One BH97 for the road

Pi says: "Another bloody quiz? Are you down with it? Or are you gonna take to the streets and burn a few cars? Respeck"

Just before I Go
Before I hop in the shower and amble down to Paddington Station in harried fashion, before triple jumping into the train bound for places rock, I thought I would post my final quiz from the great archives of my Time computer. This one is taken from another travel-themed book: 1000 Places To See Before You Die: A Traveler's Life Lust by Patricia Schultz.

So long for now...

1 Deriving its name from the Russian form of his name, what gold-and-white neo-Palladian summer palace in St Petersburg was built by Catherine the Great for her son Paul I and took 25 years to restore after it was used by Hitler's troops as Gestapo HQ before they set fire to it and the gardens in 1944?
2 What Michelangelo work is The Hermitage's only Renaissance sculpture?
3 Which of the legendary Silk Road caravan cities has such architectural delights as the 12th-century Kalan Mosque and Minaret, and the 1,000-year-old Ismael Samani Mausoleum?
4 Once "the pearl of the east", what artistic, spiritual and military centre of southeast Asia was the capital of Thailand from 1350AD until its near total destruction by marauding Burmese in 1767?
5 Which legendary dog led the 20 mushers and a sled team to bring serum to the town of Nome during a diptheria epidemic in 1925, an event that inspired The Iditarod sled-dog race?
6 What was the first planned capital city in the world?
7 Now the site of a ski resort built by Philadelphia millionaire Joe Ryan, what is the highest peak in the Laurentians and derives its name from an Algonquin Indian legend in which the angry god Manitou gave the mountain a good shake whenever humans disturbed it in any way?
8 In which country is the original Copacabana, a small lakeside town which is home to a 400-year-old cathedral that houses the shrine of the Indian Virgin, the Black Madonna and beloved patron of the nation, a famous dark wood statue carved by native artist Tito Yunpanqui in 1592?
9 Found in Argentina, what kind of geographical features are quebradas?
10 Who led the 33-man "Corps of Discovery" and Sacagawea, their Shoshone guide and interpreter, who gave birth to a son named "Pomp" during their travels?
11 What is the largest museum in the Western Hemisphere?
12 Which cave system in New Mexico is renowned for one particular cavern and the aptly named Big Room, which has an area of six football fields and a 225-ft ceiling, as well as Lechuguilla Cave, one of the world's largest caves?
13 In which country is the Margaret Valley wine region?
14 The recipe of the famous fried fish dish cha ca, the only one served at Hanoi's Cha Ca La Vong restaurant, whose name roughly translates as "curried Red River fish", has stayed in which family for generations, although it is suggested that the special secret ingredient is two drops of essence extracted from the perfume gland of the ca cuong beetle?
15 What town, 595km to the northwest of Bangkok on the border with Myanmar, was established as an elephant training camp in the 1830s and is called the City of Mist by native Thais?
16 One of the largest private residences ever built and the last of the royal palaces, what Jodhpur pink sandstone monument to the twilight days of the Maharajas employed 3000 artisans and labourers for 15 years as a famine-relief project organised by a Maharaja for his subjects?
17 By what name is the Wan Li Chang Cheng better known?
18 What famous location has a name meaning "endless plains" in Masai?
19 Located at the foothills of the Simen Mountains, what city became capital of the Ethiopian empire in the 17th century under Emperor Fasil and remained so for 250 years and is the site of five castles and the church known as the Debre Birhan Selassie, which is famed for its 17th century ceiling fresco of 80 cherubic faces?
20 Housed in a glass pavilion in the corner of the garden of Yusupov Palace in St Petersburg, what is the Dvorianskoye Gnezdo or Nobleman's Nest?
21 Which Vermeer artwork moved Marcel Proust to call it the most beautiful painting in the world?
22 In which small museum in The Hague, the mansion of a 17th century Dutch governor-general of Brazil, is Vermeer's celebrated painting Girl with a Pearl Earring housed?
23 Literally meaning "in the air", what seemingly inaccessible pinnacle of rock or "rock forest" 1000 feet above the Peneus Valley in Thessaly saw its earliest religious community established in the 10th century and grew to include 24 monasteries and hermitages by the 6th century, though now four survive as museum pieces while two other function as religious outposts with a handful of monks?
24 The 14th century poet Petrarch thought which German city's twin-towered Dom to be one of the finest cathedrals in the world?
25 Which two museums, one in west Berlin and the other in the east of the city, were reunited in 1998 under one roof again in the custom-built Gemaldegalerie am Kulturforum (the new Picture Gallery) in the Tiergarten district?

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Answers to BH97
1 Pavlovsk 2 Crouching Youth 3 Old Bukhara 4 Ayuthaya 5 Balto 6 Washington DC 7 Mont Tremblant 8 Bolivia 9 Ravines 10 Meriweather Lewis and William Clark 11 Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC 12 Carlsbad Caverns (National Park) 13 Australia 14 Doan 15 Mae Hong Son 16 Umaid Bhawan Palace (built by Maharaja Umaid Singh) 17 The Great Wall of China 18 The Serengeti 19 Gonder 20 It is a restaurant 21 View of Delft 22 Het Mauritshuis 23 The Meteora 24 Cologne 25 Dahlem Museum in the west and Bode Museum in the east