Where layer cakes tower above one’s head and there is never a shortage of icing.

The quintessential Japanese rock garden has existed for more than 500 years.

This 14th-century temple is also known as the "Temple of the Golden Pavilion" for its gorgeous gilded reliquary hall.

This kitschy tavern is also home to rare early editions of "Treasure Island."

A mysterious monument meant to be a guide into "an Age of Reason" was destroyed after an apparent bombing.

Home of Dutchy, an exhumed Confederate statue that was once torn down by an angry mob for looking stupid.

After just one epic test blast, this literal loose cannon proved too explosive for combat.

A white oak with property rights.

The popularity of Sherlock Holmes led to the creation of his fictional address, turning the orderly London street numbers askew.

Catacombs turned marketplace.

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

Hamburg's first legal sex work is relegated to a gated street that still does not allow pedestrian women.

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.

A memorial to the nearly 10,000 American soldiers laid to rest on the beaches of Normandy during WWII.

Budapest's Communist-era statues, banished to the suburbs.

This elaborately decorated, fairytale-like Romanian royal palace is one of the most striking castles in Europe.

The European towns of Brașov and Râșnov each have proud signs reminiscent of the Hollywood sign.

The possible imprisonment of Vlad the Impaler here earned the medieval castle its nickname, "Dracula's Castle."

A small town Romanian cemetery filled with darkly humorous gravestones.

The Natural History Museum that time forgot.

This massive underground salt mine now holds a sci-fi theme park in its depths.

This unusual piece of Renaissance art depicting the bodily horror of crucifixion and skin disease may have been inspired by fungus-induced hallucinations.

A Black Forest cuckoo clock theme park features one timepiece big enough to walk inside.