An enormous Polaroid picture adds an artistic flair to Rotterdam.

A modern reimagining of a medieval city gate.

Built by crowdsourcing, this wooden foot bridge saved a part of Rotterdam that was languishing in wait of city funding.

A dramatic art installation features a BMW flying out of a building in Rotterdam.

A statue of the second-tallest Dutchman in history.

These lights mark the area of Rotterdam that was bombed and burned in 1940.

Four giant movable street lights decorate this modern Rotterdam square.

Rotterdammers' dirty minds gave this santa a dirty nickname and cursed it to a life of wandering.

A nearly 25-foot concrete sculpture of Sylvette, Picasso's muse.

Old ships and machinery fill a historic harbor in the city that's home to Europe's largest port.

These slanted cubic abodes are a creative if odd solution to a zoning pickle.

This one-room museum is dedicated to Norwegian history and jokes.

A naturally occurring tunnel in this Nordic mountain makes it look like it's been shot.

It is said that each of the white stones in the red facade of this medieval house represents the head of a murdered Swedish noble.

It houses the remains of a 17th-century version of the Titanic.

Sweden's "good old days" painstakingly re-created in a model village.

This contentious squat has stood through fire, violence, and government intervention as a hotbed of leftist protest.

Hamburgers are intensely proud of their tunnel beneath the river.

Once the tallest building in the world, this abandoned church is now a monument to the destruction of WWII.

One of the largest legal spray spots in Hamburg.

Böttcherstraße's bells, extolling Nordic virtues and the great conquerors of the world.

A stunning gilt bronze relief denounced by Hitler as "degenerate art"—even though it was dedicated to the Nazi leader.

A spitting ode to a German serial killer.

The small alleys in Lübeck's Old Town are a result of medieval urban sprawl.