, a cross between a cow and a goat, is the national animal of Bhutan, and there is a takin preserve in the capital, Thimphu.

 * The leisure center in Swansea, UK (The LC) boasts among its attractions Europe's only indoor surfing center and the world's first uphill water slide.

 * Ever felt like ice skating in a parking garage for some reason? Visit Arlington (Virginia); the top floor of the Ballston Common Mall's garage is a year-round skating rink.

 * Muzaffarpur is known as the Lychee Capital of India.

 * If you visit Trondheim, Norway, you can buy a one-way ticket to Hell -- the Hell Station on the railroad, that is.

 * Among the exhibits at Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan is "Leonardo's Horse," the realization of a concept originally by Leonardo da Vinci.

 * The Welsh town of Tenby also bears the longer name Dinbych-y-Pysgod -- Welsh for "little town of fishes".

 * For friendly games of football (soccer) in Taichung, Taiwan, check out the local expat team -- the Taichung Tubbies.

July 2008

 * Department of False Cognates: The Ouchy district of Lausanne may sound like the place to go for S&M, bondage, etc., but it's just a perfectly legitimate port area with normal hotels and restaurants.

 * If you visit Albuquerque and hear people talking about the "Big Eye", don't get paranoid; it's not a surveillance device, but rather the intersection of two Interstate highways.

 * One of the sights of Senggigi, Indonesia is an empty chair representing Brahma's empty throne.

 * College Park (Maryland) is the site of the world's oldest continuously operated airport.

 * One of the strangest events of the summer in Nagoya, Japan is the World Cosplay Summit, where admirers of Japanese animation dress up as their favorite animated characters and parade through the streets.

 * If you fly into Peoria (Illinois), you'll travel from airport to city on a road named for comedian Richard Pryor, a native of Peoria.

 * One of the must-sees of Nkhata Bay, Malawi is the feeding of the fish eagle that lives high up on the cliff face south of Njaya Lodge.

 * The school colors at the University of Rochester (New York) are blue and dandelion yellow.

 * If you visit the island of Caye Caulker, try to catch a drink at the Lazy Lizard bar; it's next to the site where the island split in two following a hurricane.

 * When visiting Finnish Lapland, plan to feast on exotic poronkäristys, and forget about its considerably less exotic-sounding English name: reindeer hash.

 * North Pole, Alaska, a small town located near Fairbanks, is nowhere near the North Pole, but is famous for celebrating Christmas all year long.

 * If you travel to Cincinnati during the city's Oktoberfest, you can participate in the world's largest chicken dance.

 * The Neolithic site of Silbury Hill at Avebury, England is believed to be the largest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe.

 * In a pleasing reversal of modern trends, the site of Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland, Oregon was once occupied by a freeway.

 * One of the features of the Diamante K resort in Tulum, Mexico is hanging beds.

 * Of the 300 or so coral cays along Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Green Island is the only one with a rain forest.

 * Boca Raton, Florida is a more pleasant city than its name -- which means Mouse Mouth -- might suggest.

 * Speaking of odd combinations, Bat-o-far in the 13th Arrondissement of Paris is a lighthouse boat with a dance floor.

 * How about a burger and fries with a side of fabric softener? Brainwash, in San Francisco's SoMa district, is a combination restaurant and laundromat.

 * With a time zone of UTC+5:45, Nepal is fifteen minutes ahead of India.

 * Up for a culinary feast in Porvoo, Finland? Try snails, deer carpaccio and tar-flavored salmon, then finish your meal with a Kiss.

 * Venetian raiders stole the body of St. Mark the Evangelist from Alexandria in 820, but they left behind his head.

 * The Leaning Tower of Puerto Morelos? The old lighthouse there was knocked askew in a 1967 hurricane, but has remained standing through several subsequent storms.

 * If you go to a restaurant in Quebec City during Carnaval season and order Caribou, you may not get what you expect; in local jargon, it's an alcoholic beverage.

 * Under Zimbabwean law, it is illegal to "hoard" more than Z$100 billion — or about one US dollar.

 * Many of the hoteliers in Göreme, Turkey can offer you the option of sleeping in a cave.

 * The Greek town of Hydra isn't named for the mythical monster, but rather for a long-defunct spring.

 * With a population of less than 60,000, Dubuque, Iowa isn't a big city, but it's home to no fewer than six colleges with affiliations to churches.

 * Moussorgsky notwithstanding, there's no Great Gate in Kiev, but you can visit a Chernobyl museum there.

 * Got a hankering for iguana skin boots? You can get them at Sanchez Brothers Western Clothes, on Chicago's Southwest Side.

 * If you visit Mongolia and have an adventurous palate, try a boodog, or marmot barbecue. (May cause bubonic plague.)

 * The entrance to the (American) Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton (Ohio) is (unsurprisingly) surmounted by half of a giant football, but the effect is to make the building look like a giant orange squeezer.

June 2008

 * If you visit Malacca during Intrudu in February, be ready to have buckets of water thrown at you. (It's all in fun.)

 * In Iriomote, Japan in the summertime? Stay at the pineapple-shaped Pineapple House and tuck into all-you-can-eat pineapple.

 * What's that doing there? One of the features of the Frauenkirche in Munich's City Center district is the Teufelstritt, or devil's footstep.

 * Among the attractions at Odessa (Texas) are full-size replicas of Stonehenge and also Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

 * Skip the "city chicken" jokes: The most famous menu item at the Lung Wah Hotel, in Hong Kong's New Territories district, is roasted pigeons.

 * The Ox in Castlefield, Manchester is the only pub in the United Kingdom to be named after a potato.

 * Despite what the name may lead you to believe, the Australian town of Orange is well known for its crop of apples.

 * During Japan's bubble economy, the single square kilometer under Tokyo's Imperial Palace was estimated to be more valuable than all of California.

 * The temple of Wat Lan Khuad in Si Saket Province, Thailand is built entirely from glass bottles — and the frescoes are made from bottle caps.

 * Public transportation in Boone, North Carolina is via a bus line known as AppalCART for its association with Appalachian State University.

 * Hevimesta, a nightclub in Helsinki, features heavy metal karaoke.

 * Fascinated by big money? Then visit Sudbury, Ontario and see the 30-foot-tall coin replica known as the Big Nickel.

 * The Kelantanese dialect of Malay is so incomprehensible, it's locally referred to as German.

 * The official mascot of the Caribia Spa in Turku, Finland is the Posankka, a cross between a duck and a pig.

 * At Tokyo Disneyland, flavors of popcorn include cream soda and curry (sold, appropriately enough, only in Adventureland).

 * Blueberry Hill Restaurant, in St. Louis, is full of pop-culture artifacts, but its most notable "artifact" is Rock&Roll legend Chuck Berry, who still performs there once a month.

 * Tartinijev trg square in Piran, Slovenia was once a marina, but after it silted up, it was paved over in marble.

 * Ever hear of the California Bear Republic?   You can see the old adobe home of William B. Ide, its only president (and that not for long), in Red Bluff.

 * Guildhall in Windsor, England incorporates pillars that don't actually support anything -- but the town burgesses insisted on having them anyway.

 * Of course you know that The Loop, Chicago's downtown district, contains many skyscrapers, but did you know that among them is a prison nearly 300 feet tall?

 * The trams in Alexandria, Egypt are kind of slow, but at 25 piastres or around 4.6¢ a ride, you can't really complain.

 * In the market for plastic food? Kappabashi St in Asakusa, Tokyo is the place to go.

 * The Cadfan Stone in Tywyn, Wales bears the oldest known writing in the Welsh language.

 * Don't overestimate how "friendly" the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge connecting Vientiane, Laos and Nong Khai, Thailand is; you still can't cross it by foot or bicycle.

 * The sound of the Arabic letter ʿayin has been likened to someone being strangled.

 * A statue in Simon's Town, South Africa memorializes Just Nuisance, the only dog ever to be enlisted in the Royal Navy.

 * Visiting Tucson, Arizona and fascinated by organized crime? Consider the Congress Hotel; infamous public enemy John Dillinger was arrested there.

 * The dessert the Trianon Cafe of Alexandria, Egypt is famous for is om Ali, a type of pudding, but the name translates as Ali's mom.

May 2008

 * If you're interested in World War II history and visiting New South Wales, check out the town of Cowra; it's the site of the only Japanese war cemetery in Australia.

 * There are 11 separate vowels and 35 consonants in the Hindi language.

 * The Fighting 69th Monument in Ballymote, Ireland hosts a piece of metal from the World Trade Center in New York City, honoring a firefighter who perished in the 9/11 attacks and had ancestors in the town.

 * Travelers visiting Socorro, New Mexico in April or September might get to join a tour of the site of the world's first atomic bomb explosion, at nearby White Sands Missile Range.

 * The entire Grand Shrine of Ise is dismantled and rebuilt from scratch every 20 years — counting up from 690 AD, the current incarnation is the 61st.

 * If you visit Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan, you can see demonstrations of nautical rescue techniques performed using Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls.

 * The ossuary at St. Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai houses the skulls of 1400 years' worth of monks.

 * Having declared independence on the 3rd of June 2006, Montenegro is the youngest officially recognized country in the world.

 * The ladies' restroom at the China Blue bar in Boise, Idaho has its own private champagne bar and bartender.

 * The students who guide you through Durham Castle in Durham (England) aren't just employees; they're residents, as the castle contains the oldest student accommodations in the world.

 * The most popular souvenir at the PLO Flag Shop in Gaza Strip was an inflatable Yasser Arafat. (No longer in stock, alas.)

 * The name of Shait Gumbad Mosque in Bagerhat, Bangladesh means Mosque of 60 Domes, but that's misleading as it actually has 77 of the structures.

 * If you're fascinated by solid waste for some reason, check out 60-foot-high Mount Trashmore in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

 * The Pickle Factory in Bangkok's Phahonyothin district is not a factory and has nothing to do with pickles.

 * Interested in really higher education? The Watterson Towers complex at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois stands nearly 300 feet high and is the tallest college dormitory in the world.

 * According to the Ten Courts of Hell in Singapore's Haw Par Villa, cheating in exams merits having your body dismembered and your intestines pulled out.

 * Of course, you won't find the extinct dodo on the island of Mauritius any more, but birders may catch a glimpse of the endangered Mauritius kestrel there as consolation.

 * Finland is known as The Land of a Thousand Lakes, but it actually has 187,888 of them.
 * The street address of the Toledo (Ohio) Zoo is 2 Hippo Way. (No information on what "1 Hippo Way" might be.)

 * Singapore's Mint Museum houses a collection of... no, not money, but over 50,000 toys.

 * In the mood for a luxurious train ride? Go beyond First and try Rehab Class on Saudi Railways.

 * The latest craze in Akihabara, Tokyo is cat cafes, where customers can drink tea while playing with felines.

 * When in Dingle, Ireland, be sure to visit its most famous resident, Fungi the dolphin, who has been living in the bay for 20 years and welcomes human visitors.

 * Does ten dinars for a taxi ride in Bahrain sound cheap? At US$2.67 to the dinar, it's not!

 * With the Loot of Lima worth in excess of $50 million rumoured to be buried there, Cocos Island is the perfect destination for any treasure hunter.

 * One of Riyadh's more macabre sights is Chop-Chop Square, where public beheadings are carried out on Fridays.

 * The head office of the Longaberger Baskets Company in Newark, Ohio is a building in the shape of a gigantic basket.

 * At the Singapore Zoo's Jungle Breakfast, you get to feed yourself and elephants as well.

 * The Maropeng centre in the Cradle of Humankind caters for all aspiring time travelers. In the time tunnel it only takes a few steps to walk backwards from today until 4 billion years ago.

 * Spice up your sandwich with one of the more than 800 varieties of mustard available at the Mustard Museum just outside Madison

 * For anyone that has ever dreamed about running away and joining the circus. The Aloft Loft in Chicago offers a Two-Day Beginning Trapeze course.

April 2008

 * At just 396 meters, the runway at Saba International Airport is probably the shortest commercial runway in the world.

 * A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, except in Buffalo National River where harming a Ivory-billed woodpecker will get you arrested, but a photo of one will earn you $10 000.

 * Some cultures require a handsome, sword-bearing prince to rescue the damsel in distress; in Kawasaki they make do with a blacksmith and hammer. Visit the Iron Penis Festival to find out why.

 * The huge limestone spires of the Pinnacles Desert in Western Australia is best viewed early in the morning or around sunset when then low angle of the sun enhances the colours and contrasts of the rock formations.

 * Fast food does not always have to be a burger and fries. In Barbados the fast food can do 30mph through the air.

 * Miyake, a bar in Palo Alto, California popular with students at nearby Stanford University, is known for its Sake Bomb (shot of sake dropped into a glass of beer and chugged).

 * For a dip with a difference, visit Yamanouchi in Japan, where you can go hot spring bathing with snow monkeys.

 * The Spring of Life fresco in the Lutheran church at Rovaniemi, Finland, follows Biblical themes, but with some twists; for example, it depicts reindeer standing in for lambs.

 * Ürümqi, in China, claims to be the most inland city in the world because of its distance from the (any) ocean.

 * The Allen-Bradley Clock Tower in Milwaukee is the world's largest four-sided clock, with clock faces nearly twice the size of London's famous "Big Ben."

 * Guadalajara's characteristic salsa is called Tapatío, but choose your words carefully when buying it; "Tapatio" also means a resident of the city.

 * Bedwellty House and Park in Tredegar, a small town in Wales, lays claim to hosting the world's largest lump of coal.

 * Feeling hung over in South Korea? Try the traditional remedy haejangguk, a soup made from pork spine and ox blood.

 * Despite being the site of a mass Japanese POW breakout in 1944, the Australian town of Cowra is now the site of Australia's only Japanese war cemetery.

 * The famed Sphinx of Giza is no lovable kitty-cat: the Arabs call it the Father of Terror, while the Greek name means the Strangler.

 * Harkers Island, North Carolina, USA hosts an annual two-day festival dedicated to the art of duck decoys.

 * Curry or ramen? The Japanese port city of Yokohama has museums devoted to both.

 * The tiny Norwegian community of Finse is home to a railway museum (the Rallar Museum) even though its permanent population is only about 10 people.

 * One of the sights of Sydney's Manly district is The Quarantine Station, preserving the city's original defenses against infectious diseases.

 * Much of the Ohio River is controlled and owned by the State of Kentucky, because Kentucky became a state before Ohio.

 * The symbol of the Thai town of Ubon Ratchathani is a 22-meter-tall candle sculpture and they even hold a yearly Candle Festival.

 * Nostalgic for the great era of ocean liners? Visit Cobh, Ireland; it was the last port ever visited by the Titanic before that fateful day in 1912.

 * The land area of Boston's Harbor Islands varies by almost a factor of 2 depending on the tides.

 * The word bordello comes from the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, where ladies of night used boards to divide up their rooms.

 * Feeling a little under the weather in Indonesia? Odds are you've caught wind (masuk angin), so the local cure is to either rub an oiled coin on your skin or, easier yet, just break wind.

 * Taiwanese roads often feature brightly lit booths staffed by attractive, skimpily dressed girls, whose job is to sell mildly narcotic betel nuts.

 * Cardiff, Wales is home to a Roman-era castle and the Doctor Who Exhibition, complete with studio tours.

 * The main road to tiny and remote Regent, North Dakota, USA is called the Enchanted Highway, as it's adorned with giant sculptures of a grasshopper, a covey of pheasants, and Teddy Roosevelt, among others.

March 2008

 * You can't reach Parismina, Costa Rica by road or train, and car and bike rental doesn't exist there, but take heart: once you're in town, you can get around by rented ox cart.

 * Vung Tau, Vietnam nestles beneath the cliff called Mũi Nghinh Phong -- translated as “Cape of Breeze Welcome”.

 * The Stockholm Globe Arena, Globen, claims the title of world's largest spherical building.

 * Each April, Tokyo's transvestites congregate at the Iron Penis Festival held by a fertility shrine in Kawasaki.

 * The cuisine of Baltimore theoretically features Chesapeake Bay steamed crabs, but most crabs served in the city are imported from states on the Gulf of Mexico because of overfishing in the Bay.

 * Chicken Wreck, a dive site off Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, is named after the unlucky ship's cargo: tons and tons of frozen chicken.

 * If you're in Kobe and your budget doesn't stretch to the famous beef, try sobameshi — a mix of fried rice and fried noodles.

 * The Ishiya Chocolate Factory in Sapporo, Japan offers tours, souvenirs, restaurants and a musical robot show.

 * During Cold War days, parts of Cincinnati's never-completed subway system did double duty as a fallout shelter.

 * Avoiding checking in umbrellas on flights in the United Kingdom; they're still a little edgy after one was used to assassinate Georgi Markov.

 * The sundial in Rose Point Park in Singleton, New South Wales, Australia is often claimed to be the world's largest in the Southern Hemisphere.

 * The small town of Rishikesh in Uttarakhand, India is often called the world's capital of yoga, not least because Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's now-closed ashram was there.

 * Saudi Arabia bans all booze, but you can still get Budweiser beer — although it's non-alcoholic and apple-flavored.

 * The term hanging judge derives from Judge Issac Parker of Fort Smith, Arkansas, who sentenced more than a hundred criminals to death by hanging.

 * In Jeddah's old town of Al-Balad, the teetering seven-story houses are made from coral.

 * The origin of the poker term Dead Man's Hand comes from the murder of Wild Bill Hickok, who was holding a pair of aces and eights when he was shot from behind in Deadwood, South Dakota.

 * Hungry? You will find Lobster Salad Rolls and Fried Scallop Rolls in the town of Sandwich, Cape Cod.

 * It's relatively easy for visitors to Indonesia's Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park to see two volcanoes active at the same time (Bromo and Semeru).

 * In the tropical city state of Singapore, feeding monkeys is punishable by a fine.

 * A popular restaurant in Kilgore, Texas, USA, is the Jalapeño Tree, even though jalapeño peppers don't grow on trees.

 * In Bergen, locals refer to the seven mountains surrounding the city, but there's no agreement on which mountains these seven really are, as there are in fact nine mountains in the area.

 * At sukiyaki specialist Mishima-tei in Kyoto, the premium beef retails for the equivalent of US$ 700 per kilo.

 * Ever had a desire to take a donkey for a walk, for some reason? You can do it at the Nerja (Spain) Donkey Sanctuary.

 * A bar in the University City district of Charlotte, North Carolina bears the provocative name Tipsey McStumble's.

 * Among the artifacts displayed at The Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen, Scotland is a flag from Hitler's staff car. (Don't ask how they got it.)

 * In Saudi Arabia, you can try authentic apple-flavored Budweiser. (Non-alcoholic, of course.)

 * UPC Arena in Graz, Austria was renamed in 1997 to honor native son Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the old name was restored in 2005 over the governor's support of the death penalty.

 * For an "authentic" experience in getting around Havana via public transportation, try El Camello, a split-level bus pulled by a semi-truck, and resembling a 2-humped camel.

 * In the celebrated art colony of Santa Fe, New Mexico, you can of course get paintings of the scenery of the southwestern United States, but did you know you can also get original paintings of Daffy Duck and Wile E. Coyote?

 * The Hall of Skulls at Monsopiad Cultural Village outside Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia features 42 skulls of enemies, all killed by the warrior-hero Monsopiad.

 * Among the objects on display at the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, Texas, memorializing the city's favorite son, is a giant-size replica of the rocker's trademark glasses.

February 2008

 * Fans of spicy fermented cabbage from all over Korea flock to the Kimchi Museum in Seoul.

 * The Norwegian city of Bergen is famously rainy, but the locals say there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.

 * On your way from Takaoka to the Vladivostok ferry? Take a look out the window: the name of the Himi train line means Ice-Watching.

 * If you visit Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada and crave a dinner of alligator meat, you can get it at K's Amazon Eatery -- even though the Amazon and its gators are thousands of miles away.

 * A cypress tree outside Kurje Lhakhang monastery in Jakar, Bhutan is claimed to have grown from Guru Rinpoche's walking stick.

 * When you visit Vicksburg (Mississippi) National Military Park, you can see one of the first ironclad gunboats, dating back to US Civil War times.

 * Good things come in threes — and in Japan, the list includes views, castles, gardens, mountains, hot springs and giant Buddha statues.

 * Medieval frescoes in the Church of St. John the Baptist in Bohinj, Slovenia often show figures with large swellings of the neck (goiters), caused by lack of iodine in the local diet.

 * Don't look for nightlife in Saudi Arabia: alcohol, dancing, movies and mingling with the opposite sex are all prohibited.

 * Want to visit the Northern, Western, Eastern and Southern Capitals? Book flights to Beijing, Xian, Tokyo and Nanjing.

 * Chippewa Square in Savannah, Georgia was the site of the bus stop in the movie Forrest Gump, but don't look for the famous bench; it was just a prop.

 * When eating at Houston's restaurant in Kanab, Utah, tip the servers well; they pack pistols, although it's just for show -- allegedly.

 * A bullet train ride on the Hakata-Minami Line in Fukuoka, Japan costs just ¥290 (under US$3). Alas, the end-to-end trip lasts just ten minutes.

 * If you somehow find yourself visiting Clipperton Island and lack things to do (understandably), try running around the island and timing yourself; the record circumnavigation time is one hour and 17 minutes.

 * The interior of the Phnom Sombok temple in Kratie, Cambodia is decorated with torture scenes for the edification of the non-virtuous visitor.

 * If you visit Fort Caroline National Memorial in Jacksonville, Florida, don't expect to see the eponymous fort itself; it's now beneath the waters of the St. John's River.

 * Seoul means Capital in the Korean language, reasonably enough.

 * The Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia was built for Tsar Peter the Great, but the tsar actually preferred to stay in a small house nearby.

 * With a population of 800, Gili Trawangan off Lombok, Indonesia claims to be the world's smallest island to host a full-fledged Irish pub.

 * Lasting just three minutes, the flight between the Japanese islands of Minamidaito and Kitadaito is the shortest Boeing 737 service in the world.

 * Need directions to the May Natural History Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado? Just turn at the 7-foot-long statue of a beetle; you can't miss it.

 * The Grand Hyatt Shanghai, in a skyscraper in Shanghai's Pudong district, houses the world's longest laundry chute.

 * Tired of the usual drinks? Try a black pepper and grilled pineapple martini at hip nightspot Ku dé Ta in Seminyak, Bali.

 * The Carlton Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa is Africa's tallest building.

 * If you travel to Baku, Azerbaijan, make sure to see Yanar Dagh, a mountain riddled with natural gas vents that have been on fire for a thousand years.

 * Tradition calls for visitors to Nobel Laureate William Faulkner's grave in Oxford, Mississippi to leave a pint of whiskey -- although he'd probably prefer Scotch.

 * A characteristic beverage of the Vercors region of France is walnut wine (vin de noix), made from walnut stain (not the nut itself).

 * The Kumbh Mela, an Indian festival held every twelve years, may have drawn as many as 70 million people to Haridwar in 2003.

January 2008

 * Rick's, a popular nightclub complex in Bergen, Norway, was the quarters of the Gestapo, the Nazis' secret police, during World War II.

 * The Old Mill in North Little Rock, Arkansas, was seen in the opening of Gone With The Wind.

 * There is a street in Warsaw called Ulica Kubusia Puchatka -- or "Winnie the Pooh Street".

 * Among the oddities at the Ripley's Believe It or Not! Odditorium in Orlando, Florida is a 3/4-scale model of a 1907 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost automobile -- made of matchsticks.

 * Some of the principal architectural attractions in Kobe, Japan are 19th-century foreign traders' homes, known today as Ijinkan (異人館) -- meaning Barbarian Houses.

 * How's that again? Huangpu Park, at the northern tip of the Bund district of Shanghai, was the home of the legendary "No dogs or Chinese" sign — which in fact never existed.

 * The San Francisco Bay Model in Sausalito, California shows the San Francisco Bay area at 1000/1 scale and occupies 2 acres of land.

 * The Scandic Hotel at Helsinki's airport is located under one of the runways.

 * Cork, Ireland gets its name from the Irish word Corcaigh, which means marsh.

 * Montpelier, capital of the state of Vermont, is the only state capital in the United States of America that doesn't have a McDonalds restaurant.

 * Maibacherl, in the Austrian town of Villach, is a rare example of a seasonal hot spring -- it only flows in springtime.

 * Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus, Ohio was the site of General William Tecumseh Sherman's famous "War Is Hell" speech.

 * If visiting the Italian town of Sperlonga, try the local mozzarella cheese; it's made with water-buffalo milk.

 * Here's an oxymoron: the Santa Barbara (California) Museum of Natural History contains the world's most complete skeleton of a pygmy mammoth. (It's pony-sized.)

 * A small plaza/park in the Brazilian city of Salvador bears the name Largo do Pelourinho -- "Place of the Pillory," which is exactly what it was formerly used for.

 * Among the items on display at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland are the golden track shoes worn by sprinter Carl Lewis.

 * Several of the hiking trails connecting scenic Santa Fe (New Mexico) with the nearby Sangre de Cristo Mountains have trailheads thoughtfully located at a college that hosts a noted search and rescue team.

 * Highways through gorges in the French regional park at Vercors are known as les routes du vertige -- vertigo roads.

 * Rauma, Finland has its own drink, Puksprööt, made of juniper-rowan liqueur and white wine, served with a tar-infused rope.

 * It won't surprise you that Sleepy Hollow has tourable sites related to Washington Irving's eponymous short story, but did you know that you can tour some of them via kayak?

 * South Tyrol is the only region in Italy in which the majority of the population speaks German as their mother tongue.

 * Extinct in the park for 150 years, northern elephant seals began re-colonizing Point Reyes National Seashore in the 1970's, and the population has been growing at the astounding rate of 16% annually.

 * A dish characteristic of Ghent, Belgium is "Gentse waterzooi" -- "boiled water from Ghent." (It does have other ingredients.)

 * Portland, Oregon received its name as the result of a coin toss -- with the other possibility being Boston.

 * The permanent population of the Pitcairn Islands numbers only about 50 people, but they still rate their own Internet top-level domain (.pn).

 * Among the culinary "treats" you can experience on the major Japanese island of Hokkaido are asparagus, corn, or squid-ink ice cream.

 * Scuba divers visiting Paihia, New Zealand can dive the wreck of the Rainbow Warrior, the Greenpeace ship controversially sunk by French agents.

 * Franchise-style fast food is against the law in Calistoga, California.

title: Wikivoyage:Discover/2008


text:
Wikivoyage:Discover/2009

December 2009

 * The Statue of Jesus in Dili was actually built by Muslims as a gift to the local Christians.
 * The name Kumasi literally means "flourishing Kuma tree", attributed to the growth of a kuma tree planted there by King Osei Tutu I.
 * Despite being famed as the Marble City, Kilkenny's black marble is in fact a finely grained carboniferous limestone.
 * Despite being a tropical island, shirtless men may be arrested in Tonga if caught outside of the beaches.
 * Mitsukoshi, Japan's 325-year-old retailer, has only one North American location—and it's inside the Epcot theme park at Walt Disney World.
 * With a length of 800 meters, Hilversum has the largest wildlife crossing of the world.

November 2009

 * Among the attractions at Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan is "Leonardo's Horse," a finished interpretation of the giant sculpture da Vinci intended to be his masterpiece.
 * You're welcome to have as much as you like, but the Emperor of Japan is legally barred from eating Shimonoseki's most famous dish, fugu, the poisonous pufferfish.
 * The only place you can hear the gut wrenching screech of a live Tasmanian Devil outside Australia, is in the Copenhagen Zoo. It was a gift from Australia to the Aussie princess Mary's first-born.
 * Legend has it that the city of Ljubljana was established by Jason and the Argonauts with Jason himself as the city's first citizen.
 * The Hotel Paisano in Marfa, Texas shows the James Dean film Giant in a screening room off its lobby all day, seven days a week.

October 2009

 * At Tokyu Hands in Shinjuku, Tokyo, you can buy — among many, many other things — a dozen types of sand for model railways.
 * For avid runners, the summer festival in Dunedin, New Zealand hosts a race up Baldwin Street, the world's steepest street.
 * Jefferson City, Missouri houses the only museum in the United States devoted specifically to veterinary medicine.
 * Going for sushi in Tsukiji, Tokyo? Detour to nearby Tsukudajima and sample some inago tsukudani, or pickled locusts.

September 2009

 * While it's not considered to be the most beautiful diving location, Dahab's Blue Hole is considered to be the most dangerous scuba diving location on the planet.
 * China's Leaning Tower, Huqiu Tower in Suzhou predates Pisa's Leaning Tower by over 200 years.
 * In the Museo Santuarios Andinos in Arequipa, Peru you'll find a mummy named Juanita, who was offered as a human sacrifice by the Inca.

August 2009

 * The world's largest church is the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire
 * Citizens of Inis Mór placed seaweed in the dirt between cracks in the rock island to revive agriculture, transforming the area from grey rock to green fields.
 * One of the annual "events" in Fredericton, New Brunswick is the Great Pumpkin Sacrifice, held every Halloween.
 * The SkyCycle roller coaster at the Washuzan Highland Park in Kurashiki is 100% pedal-powered — no electricity is used.
 * Time to kill at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport? Check out the free art museum in the transit area.
 * Atlanta's Georgia Aquarium now offers intrepid visitors (with some money to burn) a chance to swim with whale sharks.

July 2009

 * In Rwanda, it is against the law to use plastic bags, as an abundance of loose plastic bags were causing environmental issues.
 * Sumo wrestlers in Tokyo achieve their massive bulk by chowing down on chanko-nabe, a soup consisting mostly of vegetables and tofu.
 * Hidden in a library in Tashkent, Uzbekistan is the world's oldest Quran, written by Othman only 19 years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad.
 * Ever wanted to take a nice strawberry milk bath? You can do just that at the Hur Shim Chung Spa in Busan, South Korea.
 * Hyde Park, New York is the site of the only National Historic Site in the United States of America specifically commemorating a First Lady (Eleanor Roosevelt).
 * You'll find some strangely phallic-shaped rock formations in Göreme's Love Valley in Turkey.
 * Nagano's Binzuru Festival is celebrated by banging together rice scoops and rubbing down the statue of an Indian saint.
 * The nation of Guadeloupe is nicknamed Butterfly Island, as the two main islands look like butterfly wings.

June 2009

 * The Grand Mosque in Xian was the first mosque ever to be built in China.
 * Despite being located at the source of the Nile River, Jinja, Uganda is more famous as the source of Nile Beer.
 * In the Hawaiian language, the reef triggerfish is called the "triggerfish with a snout like a pig", and the butterflyfish is the "long-snouted fish shaped like a wiliwili leaf".
 * For spiritual travelers, you'll find the Gateway to God in Haridwar, India, while the Gateway to Hell is on Mount Osore in Japan.
 * Jake and Elwood aren't always there, but the Chicago Blues Fest, held annually in June, is the world's largest free blues music festival.
 * Phone books in Iceland are alphabetized by first name rather than surname.
 * Among Milwaukee's artistic attractions is a statue of one of its most famous fictional inhabitants: one Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli.
 * If you visit Antigua Guatemala and develop a craving for Indian food, Dabbawala Tandoori delivers curries, vindaloo, etc. -- via motorbike.

May 2009

 * The two monasteries of Sanahin and Haghpat which make up a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Northern Armenia lie atop opposite sides of a deep canyon.
 * You can cross the Bridge over the River Kwai, of movie fame and located in Kanchanaburi, on foot -- and then ride an elephant (for a price, of course).
 * The fence around Saint Petersburg's Transfiguration Cathedral is made from captured Ottoman cannons from the Russo-Turkish War.
 * Old Sow, off the coast of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, is the largest tidal whirlpool in the world. (Try not to get sucked in if you visit.)
 * Alaska's Dalton Highway includes one 240-mile stretch without services (fuel, food, etc.), the longest such no-services segment of highway in the United States of America.

April 2009

 * Among the attractions of Japan's Dewa Sanzan is a temple dedicated to a priest who starved to death while praying.
 * James A. Little Theater, one of Santa Fe (New Mexico)'s many great venues for concerts, plays, etc., is on the campus of the New Mexico School for the Deaf.
 * Auckland, New Zealand is built on an active volcanic field containing at least 48 separate volcanoes -- none of them currently active, fortunately.
 * Oddly E is one of only two letters (the other being X) that doesn't have a national capital starting with it (unless you count Edinburgh, Scotland).
 * The name of Rambutsiwi Temple in Negara, Bali literally means "Hair Worship".
 * Le Conte Lodge, the only lodging within Great Smoky Mountains National Park, is reachable only via a 5-mile trail, and the lodge's supplies must be brought in via llama or helicopter.

March 2009

 * If you climb Mount Fuji via the Gotembaguchi route, you'll traverse an ash field erupted as recently as 1707.
 * Opened December 2008, the Jumbo Hostel in Stockholm is a Boeing 747-turned-hostel. (Book early to spend the night in the deluxe cockpit room!)
 * Ukraine is generally glad to be out from under the Soviet Union, but its capital Kiev still hosts a Soviet-themed restaurant -- called СССР (USSR), of course.
 * So-called "Hotel Laurier" at Waterloo (Ontario) isn't so much a hotel as the off-season rental of residences at Wilfrid Laurier University.
 * The international airport for Brisbane, Australia is at the community of Eagle Farm, appropriately enough.
 * The altar at 1,700 year old Echmiadzin Cathedral in Central Armenia, the mother Cathedral of Armenians is built over a preserved fire worshiping pit.
 * Holy mackerel! The fish market in Gothenburg, Sweden is called Feskekôrka (Fish Church) because of the shape of its building.
 * If you buy clothes at the Chlorophylle Montréal retail outlet in Montreal's Quartier Latin, you may try them on first in a dressing room made of recycled sheds from northern Quebec.

February 2009

 * Tradition asserts that the Dattatreya Temple, in the Nepalese city of Bhaktapur, was built from the trunk of a single tree.
 * If you're a chessplayer and are visiting Fairbanks, Alaska, look for the Aurora Ice Museum and its chess set made of ice.
 * The trolley-style buses that roam Austin, Texas are known as 'Dillos -- short for Armadillo Express.

January 2009

 * Klang, Malaysia is the original home of Bak kut teh -- or, if you prefer, pork rib tea.

 * The Terrace Hill house in Des Moines is not only home to Iowa's governor, but formerly the home of the state's first millionaire -- although he eventually went bankrupt.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Wikivoyage:Discover/2009


text:
Wikivoyage:Discover/2010

December 2010

 * One of the main atractions of the city of Grootfontein, Namibia is a meteorite called Hoba, the largest meteorite ever found on earth.
 * Tierpark Hagenbeck Zoo, in Hamburg, was the first to use moats (pictured) instead of cages to separate the animals from the public.
 * There are 16 tunnels beneath London's River Thames, mainly for tube lines.
 * The Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta is the largest aquarium in the world.
 * Despite its small size of only 1104 sq km, Hong Kong (pictured) contains 236 islands beyond the peninsula.
 * Uttarakhand's Roopkund or Skeleton Lake gets it's name from the remains of 600 people that died there from a sudden hailstorm.
 * Griffith Park in Los Angeles, used to be an ostrich farm.

November 2010

 * Madeira, Portugal hosts the largest pyrotechnical show in the world (pictured), with fireworks seen in the entire island.
 * Lake Enriquillo, in Southern Dominican Republic is the only saltwater lake in the world to be inhabited by crocodiles.
 * Aït-Benhaddou, a traditional mudbrick city in Morocco, has appeared in more than 10 movies, including Lawrence of Arabia and Gladiator.
 * The Sacred Garbage Pile, Aitan Ola, in Kétou came into existence when locals were asked to place objects atop the sacred site, and they gathered whatever they could find; Namely garbage.
 * The world's tallest cathedral is the Ulm Minster (pictured) in Ulm, standing 161.53m (nearly 530 ft) tall.
 * Chicago's Lincoln Park used to be a cemetery.
 * Although Gilbertese sounds like a made-up language, it's actually the native language of Kiribati, named after Thomas Gilbert, the first European to discover the islands.

October 2010

 * Comal River is Texas' shortest river, running entirely within the limits of the city of New Braunfels.
 * The Church of São Francisco, in Évora, is famous for the Capela dos Ossos (pictured), a chapel whose walls and columns are entirely covered by human bones.
 * The world's deepest metro (subway) is located in Pyongyang.
 * You can find Cristopher Columbus' journal in the Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain.
 * The holy cities of Mecca (pictured) and Medina are completely off-limits to non-Muslims.
 * The city of Lae was where the first-ever cargo plane took off and the last known stop of Amelia Earhart.
 * Ushuaia, Argentina, is considered to be the southernmost city in the world.

September 2010

 * According to legend, the Teufelstritt (Devil's Footstep), in Munich's Frauenkirche (pictured), marks the spot where the devil stood when he thought that the builder had constructed a cathedral with no windows.
 * In spite of their training, the famous Sereer wrestlers in city's like Palmarin and Sokone still rely on talismans and drinking magical potions to give them the strength to win.
 * Tünel in Galata, Istanbul is the second oldest underground railway in the world, after London's Underground, though from one end to the other, it's just 573 meters long.
 * North Sentinel, one of Andaman Islands, is home to a tribe that have so far resisted all outside attempts to contact, including those by the Indian government.
 * The Grandfather's House mentioned in the song "Over the River and through the Woods" is a real house in Medford, Massachussetts.
 * In Swahili, time is organized according to how people live, so 7AM is the first hour of the morning, while 12 in the morning is 6 at night.
 * Tales of death surround the Kalyan Minaret (pictured) of Bukhara as it is said to have been built over the head of a murdered imam and was once used to kill criminals by pushing them off the top.

August 2010

 * The Jurong Falls, at Jurong BirdPark in Western Singapore, is the tallest man-made waterfall in the world, with 30 meters.
 * A golf player boasting about having played a round in two countries has probably played in Tornio, Finland.
 * The closest relative of the tiny rock rabbits that inhabit Cape Town's Table Mountain is actually the massive African elephant.
 * Prambanan, Java is the world's largest Hindu complex (pictured).
 * An alternative to the extreme summer temperatures of Dubai is the indoor ski center where you can ride the slopes even in the middle of the summer.
 * Truth or Consequences, New Mexico was renamed after a 50's television show.
 * Lisbon's Oceanarium is the largest aquarium in Europe.
 * The Hanseatic salt warehouses in Lübeck have functioned as Count Nosferatu's house in both the original movie from 1922 and the remake almost 60 years later.

July 2010

 * Iquitos, Peru is the largest continental city unreachable by road. The only ways in are by plane or river boat.
 * The Vatican is the only country in the world where ATM instructions are in Latin—the "dead" language.
 * The name of Japan's northernmost city Wakkanai sounds like "wakannai" which means "I don't know" You can thus expect to get some ribbing if you answer questions like "Where are you?" with "Wakkanai"!
 * One of the highlights on the Trans-Siberian is the freshly smoked fish sold on the shore of Lake Baikal.
 * Swansea in the United Kingdom is home to the world's first passenger railway, known as the Mumbles Train.
 * The Dragon Boat Festival of Wuhan commemorates the suicide of Qu Yuan in the Miluo River; the dragon boats and drums are used to protect his body from being eaten by fish.
 * If you're tired of one-sided history reports, the Ncome-Blood River Heritage Site in KwaZulu-Natal has two museums about the same event; one from the perspective of Europeans and the other from the Zulus.

June 2010

 * Legend has it, Suyumbike Tower in Kazan is name after a Tatar Princess who committed suicide by jumping off it in order to avoid marriage to Ivan the Terrible.
 * The trial of Emperor Maximilian I, the writing of the Mexican constitution, and the first performance of the national anthem all occurred at the Theater of the Republic in Querétaro.
 * If you believe size matters, check out the Icelandic Phallological Museum in Húsavík where the penises of nearly all Iceland's animals are on display for you to size up and compare.
 * For lovers of Hollywood and horticulture the Celebrity Tree Park in Kununurra offers the opportunity to enjoy both at once as it is a grove of trees planted by famous people.
 * The Basilica in Cartago is said to be built on the grounds where a stone depicting the Virgin Mary mysteriously continued to return after being repeatedly taken away and even locked up.
 * The only remaining  wild white rhino population in the world is located in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

May 2010

 * The beautiful frescoes in Istanbul's Chora Church were lost under plaster for over 500 years before being uncovered.
 * If you can't see it all for real, Astana's Atameken Map is an outdoor museum that recreates the entire nation of Kazakhstan for visitors to walk through and experience.
 * The largest settlement of Romani people, known more widely as gypsies, can be found in the Šuto Orizari on the outskirts of Skopje.
 * Although the Christ Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janeiro is the most famous Christ statue, the highest and largest Christ Statue in the world is the Cristo de la Concordia in Cochabamba.
 * The famous bogolan cloth of the Bambara people of Ségou is dyed using only mud.
 * Five of the dinosaurs on display at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History were used as holotypes, giving us our current knowledge about them, including the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

April 2010

 * Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City is so large the entire Statue of Liberty could fit inside the dome with room to spare.
 * The city of Shibam is known as the Manhattan of the Desert, because of its medieval high-rise buildings made completely of mud.
 * For a true taste of Medieval Europe, head to Tallinn's Olde Hansa where food is prepared and served in the old fashion way, without the use of electricity or any modern appliances.
 * The island of Kiritimati is the first to see each new day, as it is the closest inhabited island to the International Dateline.
 * The Baptistery of St. John in Poitiers is the oldest Christian site in France and one of the oldest in all of Europe.
 * Lake Retba near Dakar is a famous naturally pink lake, gaining its color from the algae that live in it.

March 2010

 * With 13000 temples built in the 12th century and 2200 remaining today, Bagan has more Buddhist structures than anywhere else on the planet.
 * As the first European settlement in the New World, Santo Domingo features some of the oldest European colonial buildings in the Americas.
 * Auerbach's Keller in Leipzig is the oldest continually operating pub in Germany.
 * Legend has it that the legendary Ark of the Covenant is held inside the Church of St. Mary of Zion in Axum, Ethiopia.
 * All of the guides that lead visitors through Trois-Rivières's Old Prison are former inmates.
 * Filled with works by Salvador Dali, the largest work in the Theatre Meseu Gala Salvador Dali in Figueres is actually the museum itself, as he designed and resided in it.
 * The H.E.H The Nizam's Museum in Hyderabad is home to the world's longest wardrobe, owned by Mahbub Ali Pasha who is said to have never worn the same thing twice.

February 2010

 * Scotland's Holy Island is now a meditation ground for Tibetan Buddhists since the previous owner had a vision of the Virgin Mary, instructing her to sell it to the Buddhists.
 * The Star Wars planet of Tatooine was named after the actual city of Tataouine in Tunisia, although most of the actual filming occurred in Matmata.
 * The residents of Gori still travel to Gori Jvari on celebrations of Saint George to make animal sacrifices of sheep.
 * There's a lemon party and you're invited! Lemon-related festivities occur in Menton over several days in February.
 * Known as the wickedest city in the world, the earthquake that destroyed Port Royal in Kingston is said to have been a punishment from God.
 * The Fire and Water hot spring in Guanzihling has been aflame for three decades, thanks to the release of methane gas in the spring.

January 2010

 * The largest open air market on the African continent is the Roque Santeiro in Luanda, Angola.
 * Prior to being a mosque, the Ummayad Mosque in Damascus has been a Greek temple, a Roman temple, and a Christian church.
 * With more than 7,300 kilometers, the tiny European country Denmark has a longer coastline and more beaches than the subcontinent of India.
 * For those who can't make it to Easter Island, one of the Moai Statues can be found in front of the Iglesia y museo de San Francisco in Santiago.
 * By tradition, the sand spit of Amanohashidate, one of Japan's Three Views, is best viewed upside down from between your legs.
 * The cities of Jakarta, Singapore, Sydney, and Toba house the only aquariums in the world to feature the endangered dugong.

title: Wikivoyage:Discover/2010


text:
Wikivoyage:Discover/2011

December 2011

 * During the Christmas season local business owners in Gävle contribute to construct a large straw goat (pictured) in Castle Square. The goat often is victim of a fiery death by pranksters.
 * The former copper mine Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana is sometimes referred to by out-of-staters as the "Butte Hole".
 * Agra has three UNESCO World Heritage sites, the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort in the city and Fatehpur Sikri nearby.
 * In the wine center of Bled castle (pictured), Slovenia one can learn how to cut off the top of the bottle with a blade.
 * Two major sights in Phnom Penh are not for the faint hearted - the infamous S-21 prison and the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, where the Khmer Rouge killed thousands in the 1970's.
 * In Timbuktu the streets are made of sand (except one), and one has often to go down to get into the houses, because of the sand which has leveled the streets higher than the entrances of the houses.
 * Because of the swampy soil, the Royal Palace (pictured) in Amsterdam is built on no less than 13,569 wooden poles.
 * Suriname is the smallest independent country on the South American continent.
 * Cedar Point and Six Flags Magic Mountain are currently tied for the world's largest roller coaster collection at 17.
 * Rotorua is known as the thermal wonderland of New Zealand. Its hot springs and geysers (pictured) have attracted tourists for over a hundred years.

November 2011

 * The local specialty of the Savonia region around Kuopio is kalakukko - dark bread stuffed with fish. A literal translation of the name of the dish would be fish rooster.
 * Cameroon is known as "Africa in miniature" due to the diversity of cultures and nature found in the country.
 * Giz Qalasi or Maiden's tower (pictured) in Baku was built somewhere between the 7th and 12th centuries and may have served as a fire beacon, defensive fortification, astronomical observatory, or Zoroastrian temple.
 * Colorado boasts the highest overall elevation in the United States.
 * Turkish minibuses, dolmuș, have their name from "dolmak" which means "to fill", as they used not to start the journey without a sufficient number of passengers.
 * Auckland's Sky tower (pictured) is the tallest free standing tower in the southern hemisphere.
 * Winnipeg is the coldest city in the world with a population over 600000.
 * Rothenburg ob der Tauber is encircled by a city wall, which gives the old town the shape of a head, with the nose - the Castle Garden - pointing west.
 * One of the lesser known sights of Rovaniemi is the northernmost McDonald's in the world. (pictured)
 * Antarctica is the least visited continent, but still it receives tens of thousands of visitors each season.

October 2011

 * Despite its name, only a part of Kansas City is actually in Kansas.
 * In Pompeii (pictured) you can see small tiles called cateyes in the ground. The moon’s light or candle light reflects off these tiles and gave light, so people could see where they were walking at night.
 * Unlike other big cities, Bangkok's taxis come in thirteen different colours, including blue, orange, baby pink and even bi-coloured ones. Each colour represents a separate taxi company.
 * Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, is designed in the shape of a giant bird or airplane.
 * The Museo del Jamón (pictured) that can be found at many locations in Madrid are not ham museums but restaurants.
 * Guindy Snake Park in Chennai breeds more than 30 species of Indian snakes.
 * Churchill, Manitoba is nicknamed the Polar Bear Capital of the World.
 * Amsterdam (pictured) has more bicycles than inhabitants: 800,000 bikes compared to just 750,000 people.
 * 820 different indigenous languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea.
 * The Chinese city of Weifang is known as the Kite Capital of the World offering a kite factory, kite museum, and of course, hosts an International Kite Flying Festival.
 * Measured from its sea floor base to the peak Mauna Kea (pictured) on Hawaii is the tallest mountain in the world. Neighboring Mauna Loa has a larger volume than any other mountain in the world.
 * The Original Pantry Cafe in Los Angeles boasts that it has never closed or been without a customer since it first opened in 1924.

September 2011

 * According to legend, if you touch your zodiac sign on the Wishing Bridge in Tel Aviv's Jaffa District while facing the sea and make a wish, it will come true.
 * St. Sava (pictured) in Belgrade is the largest Eastern Orthodox church in the world.
 * The currency of Eritrea is called the 'nakfa', named after the city of Nakfa where the Eritreans fought for their independence against Ethiopia.
 * It takes 10 years and 30,000 litres of paint to paint the Harbour Bridge in Sydney. When it's finished, the painters have to start over again at the other end.
 * In Dalat you can choose sites based on your mood. Try the Valley of Love (pictured) when you're feeling good or the Lake of Sorrows when you're feeling down.
 * At the end of the cocaine tour at the Coca Museum in La Paz, each visitor is given a coca leaf.
 * The Bangladesh District of Yerevan was given its name because locals thought it was so far out of town and Bangladesh was used as a generic term for a "faraway place" in Armenia, like Timbuktu is used in the West.
 * Sigulda's bobsleigh track (pictured) is also open in the summer - but you'll ride on wheels instead of sliding on ice.
 * The Gu Mountain temples near Fuzhou contain important Daoist archives written in monk's blood.
 * If it's the pirate's life for you, head to Nassau's Pirate Museum, a recreation of a Caribbean pirate town.

August 2011

 * The first statue erected in honor of the musician Frank Zappa is situated in Vilnius, Lithuania.
 * London, Ontario is named after Britain's capital but you can also find a Picadilly Street, Covent Garden Market and Thames River (pictured) there.
 * The town Batman in eastern Turkey has not got its name from the superhero.
 * The "Extraterrestrial Highway" takes you to Rachel, Nevada, the closest inhabitation to the mysterious Area 51.
 * Salisbury cathedral (pictured) boasts England's highest spire.
 * There are 11 official languages in South Africa; more than any other nation.
 * The world's first passenger railway began in the UK in 1807 and ran for 8km along the coast from Swansea city center to the suburb of Mumbles.
 * Australia is home to six of the top ten deadliest snakes in the world as well as the deadliest spider, however the average tourist is unlikely to encounter any of these.
 * San Luis Obispo hosts the Bubble Gum Alley (pictured), where the walls are covered by old chewing gum.
 * Despite the name, french fries are proudly claimed as a Belgian invention.

July 2011

 * The Arba-Rucun Mosque in Mogadishu is said to have been built by a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammed.
 * Winchester Cathedral (pictured) has the world's largest gothic nave.
 * Maid-Rite Sandwich Shop, along U.S. Route 66, claims to have the first drive-thru in the United States
 * Tim Ho Wan in Kowloon, is said to be the cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant in the world with Dim Sum dishes starting from about 1 USD.
 * According to legend, if you're in Santiago de Compostela's Praza da Quintana (pictured), formerly a cemetery, at midnight you'll be able to see all the persons that were buried there.
 * The temperature difference between winter and summer extremes in the alleged world's coldest city, Yakutsk might be up to 100°C or almost 200°F.
 * L'anse aux Meadows on Newfoundland is the only confirmed Viking settlement in North America and believed to be the landfall site of the Viking explorer Leif Eriksson.
 * The Marangu Route on Mount Kilimanjaro (pictured) is nicknamed the Coca Cola Route, because it is the easiest trail up the mountain and Coke can be purchased along the trail.
 * Manadonese cuisine includes cats, forest rats, fruit bats, and dogs, the last of which is the obligatory centerpiece of any wedding ceremony or Christmas feast.
 * The Capitol at Williamsburg, Virginia was the first capitol ever built in the United States

June 2011

 * Tristan da Cunha is the most remote inhabited island in the world.
 * Peterhof (pictured) is sometimes called the Russian Versailles.
 * Fortaleza can be seen from the sea on board a motorized schooner.
 * St. Thomas' Church, near Manchester, contains the largest wooden pulpit of England and possibly of the world.
 * Kano's indigo dye pits (pictured) have been in continuous use for 500 years, once used to color the garments of royalty.
 * Lisbon's Águas Livres Aqueduct includes the largest stone arch on the planet.
 * Seattle's former Grand Opera House is now a car park.
 * The Big Hole (pictured) in Kimberley, South Africa is the world's largest hand-dug excavation. It was created when thousands of people searched for diamonds at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries.
 * In Addis Ababa, Arat Kilo Avenue has a statue celebrating Ethiopia's victory in WWII over Italy, while Sidest Kilo Avenue is marked by a statue in memory of the 39,000 Ethiopians killed in the fighting.

May 2011

 * The leisure Centre (LC) in Swansea, UK touts the world's first uphill water slide.
 * According to a Dakota Indian legend, the Great Spirit divided Barn Bluff between two rival villages of Minnesota, and the remaining portion was moved to Winona and became the famous Sugar Loaf (pictured).
 * Santral Istanbul, a modern art museum in Istanbul, Turkey, is located in what was the first power station of the Ottoman Empire.
 * Susukino, Sapporo's red-light district, was originally created to keep labourers in Hokkaido.
 * General Sherman (pictured), in Sequoia National Park, California, is the largest tree in the world, by volume.
 * Although slavery was abolished in Ghana back in 1874, the stench of urine and bodily fluids from the slaves still permeate the halls of Elmina Castle.
 * St. Bernard de Clairvaux Church, a Spanish monastery from the 12nd century, diassembled and then rebuilt in North Miami Beach, is the oldest structure in the Western Hemisphere.
 * Dubai's Gold souk (pictured) dazzles people by selling gold in large quantities with little visible security.
 * If you go outside the settlements on Svalbard you are required to carry a rifle at all times to protect yourself from icebears.

April 2011

 * When Louisville, Kentucky suffered a flood in 1937, the Brown Hotel was partially submerged and a worker caught a 2-pound fish in the lobby.
 * Fes' Al-Karaouine University (pictured) is the world's oldest university.
 * One of the Buddha's actual teeth is kept at the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy. His sweet tooth, perhaps?
 * Sean's Bar in Athlone, Ireland, established in 900 AD, claims to be the oldest pub in Europe, and maybe even the oldest in the world.
 * Visitors to JSA/DMZ (pictured) need to sign a voucher where they agree to accept responsibility for "injury or death as a direct result of enemy action".
 * Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee is the largest non-casino hotel in the world.
 * The famous tulip garden Keukenhof in Lisse, Netherlands is only open in the spring when the spring flowers are in bloom.
 * The eternal flame in Accra's Independence Square was lit in 1961 by the nation's founder and first president, Kwame Nkrumah.

March 2011

 * Emin Minaret (pictured), in Turpan, is the tallest minaret in China.
 * In the Highlands, Ecuadorians eat cuy, or guinea pig. The entire animal is roasted or fried and often served skewered on a stick.
 * Billund is known as the home of the LEGO toys.
 * Andaman Islands' Barren Island is the only active volcano in South Asia.
 * Nordkapp (pictured) is promoted as Europe's northernmost point, despite the fact that the neighboring peninsula Knivskjellodden on the same island is situated 1,457 m (4780 ft) further north.
 * In Kassala's Khatmiya, it is said that the man buried there is so holy that rain never falls into his mausoleum, despite the fact that it has no dome to cover it.
 * The origins of the Namib Desert Horses near Lüderitz are unknown, but some say they were left here by the German Army in WWI. Others think they came from a shipwreck.
 * Paradesi Synagogue, in Kochi (pictured) is the oldest synagogue in the British Commonwealth of Nations.

February 2011

 * Due to its pristine environment and harmonious society, the tiny Kingdom of Bhutan has been called "The Last Shangrila".
 * The Vasco da Gama Bridge is the longest bridge in Europe, linking Lisbon and Almada.
 * The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C. has a bronze statue in memory of Fala, Franklin D. Roosevelt's scottish terrier.
 * Bien bar in Bergen, Norway is located in an old pharmacy. Wooden drawers with labels for bandages and hemorrhoidal cream line the bar walls.
 * Damascus is credited with being the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world.
 * For fans of folklore, the sites along Okayama's Kibiji District take you from beginning to end of the battle between Prince Kibitsuhiko and the demon Ura, which is said to have inspired Japan's famous Momotaro tale.
 * You need to scuba dive if you want to get into Jule's Undersea Lodge, in Key Largo, Florida.
 * The Ritz Hotel in London was the first hotel in the world to offer a private bathroom for every guest room.

January 2011

 * If money is tight, Gabrovo's House of Humour and Satire offers many solutions, from cutting off your cat's tail to avoid losing heat when letting it out to heating knives so guests won't be able to hog up your butter.
 * Golden Gate Bridge (pictured), in San Francisco, is the most popular suicide place on the planet.
 * For fans of Animal Planet's Meerkat Manor, you can actually see your favorite 'characters' at Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in Botswana.
 * The Casino Caravela, in Panaji, Goa, is the only legal casino in India.
 * Much red, orange and yellow material has been used in Bologna's architecture. Therefore the city is nicknamed Bologna la rossa (Bologna the red) (pictured).
 * Almost everything is preserved in Bob Marley's house (now a museum) in Kingston, even the bullet holes from a murder attempt.
 * Of the countless equestrian statues in Washington D.C., the Joan of Arc Statue in Meridian Hill park is the only female equestrian statue.
 * The Russians celebrate New Year twice: once on January 1st, according to the Gregorian Calendar, and once on January 13th/14th, according to the Julian Calendar.
 * One popular local delicacy in Mongolia is boodog – marmot cooked on hot stones.

title: Wikivoyage:Discover/2011


text:
Wikivoyage:District article template

''This template is meant to support articles written with the huge city article template. General information goes in the main city article, and the more specific dollars-and-addresses stuff goes in the district articles.''

Before you plunge forward creating districts, read recommendations on when (not) to districtify – following them will help the community with maintenance of the articles for city and its districts in the future.

''To quickly insert a complete blank district template, copy the quick version into the edit box on page you are editing. You can also just type in, and the template will be included when you save.''

''Stuff in italics below is editorial comment, with suggestions for what should go in each section, and not part of the eventual article. If you copy the text below, you should plan on ripping out everything in italics when you start your district article.]''

''The first section of the district article does not have a heading. This is a where you give a quick descriptive overview of the district and define its borders. Be sure to include some context so readers know where and what they are reading about. Links to the huge city the district is in can be useful here, too. For the boundaries of the district, provide either street boundaries or commonly understood neighborhood boundaries.''

''Also include any background or historical info particular to the district (e.g., it's the traditional Italian neighborhood, it's a business district mostly shut down at night, it's a slum, whatever). Try not to duplicate too much information that already exists in the huge city page. You don't need to mention the airport location, for example.''

Get in
''Arrival details. If the district is physically separated from the rest of the city, like Anacostia, give info on how to get to the district. If there are particular driving directions, give those. If there are particular subway trains, buses, or tramcars to take to the district, list them here, as well as good stops to get off at.''

See
List attractions that people come to this district for, such as museums, palaces, churches, temples, historical buildings, squares, parks, monuments, statues, streets, zoos, etc.

 * Name of Attraction, Address (extra directions if necessary), phone number (email, fax, other contact if possible), . Days and times open. One to five sentences about why this attraction is worth seeing, things to pay special attention to, warnings, notes, historical or other background information. $entryprice (extra price info).

Do
''This is for things that travellers will do themselves. More active participation is needed for Do things than for See things. For example, going to see a river goes under See; kayak trips down the river go under Do.''

 * Name of Activity, Address (extra directions if necessary), phone number (email, fax, other contact if possible), . Days and times open. One to five sentences about why this activity is worth doing, things to pay special attention to, warnings, notes, historical or other background information. $entryprice (extra price info).

Buy
''The travellers' dirty secret: we like souvenirs. What would be good to buy in this district? Local crafts? How about general shopping -- clothes, travel equipment, other? If there's nothing in particular, leave this section out.''

Eat
''For restaurant listings and other food-related stuff. Mention any local specialties or oddities. Specific restaurant listings should be in the format below. Also, give a general idea of good areas or streets of the district to try for finding a restaurant on one's own. Some travellers like (or have) to make their own food – include local food-shopping options if possible. If there are a lot of restaurants – more than 7±2, say – break this section up into different subsections based on price ("Budget", "Mid-range", "Splurge"). If not, just list the restaurants.''

 * Name of Restaurant, Address (extra directions if necessary), phone number (email, fax, other contact if possible), . Days and times open. One to three sentences about the food, service, atmosphere, view, specialties, music, what have you. $lowprice-$highprice (extra price info).

Drink
''For bars, clubs, and other nightlife. Yes, many people go out to clubs and don't drink; the name of the section is still Drink. Mention any local specialties or oddities, and give a general idea of good areas or streets in the district to try. Good things to mention: dress code, entrance fees, safety concerns, solo-woman friendly or pick-up bar, good/bad nights).''

 * [Name of Bar, Address (extra directions if necessary), phone number (email, fax, other contact if possible). Days and times open. One to three sentences about the drinks, service, atmosphere, view, specialties, music, what have you. $beerprice draft/bottle beers, $wellprice well drinks (extra price or special info).

Sleep
''This is for helping the traveller find a place to lay his/her weary head: hotels, motels, hostels, campgrounds, pensions, etc. Give a general idea of good areas of the district to try to find lodging. Other good info to include is high/low season, the importance of reservation, things to request (quiet room, view, airport pick up, etc.).'''

 * Name of Place, Address (extra directions if necessary), phone number (email, fax, other contact if possible) . Check-in and check-out times. One to three sentences about the service, atmosphere, view, rooms, what have you. $lowprice–$highprice (extra price info).

Connect
''Information on communications – phone, Internet, other. This is where you'd list Internet cafés or computer rental centers for staying in touch by email or on the Web. If there are free or paid wireless Internet hotspots in the district, name them here. Long-distance telephone centers, where travellers can pay to make long-distance telephone calls, would be useful here, too.''

 * Name of Internet Café, Address (extra directions if necessary), phone number (email, fax, other contact if possible), web page. Days and times open. One to three sentences about the computers, connectivity, food or beverages available. $rate per hour (extra price info).

title: Wikivoyage:District article template