"The End of the Known World"

It could be a regular beach where locals would come to swim for half-an-hour and, maybe, play some volleyball or football on the sand before spending several hours basking in the sun, then going home feeling relaxed and satisfied. It would have likely been a regular beach - but for the plaque in the cover picture that reads: "Cabo da Roca, Europe's westernmost point". 

It is for that plaque and everything it represents that people come there from all over the world. It's so popular that even taking a picture of it is surprisingly difficult from a logistical standpoint. Tourists are hanging around or waiting in improvised lines to take a selfie next to the plaque, and their unending stream ensures that the view of it is almost always partially blocked.

While waiting, one might enjoy the views from the parapet

and realize that it was due to that haze and the implied vastness beyond it that the spot was perceived as "the end of the known world".

Cabo da Roca belongs to a rare class of what might be called "situational wonders" best defined by the famous phrase "because it's there!". In other words, the place itself can be perfectly ordinary - just another beach next to a village

or another mountain. It's the location that turns "commonplace" into "unique" - and the actual wonder isn't the physical object in question but the human mind that projects its own ambitions, aspirations and pursuits on that object. 

For some reason, human beings are really obsessed with extremes. They never fail to feel duly impressed by the word "most" and its equivalents represented by the "est" suffix of an adjective. The highest peak, the deepest lake, the westernmost point of something really big - they want to conquer it. A metaphorical conquest is as good as a real one - in that respect, taking a bus to Cabo da Roca is as satisfying as climbing Mount Everest. Sometimes, that passion assumes a strange form resulting in all kinds of "achievements" ultimately responsible for the creation of the Guinness Book. Other manifestations of the same passion are responsible for sports competitions and different musical contests, while its most sublime version is at the root of scientific breakthroughs and geographic discoveries that objectively benefit all humanity. However, not everybody is a scientist or an explorer - so, for the rest, the local tourist board opened a souvenir shop where a visitor can buy a signed and stamped certificate verifying that such-and-such has indeed gone all the way to the end of the continent. The unofficial name of that initiative could be the "Bragging Rights for Mere 11 Euros" operation...