This palatial spiral staircase was so unusual the name "snail" was given to the noble family who built it.

This hulking behemoth is actually five interconnected towers built in the 1960s.

Twice a day a speeding train passes only inches from the homes of this residential neighborhood.

A museum glorifying the life of Stalin, located in the city of his birth.

Underground monastery and fortress.

World's largest bell sits on the grounds of the Kremlin in Moscow.

Moscow's most popular cemetery includes the graves of numerous cosmonauts.

Moscow's imposing monument to the Space Age.

Former headquarters of the KGB.

Thirteen sculptures in central Moscow graphically depicting vices of the modern world.

Palace where the nearly un-killable Rasputin was murdered.

The walls of Germany's Parliament still show the scars of the Red Army takeover in World War II.

A traditional U-Bahn station in Berlin gets a string of rather untraditional benches.

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

This abandoned coliseum was intended to be a grand Nazi rallying ground before it was halted at the end of the war.

A quaint Russian village in the middle of a German metropolis.

A restaurant and observation deck built in a unique broadcasting antenna.

Berlin's old airport.

Where once there was a train station bathroom, there is now this German burger joint.

The bunker where Hitler took his own life is hidden under this deliberately ordinary parking lot.

From toys to kettles to scientific instruments, this German museum celebrates the beauty of 20th century design.

A fascinating insight into daily life in the Eastern Bloc.

Daily jousts and dancing barrel makers in Munich's mechanical clock.

This Berlin island is home to a flock of free-roaming peacocks, as well as a historic ivory folly.