Travel quiz: Statue of Liberty’s nose, origins of paella and more

We travel, we craft bucket lists, we read about exotic destinations that will open a window on the world, but do we actually retain anything?

Here’s a chance to find out. Napa Valley-based freelance writer Bob Ecker created the Travel Quiz 2012 for his travel column at Examiner.com. It has 25 brain-busters that will leave you thinking, singing and maybe embarrassed about how few you can answer. The answers will be posted next week (though I’ve already seen them).

How long is the Statue of Liberty‘s nose? Where did paella originate? The quiz would make a great New Year’s Eve party game where teams would have to suss out the answers without being able to look them up. (Hide the smartphones, people.)

Here are two questions I got particularly stuck on:

“3. How many U.S. states were named after actual people? Name those states.” Now it’s easy to guess on this one because he asks you only to name the states, but the answer includes the namesakes, too. And that’s a royal pain.

“23. Longitudinally-wise, meaning north-south -- what is the longest country in the world?” I came up with an answer immediately -- and it was wrong.

And here are two I knew:

“9. At 1,949 feet, what is the deepest lake in the United States?” Westerners should get this one.

“21. The old Route 66 traveled through how many states and which ones? Think of the song…” And yes, the lyrics to the old Bobby Troup song did help.

Give the quiz a shot. Ecker promises to credit the first person to email him with correct answers -- and who didn’t cheat.

(If you can’t wait to find out, check your answers here.)

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