15 Places Where Borders Get a Little Strange

Borders are one of the defining geopolitical concepts of the modern world—separating countries and people, crafted through conflict and cooperation, disputed in every way possible. In some places, borders seem to take a life of their own, because they represent a unique convergence or unusual quirk of topography or simply ignore the people around them. And each one has a story. 

Europe’s largest shrub maze also happens to be a central meeting place for the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. The Labyrint Drielandenpunt was designed by Adrian Fisher, a British landscape artist who utilized 17,000 hornbeam cuttings to surround a gazebo that is in three countries. Visitors to the Hotel Arbez in Les Rousses, Switzerland, have to go to France to have a drink at the hotel bar. That same line runs straight through the bed in the honeymoon suite. From an easy way to cross the Arctic Circle to visit Santa, to a little lost bit of Michigan in Ohio, here are some of our favorite weird borders.