Things to Do in Niagara Falls & Around

The 8,000-employee office of the Secretary of State is responsible for America’s relations with foreign governments, and operates the U.S.’s diplomatic missions abroad. Open since 1947 in the Art Moderne-style Harry S. Truman Building, the State Department, as it is more commonly known, is also concerned with assisting and protecting American citizens and businesses in other countries.

While the State Department is a functioning office and not generally open to the public, 45-minute tours of the 18th-and 19th-century furniture, fine and decorative art in the elegant Diplomatic Reception Rooms are offered on Monday-Friday, 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 2:45 p.m. Reservations for these free tours must be made about 90 days in advance of your visit via phone at or online. 

Designed in 1818 for the War of 1812 naval hero Stephen Decatur, Decatur House holds the honor of being the first and last house on Lafayette Square to be occupied as a private residence. Decatur is best remembered for his skills fighting Barbary pirates; sadly these failed him when he was killed in a duel a year after moving into his new home.

Architecturally, it’s an interesting mash-up of austere Federal and wedding cake Victorian influences. Inside, the house museum displays a permanent collection of Federalist and Victorian furnishings. You’ll also learn about the lives of its most famous tenants - including Martin Van Buren and Henry Clay - and the slaves who waited on them.

In the southeast corner of Lafayette Square, check out the likeness of Marquis de Lafayette, who became a revolutionary war general at age 19. Although Lafayette was branded a traitor in his native France, he was considered a hero in young America. In the northeast corner is a memorial to Tadeusz Kosciusko, an engineer in George Washington’s army. The sculpture is one of the most provocative in town.

The Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna is widely regarded as one of the best in the world and is certainly the oldest and the most beautiful. Established in 1752 by the Habsburg Imperial Family, the zoo has a circular layout that spirals outwards from an elegant Baroque pavilion and a reputation for successful conservation and breeding of some of the world’s most endangered species, including Siberian tigers, rhinos and giant pandas. In 1904, a glass-and-steel hothouse was built in Art Nouveau style to protect the vast collection of rare tropical plants owned by Emperor Franz Joseph I; over a century later this hothouse has been renovated and transformed into a show-home for cacti and other water-retaining succulents from arid regions across the world. Desert animals and birds such as lizards and humming birds roam free and there are several enclosures containing snakes and bizarre desert mole rats, which resemble a cross between a tiny walrus and a hairless rabbit. Equally eccentric is the Welwitschia tree from the Namibian desert, which has long, droopy fronds and grows in an untidy heap along the ground; it can live for up to 1,500 years.

Of the 100 underground cities in Cappadocia, Derinkuyu is the deepest at 280 ft (85m) below the surface.
 
The city has been open to the public since 1965 but only about half of it can be visited. There are around 600 doors down into the city, leading from the courtyards of the above-ground buildings. In the underground city you’ll find the various levels of stables, cellars, storage rooms, kitchens, wineries, churches and more. The upper floors can be reached by narrow, sloping passageways, while from the 3rd and 4th floor down there are staircases. The lowest floor houses a church.
 
It’s unlikely that these underground cities were meant for full-time residency, but more likely made to withstand attacks from marauding tribes over long periods of time. Derinkuyu had everything needed for day to day life including wells and around 15,000 ventilations shafts.
 
Derinkuyu is 24 miles (40 km) or about half an hour’s drive from Göreme, the main tourist town in Cappadocia.

This politically significant monument located in the heart of Bangkok commemorates the nation’s transition to a constitutional monarchy. Some 75 cannonballs surround the base of the statue, which measures exactly 24 meters tall—a number that is particularly significant, since the new constitution was signed on June 24. And while relief work along the bottom or the monument depicts military, citizens and law enforcement responsible for birthing the current state, locals say the Democracy Monument continues to be a gathering place for demonstrations and for calls to action in times of political unrest or during threat of dictatorship. 

The main lure at Dendera is the Temple of Hathor, one of the least ancient of ancient Egypt’s glories, main construction being more or less contemporary with the life of Christ, although it was built on much older foundations.

There are fascinating glimpses of the meeting of great civilizations, with a famous wall relief of Cleopatra VII (the Cleopatra of legend) and her son, fathered by Julius Caesar. Other depictions of Roman emperors make this a Who's Who of the ancient world.

Well-preserved remnants in the Dendera complex also include modestly-sized Roman constructions and an early Coptic Christian basilica.

Amsterdam’s De Negen Straatjes, or ‘Nine Little Streets’, are the nine shopping streets linking the main Prinsengracht and Singel canals. The pedestrian quarter not only makes the perfect destination for window-shopping, but draw your eye above the shop fronts and you’ll find plenty of impressive architecture to marvel over. Many of the buildings here date back to the 17th-century and the area has been the go-to shopping area for locals for almost 400 years.

Ardent shoppers will find plenty to get excited about, with the area’s shops as varied and vibrant as the city itself. The cobbled streets abound with homegrown designer boutiques, vintage clothing shops and independent art galleries, with shop windows showcasing creative displays of artisan furnishings, alternative clothing designs and handcrafted accessories. The unique, quirky and bizarre reign in the small themed shops, with plenty of unusual finds and distinctive keepsakes on offer, but if you’re after typical souvenirs, you’ll be better heading elsewhere. Even the coffee shops here come with an independent flavor, with international chains passed over in favor of Amsterdam’s characteristic brown bars, hip bistros and homely cafés.
With their matchless charm and fierce individuality, these nine little streets are more than just a collection of shops. The vibrant, bustling neighborhood remains one of the most uniquely appealing areas of Amsterdam.