Pins — Bite-Sized Travel Facts

Did you know the Guinness brewery is locked into a 9,000-year lease? In 1759 Arthur Guinness signed it for the St. James's Gate site in Dublin at £45 a year. The brewery long ago outgrew the original plot, but that famously confident lease still has nearly 8,700 years to run.

Did you know the oldest continuously operating university in the world is in Fez, Morocco? Al-Qarawiyyin was founded in 859 AD by Fatima al-Fihri, a woman, and Guinness recognizes it as the oldest existing degree-granting institution. It has been teaching for over 1,100 years.

Did you know "Bangkok" is just the short version? The city's full ceremonial name runs to about 169 letters and holds the Guinness record for the longest place name in the world. Thai schoolchildren learn it as a song to memorize the whole thing.