He ran for the California assembly and scored an upset victory, and then successfully led the charge to overhaul that state's chaotically corrupt regulation of the liquor industry, to reform its inefficient, labyrinthine water system and to save San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts.

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The footlocker-size ice cubes are plucked from the water by crane and fitted into the walk-in palace on the shore.

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Once you leave Franklin Street and enter the 18th century former textile factory that contains Aire Ancient Baths, you get an instantly lulling effect from candlelight, soft music and water flowing from a fountain originally part of a 16th century palace in Granada.

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Part Gothic cathedral, part Teutonic fortress, part sultan's palace, its roofline is a riot of spires, beehive water towers and gaudily tiled domes, and its flanks are decorated with heraldic symbols and heroic-scale frescoes of the hospital's benefactors.

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In Hangzhou, gondolas glide through the man-made canals of Venice Water Town, which boasts its own Piazza San Marco and Doge's Palace.

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