Czech Republic Castles

Like multiple countries throughout Europe, the CZECH REPUBLIC is home to many stoically spectacular castles! Over twenty notable examples include Bezděz, Bouzov, Český Krumlov, Český Šternberk, Děčín, Hluboká nad Vltavou, Jindřichův Hradec, Karlštejn, Kokořín, Konopiště, Kost, Křivoklát, Kunětická Hora (Kunetice Mountain), Ledeč nad Sázavou, Lednice, Loket, Orlík, Pernštejn, Rabí, Raduň, Sovinec, and Trosky. Lovely pictures, an interactive Google map showing castle locations sprinkled throughout the Czech Republic, and many details about twenty of these castles are found in this Road Affair post (↗). There is a particularly picturesque photo of a castle at sunset with over a dozen hot air balloons floating in the sky! The Czech words that translate from castle include hrad and zámek. At least three UNESCO World Heritage Sites feature majestic Czech castles. Including the Lednice and Valtice castles, the Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape (↗) was inscribed to the Heritage List in 1996 and underwent a recent boundary update in 2025. The Kroměříž Gardens and Castle (↗) site was inscribed in 1998 and Litomyšl Castle (↗) was inscribed in 1999.

The Amazing Race Season 38 Finale

Season 38 Episode 12 (Wednesday, December 10th, 2025) “One Million Cookies” Finale Info: “The final three teams race through New York City where they rappel down the Empire State Building, and host Phil Keoghan crowns one team the winners.”

In this twelfth and grand finale episode of The Amazing Race Season 38 (U.S. Edition), we found out whether Izzy and Paige or Adam and Joseph arrived to the 🇫🇷 Paris, FRANCE Pit Stop 🗼 in third place. As mentioned as a spoiler alert at the bottom of the eleventh episode post, Adam and Joseph arrived third and continued in the competition; Izzy and Paige arrived in fourth and therefore could not compete for a million dollars. The three teams competing for moolah — Kyland and Taylor, Jag and Jas, and Adam and Joseph — flew ✈️ westward across the Atlantic Ocean from Paris to 🗽 New York City, USA 🇺🇸 and arrived at the magnificent Empire State Building. In a thrilling task, they went all the way to the top and rappelled down the spire!

Each team was given $550 💵 to spend in this episode, presumably for taxi rides, food, and maybe some souvenirs. Teams met and chatted with the Cookie Monster 🍪 and Oscar the Grouch — two wonderful personalities from one of the most popular PBS shows of all time, Sesame Street! Later at a gigantic fabric store known as Spandex Fabrics Inc., teams found sixteen specific bolts of fabric to match swatch samples. They gave the fabrics to a student waiting outside in front of the Feldman Center (Fashion Institute of Technology).

For the last challenge of Season 38, teams visited Seret Studios which provides an assortment of filming locations 🎥 throughout New York City. Teams completed a giant crossword puzzle recapping places and moments throughout this season. Finally, they unscrambled letters from the puzzle to determine the 🏁 Pit Stop location: Yankees Stadium ⚾. To cheer on the final three teams, most teams from Season 38 were present at the Pit Stop mat including Eric/Tucker, Izzy/Paige, Chelsie/Jack, Matt/Megan, Enzo/Jack, etc. 🥇 Jag and Jas arrived first and won the $1 million! 🏆 This was likely not a surprise to Amazing Race viewers due to their remarkable performance throughout the competition. In basically every episode, Jag and Jas arrived at the Pit Stop in first place or in the top three. Congratulations to them! The second-place team (Kyland and Taylor) 🥈, the third-place team (Adam and Joseph) 🥉, Izzy and Paige 🏅, and pretty much every other team are also to be commended for excelling at Season 38 of the The Amazing Race!

The Amazing Race 38, Episode 11

Season 38 Episode 11 (Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025) Info: “The final four teams race through Moulin Rouge, the Eiffel Tower, and other iconic Paris locations.”

In this penultimate eleventh episode of The Amazing Race Season 38 (U.S. Edition), the four teams flew on the same flight from Milan, ITALY 🇮🇹 to Paris, FRANCE 🇫🇷. They visited the famous Moulin Rouge (“Red Mill”) and performed a fast-paced choreography to the tune of Orphée aux enfers with the Moulin Rouge ladies. Teams then visited the world-renown Notre Dame Cathedral ✝️ which suffered an unfortunate fire in 2019. The twelfth century French Gothic architectural masterpiece dedicated to Virgin Mary was majestically restored in December 2024. The next stop 🛑 on teams’ itinerary was the National Institute for Blind Youth (Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles) — the first school for the blind in France and among all Western countries.

Teams encountered a Roadblock 🚧 challenge known as “Who Thinks They Know Their Type?”. Teams used a Braille typewriter to decode and type out a famous phrase from the Statue of Liberty 🗽 which includes “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”. Most teams typed away for quite a while because they would be so close to getting the paper correct but sometimes had just one spelling mistake — and had to type the whole poem again. The next task of the day sent teams on a scavenger hunt throughout Paris to look for three Statue of Liberty replicas. At each of the three locations, teams received a plastic 3D “puzzle piece” 🧩 of the French tricolor flag; they put the three pieces together to reveal an engraving and name of the Pit Stop. For this challenge, teams went near the Pont de Grenelle bridge 🌉, to the Jardin du Luxembourg garden ⛲ (colloquial name: le Luco), and to the Musée des Arts et Métiers (Museum of Arts and Crafts) 🖼️.

The particularly picturesque Pit Stop of this episode occurred at the Place du Trocadéro which is an ideal vantage point to view the Eiffel Tower 🗼. Teams encountered host Phil Keoghan as always but were also met with silence… a mime was there! Jag and Jas arrived first at the Pit Stop as usual; they won an exciting trip to FIJI 🇫🇯. Kyland and Taylor arrived second, but the show did not reveal whether Adam and Joseph or Izzy and Paige arrived next and who therefore stayed in the competition. However, I will do that now. There is definitely a spoiler alert below! If (at this time) you don’t want to know who made it to the finale episode, please skip the bottom of this post.
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Adam and Joseph arrived to the Pit Stop in third place and therefore made it to the finale episode! Izzy and Paige arrived in fourth and were therefore eliminated from the The Amazing Race. They expressed gratitude for having a wonderful journey to the various places they visited and the memories they made.

The Amazing Race 38, Episode 10

Season 38 Episode 10 (Wednesday, November 26th, 2025) Info: “Racers visit Milan, Italy where one team faces a major setback when they're forced to travel an hour behind the pack; heat exhaustion threatens to end the race for another team.”

In this tenth episode of The Amazing Race Season 38 (U.S. Edition), teams traveled from Athens, GREECE 🇬🇷 to the world-class fashion city of Milan, ITALY 🇮🇹. This majestic city of about 1.4 million residents in northern Italy is home to the world’s oldest shopping mall dating to 1877. The episode info above mentions that a team was “forced to travel an hour behind the pack”; the duo Kyland and Taylor had to book a slightly later flight from Athens to Milan due to previous teams reaching the first plane’s maximum capacity. This episode did not have a Detour task like most previous episodes in Season 38.

A Roadblock was the first task of the day; teams recreated a floral designer dress to meet a fashionista’s approval. Multiple team members struggled with this detail-oriented task since they had to have the correct number of flowers (five or so varieties) and arrange them in specific spots. The second part of the episode info above took place at this Roadblock; Adam suffered from heat exhaustion and took a well-needed break. When he resumed the task, teams encouraged him by cheering, especially Izzy and Paige. Teams encountered the “Who’s Got Italian Game?” Roadblock in the town of Vigevano — geographically located 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) west-southwest of Milan. Fun Fact: Leonardo da Vinci was involved in planning the town’s layout! First, a team member had to complete a replica of Vigevano’s Bramante Tower. To accomplish the second Roadblock task, the same team member was pushed on a rolling horse by two Italians and had to poke a lance (essentially a pole used for pole jumping) through four rings.

Before arriving at the Pit Stop, teams built a self-supporting bridge with notched logs. This task was inspired by da Vinci’s clever bridge invention. When teams were putting these together, I was reminded of being a kid constructing small buildings with Lincoln Logs! Anyways, Kyland/Taylor and Chelsie/Jack were building their bridges as fast as possible to avoid last place. Chelsie and Jack almost completed the bridge when all of a sudden it collapsed, giving Kyland and Taylor a much-needed advantage. They quickly rebuilt it but were not able to avoid last place. Jag and Jas won $7,500 each for arriving in first place at the Villa Borri-Manzoli Pit Stop in Corbetta — a town located north of Vigevano and west of Milan. Izzy and Paige arrived second (their best finish so far), Adam and Joseph in third, Kyland and Taylor in fourth, and Chelsie and Jack in fifth/last place. Chelsie and Jack completed their Amazing Race journey — which was occasionally chaotic with navigational difficulties but positively filled with memories nonetheless.

Which Countries Have 100% Adult Literacy Rates?

According to UNESCO's Institute for Statistics as well as the World Bank, dozens of countries and territories have adult literacy rates at approximately 100%. Central Asia is a notable region with proper educational instruction — allowing for adults to have high levels of education and reading capabilities. Parts of Europe, North America, and Oceania are also known for high literacy rates.

The original data is incomplete, not showing data for various places with high literacy — rates of which are likely at or near 100% — such as Andorra, Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, Denmark, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Micronesia, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turks and Caicos, Tuvalu, United Kingdom, United States, etc. Places having 100% literacy rate data are listed and include the most recent year of data:

— Armenia, 2020
— Azerbaijan, 2023
— Barbados, 2016
— Belarus, 2019
— Cuba, 2012
— Estonia, 2011
— Georgia, 2022
— Guam, 2000
— Kazakhstan, 2009
— Kyrgyzstan, 2022
— Latvia, 2021
— Lithuania, 2021
— Moldova, 2021
— Poland, 2021
— Russia, 2021
— San Marino, 2022
— Slovenia, 2001
— Tajikistan, 2010
— Ukraine, 2021

— Honorable mentions: China, Japan, and South Korea have 100% youth literacy rates, while adult literacy is very close behind at 97% to 99%.

What is the World's Literacy Rate?

The worldwide literacy rate of adults is approximately 87%, while the youth literacy rate is about 93% (2023 estimates).

A to Z Cities: Cameroon

● ● ● ● ●  GeoFact of the Day . . . Facts for You!  ● ● ● ● ●  Highlighted and labeled on the map below, CAMEROON’s major cities include Bafoussam, Bamenda, Bertoua, Douala, Ebolowa, Edéa, Garoua, Kousséri, Kumba, Loum, Maroua, Meiganga, Mokolo, Ngaoundéré, Nkongsamba, Yagoua, and Yaoundé (national capital). While major cities are labeled on the major cities map, smaller communities with population data are displayed on this map with light orange dots. Some of Cameroon's towns, cities, and villages are alphabetized in an A to Z list below!

A — Akonolinga, Abong Mbang, Akom, Akom II, Akono, Akwaya, Alat Makay, Ambam, Amvon, and Ayos
B — Bafang, Bafia, Bafoussam, Bali, Bamenda, Bamusso, Bangangté, Banyo, Batouri, Bélabo, Bengbis, Bertoua, Bipindi, Bogo, Bokito, Botmakak, and Buéa
C — Campo, Cedea, Cha, Choua, and Cotto
D — Dimako, Dir, Dizangue, Djohong, Djoum, Douala, Doumé, and Dschang
E — Ebolowa, Edéa, Ekundukundu, Elogbatindi, Emini, Eschou, Essé, Evodoula, and Ezézang
F — Fifinda, Figuil, Folmurki, Fontem, Fotokol, Foumban, Foumbot, and Fundong
G — Galim, Garoua, Gongotoua, Gounjel, Guider, and Guidiguis
H — Halio, Ham, Hokam, Horare, and Hwoli
I — Illoani, Ind Ndiop, and Indinding
J — Jakiri and Joundi
K — Kimi, Kokobuma, Koungoulou, Kousséri, and Kumba
L — Letta, Lokomo, Lomié, and Loum
M — Makam, Makouri, Mana, Maroua, Mayo Djarendi, Mbalam, Meiganga, and Mokolo
N — Nanga-Eboko, Ndop, Ngaoundéré, Nkongsamba, and Nkoteng
O — Obala, Okola, Okoa, and Ombésa
P — Pitoa, Penja, and Poli
Q — Quoko
R — Rey Bouba and Rohaya
S — Saa, Sambolabbo, Sangmélima, Somalomo, and Sorombéo
T — Tcholliré, Tibati, Tignère, Tiko, Tonga, and Touboro
U — Ubao, Uben Ikang, Udumjarei, Uibiwa, Uromali, and Uzama
V — Vareye, Vata, Verfao, and Viali
W — Wanden, Waza Lareski, Woutchaba, and Wum
X — there are none (as far as I know)
Y — Yabassi, Yagoua, Yaoundé, Yenga, Yokadouma, and Yoko
Z — Zigué, Zina, Zoadiba, Zoétélé, and Zokadiba

Capital of Finland?

What is the capital of FINLAND? The correct answer is listed further below!
A — Turku
B — Lahti
C — Helsinki
D — Oulu























ANSWER
C . . . . . Helsinki

Capital of Slovakia?

What is the capital of SLOVAKIA? The correct answer is listed further below!
A — Bratislava
B — Zvolen
C — Košice
D — Trnava























ANSWER
A . . . . . Bratislava

Capital of Lebanon?

What is the capital of LEBANON? The correct answer is listed further below!
A — Tyre
B — Beirut
C — Zgharta
D — Byblos























ANSWER
B . . . . . Beirut

Capital of Grenada?

What is the national capital of GRENADA? The correct answer is listed further below!
A — Roseau
B — Saint John's
C — Saint George's
D — Havana























ANSWER
C . . . . . Saint George's

Capital of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines?

What is the national capital of SAINT VINCENT and the GRENADINES? The correct answer is listed further below!
A — Kingstown
B — Byera
C — Biabou
D — Port Elizabeth























ANSWER
A . . . . . Kingstown

Official Birds, Flowers, and Trees of Canada’s Provinces and Territories

CANADA’s ten provinces and three territories each have multiple official symbols established through nomination processes in various years. For examples, the Alberta chose the wild rose in 1930; Ontario adopted the white trillium and eastern white pine in 1937 and 1984, respectively; Saskatchewan selected the western red lily in 1941; and the western red cedar was nominated in 1987 and officially designated in 1988 for British Columbia’s official tree. Cherished species of birds, flowers, and trees are designated as official symbols in the provinces and territories of Canada — only Nunavut lacks an official tree designation as of March 2024. Below is a quick list.

—   Alberta   —

Bird:      Great horned owl
Flower:      Wild rose
Tree:      Lodgepole pine

—   British Columbia   —

Bird:      Stellar’s jay
Flower:      Pacific dogwood
Tree:      Western red cedar

—   Manitoba   —

Bird:      Great grey owl
Flower:      Prairie crocus
Tree:      White spruce

—   New Brunswick   —

Bird:      Black-capped chickadee
Flower:      Purple violet
Tree:      Balsam fir

—   Newfoundland and Labrador   —

Bird:      Atlantic Puffin
Flower:      Pitcher plant
Tree:      Black spruce

—   Northwest Territories   —

Bird:      Gyrfalcon
Flower:      Mountain avens
Tree:      Tamarack

—   Nova Scotia   —

Bird:      Osprey
Flower:      Mayflower
Tree:      Red spruce

—   Nunavut   —

Bird:      Rock ptarmigan
Flower:      Purple saxifrage
Tree:      There is not an official tree specified as of March 2024, although the Tree Canada organization suggests the Arctic willow and balsam poplar are suitable possibilities.

—   Ontario   —

Bird:      Common loon
Flower:      White trillium
Tree:      Eastern white pine

—   Prince Edward Island   —

Bird:      Blue jay
Flower:      Lady’s slipper
Tree:      Red oak

—   Québec   —

Bird:      snowy owl
Flower:      Blue flag iris
Tree:      Yellow birch

—   Saskatchewan   —

Bird:      Sharp-tailed grouse
Flower:      Western red lily
Tree:      White birch

—   Yukon   —

Bird:      Common raven
Flower:      Fireweed
Tree:      Subalpine fir

Capital of Sweden?

What is the capital of SWEDEN? The correct answer is listed further below!
A — Västerås
B — Stockholm
C — Malmö
D — Arjeplog























ANSWER
B . . . . . Stockholm

Capital of Saudi Arabia?

What is the capital of SAUDI ARABIA? The correct answer is listed further below!
A — Jeddah
B — Rawalpindi
C — Riyadh
D — Qazvīn























ANSWER
C . . . . . Riyadh

Capital of New Zealand?

What is the capital of NEW ZEALAND? The correct answer is listed further below!
A — Wellington
B — Dunedin
C — Runanga
D — Herbertville























ANSWER
A . . . . . Wellington

Capital of Tonga?

What is the capital of TONGA? The correct answer is listed further below!
A — Melekeok
B — Nkhotakota
C — Nuku‘alofa
D — Pape‘etē























ANSWER
C . . . . . Nuku‘alofa

Capital of Samoa?

What is the capital of SAMOA? The correct answer is listed further below!
A — Matautu
B — Apia
C — Ti’avea
D — Tuasivi























ANSWER
B . . . . . Apia

Capital of Nauru?

What is the de facto capital of NAURU? The correct answer is listed further below!
A — Marghita
B — Yaren
C — Tilichiki
D — Vaslui























ANSWER
B . . . . . Yaren

Capital of Kiribati?

What is the capital of KIRIBATI? The correct answer is listed further below!
A — Tarawa
B — Rawaki
C — Nikumaroro
D — Banaba























ANSWER
A . . . . . Tarawa (South Tarawa to be exact)