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This is an archive of items that have been displayed on Wikitravel:Discover. The archive is maintained by User:DiscoverBot, which will insert old items right after the tag <!--START-->. Alas, the bot is not smart enough to create new months, so please help it out.

Last updated on 04 Nov 2008 01:00:40

[edit] June 2012

• Macau is best known as Asia's largest destination for gambling (pictured) taking in even more revenue than Las Vegas.

[edit] May 2012

• The town of 1770 in Australia is named in honour of Captain Cook's landing there that year.
• Lesotho has the highest lowest point of any country in the world (1400m) and is the only country to be entirely above 1000m.

• Helsinki's Metro (pictured) is the northernmost subway system in the world.
• The city of Tagaytay is built on the rim of the crater lake of the active Taal volcano.
• In operation since 1786, White's Ferry in Leesburg, Virginia, is the last working ferry on the Potomac River.

• In the Netherlands there are official hitch-hiking spots (pictured) along the highways.
• PERMM in Perm is the first and only contemporary art museum in Russia
• The highest hill on Aruba is called Hooiberg, which translates to "the Haystack".

• Klang is the original home of bak kut teh ("pork rib tea"), the Hokkien-style dish of pork ribs cooked in a strong, dark herbal stock, served with tea on the side (pictured).
• The Hungarian capital Budapest is a famous spa city. The public baths are popular among both locals and travelers.
• Always wanted to take a tree climbing class? At Tree Climbers International in Decatur, GA you can do just that.

• The Kelburn cable car (pictured) is a Wellington icon - the street where the city terminal is located is named Cable Car Lane.

[edit] April 2012

• Brunei is a dry country but many restaurants supply illicit booze under euphemisms like "special tea".
• Due to its cool mountain weather, Baguio is considered the summer capital of the Philippines.

• Parliament Palace (pictured) in Bucharest spans 12 stories, 3100 rooms and covers over 330,000 sq m and is the second largest building in the world after Pentagon.
• Quebec City's Old Town is an UNESCO World Heritage Site and the only city in North America outside Mexico with its original city walls.
• At the animation museum in Chuncheon visitors can learn about the history of Korean animation and enjoy screenings of animated Korean short films.

• The pedestrian arcade Old Arcade (pictured) is so impressive that it was the first building in Cleveland to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
• In Kampala, a "Rolex" is not just a clock brand but also a name of a filled pancake.
• Tarifa is located on the southernmost point of the European continent and known as a Mecca for Windsurfing.

• The literally most remarkable sight in Queenstown, New Zealand is a saw-toothed range of mountains (pictured) on the opposite side of the lake from the town, named "The Remarkables".
• In the Indian cities of Rishikesh and Haridwar non-vegetarian food is illegal.
• The official book depository of the United Kingdom, the British Library in Camden holds a copy of every book ever printed in the UK, and a wide variety of periodicals.

• Indiana's motto is "The Crossroads of America" (pictured).

[edit] March 2012

• Huangshan is a granite massif consisting of 36 separate peaks, rising above 1,800 m. Famous throughout Chinese artistic history, Huangshan represents the typical mountain in Chinese paintings.
• Wurstkuchl in Regensburg is thought to be the oldest fast food restaurant in the world.

• Table mountain (pictured) in Cape Town is the home of a small animal, the rock rabbit (known locally as the 'Dassie') whose closest relative, DNA-wise, is the elephant.
• Gloucester is America's oldest seaport. Established in 1623, the city's roots are tied to the sea.
• Aberdeen has got many nicknames - among others "the Granite City", "the Rainbow city", "Silver City" and "Oil Capital of Europe".

• Perth (pictured) is the most isolated capital city of over 1,000,000 people in the world.
• In the Earthquake Awareness and Preparation Center in Yokosuka visitors can experience a strong earthquake in controlled surroundings, learn how to avoid injury, put out fires, and escape a smoky building.
• A running joke among Moscow's taxi drivers is to take an unwary tourist from one of the three railway stations around the huge "Three stations square" to another.

• Because the Earth is not a perfect sphere but a little bit "thicker" near the Equator, the peak of Chimborazo (pictured) in Ecuador is the point farthest away from the Earth's center.
• The three largest artificial islands in the world are the Palm Islands located just off the coast of Dubai.
• The Palais Royal du Roi Toffa in Porto-Novo, Benin, is a museum in a former royal residence and a gives the visitor a nice look into how African royalty really lived.

• Königsallee, the main shopping street in Düsseldorf, is divided by a canal (pictured) and sometimes referred to as the German Champs-Élysées.

[edit] February 2012

• Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center is the tallest all-hotel skyscraper in the Western hemisphere.
• A sandwich filled with ice cream is a popular afternoon snack in Thailand.

• The touristy way to see Taketomi is from cart pulled by a water buffalo (pictured) (水牛車 suigyūsha), complete with guide telling folk stories (in Japanese) and twanging on a sanshin while at it.
• The Brazilian national flag flown in the Square of the Three Powers in Brasilia is the largest flag regularly hoisted in the world.
• Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam has the busiest Burger King in the world with 1.3 million visitors a year. It has never closed since its opening in 1993.

• The Police Boat 813 (pictured) in Khao Lak was swept 2 kilometers inland in the 2004 tsunami, and it has been left where it was as a memorial and historical landmark.
• Istanbul is situated on two continents - the western part in Europe and the eastern in Asia.
• Founded by Christopher Columbus's brother Bartolome Colombus in 1496, Santo Domingo is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas.

• A popular day trip from La Paz goes to Coroico along the scenic "Death Road" (pictured), regarded as the most dangerous road in the world.
• Invented in Damascus, Syria over 2000 years ago, the only place where the traditional making of Damascene can be found today is far from its origins, in Kyoto, Japan
• At a Howler's Inn in Bozeman two rooms overlook wolf enclosures, so guests can enjoy a wolf serenade by moonlight.

• Fishermen used to have their boats blessed in Marseille's cathedral, Notre Dame de la Garde (pictured), and you can still see many boat models hanging around in the church.

[edit] January 2012

• At 105 hectares Abuko Nature Reserve is one of the smallest (if not the smallest) protected areas in Africa, but it still offers a good introduction to the Gambian wildlife.
• Khan Shatyry in Astana is a shopping and entertainment center hosted in a giant transparent tent big enough to hold 10,000 people.

• La Antigua Guatemala (pictured) was the colonial Spanish capital of Central America. It is a World Heritage Site, and is arguably the most popular tourist destination in Guatemala.
• Luxembourg is the only Grand Duchy in the world.
• It is said that you can "see seven states" from the Lover's Leap in Rock city near Chattanooga.

• Tiananmen Square (pictured) in Beijing is the largest square in the world.
• Belgium is home to more than 800 different kinds of beer.
• Kakadu National Park is the largest national park in Australia and contains one of the highest concentrated areas of aboriginal rock art sites in the world.

• Armenia (pictured) has the shape of a long-haired young woman looking westwards.
• The capital Reykjavik is actually one of the best places in Iceland for whale watching.
• Sorrel, a specialty of Dominica, is nicknamed the Christmas drink because of its red color and because the flowers it is made of bloom only around Christmas.

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