In this brilliant blue spring in Germany, legend has it that a sad mermaid learned to finally laugh.

A delightful but little-known public observatory and planetarium in Munich.

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

From Nazi chemicals to the CIA, this architectural marvel has played a fascinating role in German history.

Four-story slides send people whizzing through the math department at this Munich university.

An amusement park on the grounds of an unused nuclear power plant, with a swing ride inside the cooling tower.

Built to test magnetically levitated elevators, the tower also boasts Germany's highest visitor platform.

An old slaughterhouse now holds the largest collection of pig artifacts.

Originally envisioned by King Ludwig II to rival Versailles, Herrenchiemsee's "New Palace" remains half-gilded for lack of funds.

A series of haunting wooden totems are hidden in the woods surrounding a German environmental center.

Walk inside a half mile long crevice right outside the town of Garmisch Partenkirchen.

This old wooden funicular railway leads to a cemetery in the forest.

This former Nazi castle was built as a school to train what would have been the future of the Third Reich.

A preserved Nazi labor camp now has a Holocaust museum on site and memorials to the thousands that died while imprisoned at the camp.

The stones of this formerly witch-obsessed castle were used to build a church.

There are two dozen tanks just sitting in an open field in Lower Saxony.

The last bastion of Roman presence north of the Alps looms over a German town.

King Ludwig I's collection of beautiful women.

The world's tallest church tower reveals a spectacular view to anyone up to the task of climbing the daunting staircase.

A collection of artworks exclusively created by the mentally ill that was almost burned by Nazi culture police.

This lurid German fountain plots the sad course of marriage from dating to death.

Enter the cabin of a life-sized Hindenburg replica.

A Nazi concentration camp and Anne Frank's place of death.

This incredible stone temple is a monument to death, victory, and fantasy architecture.