Places everywhereemily Wants to Go

A varied collection of brains in alcohol.

This strange building looks like a medieval fortress crashed into a 1960s Brutalist office block.

The bones of the Biblical Magi traveled to Constantinople and Milan before landing in their current home inside an elaborate golden reliquary in the Cologne Cathedral.

The largest bell in the world has been swinging high above a Cologne cathedral for almost a century.

This little jewel of post-war religious architecture is hidden inside the Diocesan Museum, which swallowed it when it was built.

A church filled with the bones of hundreds of virgins martyrs—or so they say.

An elegant chandelier hangs over this ancient sewer chamber, now open for concerts and public tours.

Thousands of tourists and residents in Cologne affix "love padlocks" on the Hohenzollernbrücke Bridge to symbolize their affections.

Largest illuminated advertisement sign in the world.

After years of being casually peed on by humans, this tree is peeing back.

This German bone house contains the remains of some 20,000 souls.

The birthplace of an eccentric alchemist and possible inspiration for the fictional reanimator of monsters.

The oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe survived Hitler's Germany.

This historic funicular system combines the old with the new while offering delightful views over the surrounding valley.

It's good luck to be mocked by this monkey.

A preserved college lock-up that recalls a clubhouse approach to discipline.

A small museum dedicated to the history and design of German packaging.

A larger-than-life monument to the inventor of the Bunsen burner.

This Nazi-built amphitheater was constructed on a sacred mountain site used by various German cults.

Sitting in the basement of a castle, the largest wine barrel in the world is bigger than most apartments.

The jaw of one of humankind's earliest ancestors on display at an overlooked geology museum.

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

A unique look into the bowels of a century-old funicular.

This 18th-century folly is one of Europe's rare "garden mosques."