Germany

Neuschwanstein Castle is worth the day trip from Munich just to see where Walt Disney got the idea for Cinderella’s Castle — the resemblance isn’t subtle once you’re standing in front of it. Cologne Cathedral is Germany’s most visited landmark, built with nothing but basic tools centuries before cranes existed, and worth the climb to the top.

In Dresden, the Bülow Palais does boutique luxury without the usual pretension that phrase implies. And at A. Lange & Söhne’s manufactory outside the city, we spent an afternoon learning how the watches are actually built — Walter Lange himself described the company’s whole purpose as building “the life’s work of a man who wanted no more and no less.”