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While this country's towering mountain ranges may get most of the attention, Switzerland's lakes are certainly impressive. One in particular shimmers on a grand scale—Lake Geneva. It's not all Switzerland's water, as France claims about 40 percent of it, with a dividing line running lengthwise roughly down the middle of the lake. We’re gazing out at our avian friend here from Lake Geneva's northern shore at Lutry, Switzerland. The village, like many other settlements on the lake, is very old. It was first mentioned in the historical record in 908, but evidence of Neolithic-era settlements here were discovered in the 19th century. Seems folks have always flocked to this big blue jewel.

It looks much prettier than it sounds: You're seeing an aerial shot of submerged carbonate platforms. Around the Bahamas archipelago there are two of these major limestone plateaus, the Great and Little Bahama Banks. We're above the Great Bank just off Eleuthera Island. Vast sweeps of shifting sand lie atop the shallow shoals, with a few cays dotting the surface of the swirling watercolor world. Some of these cays host just a few homes and a dock or two, while many others are uninhabited. But there's bound to be plenty of boats plying these waters—they're a sailing and diving enthusiast's dream.

All of continental Denmark lies on the Jutland peninsula. The northern European country is also made up of a chain of 443 named islands. And what’s more, it can claim some dominion over faraway Greenland and the Faroe Islands. But Jutland is the rural heart of Denmark, and we are in the center of it here. The mostly flat landscape includes ancient market towns, peaceful dune-swept coastlines, and--as seen here—much fertile farmland. We’d be remiss if we didn’t also mention that a chunk of southern Jutland is part of Germany, home most notably to its second-largest city, Hamburg.

Milan Cathedral took more than 600 years to build, but what this dusky shot of the Piazza del Duomo in Italy's second-biggest city doesn't show is that the construction work never truly ends. The 21st century has been a time of major restoration for both the interior and—with the assistance of copious scaffolding—the exterior and spires of the Duomo, as it's fondly known by Milan residents. Much of the renovation work has been funded by donations, including a program that allowed locals and businesses (and even enamored tourists) to 'adopt' one of the cathedral's 135 spires.

Smaller, transportable versions of this rotating observation ride have been common at fairgrounds for a century or more, but the installation of really big, fixed wheels (sometimes deemed Giant Observation Wheels) didn't start in earnest until the 1990s. The London Eye opened in 2000 and really got the trend rolling, and now it seems every big city is giving this crowd-pleaser a whirl. Melbourne joined the revolution in 2008 with its Star wheel. It carries 21 enclosed cabins, each with a 20-guest capacity, and rises nearly 400 feet above the docklands area of the city.