The House that Goethe Built

The architecture in Germany proves, at times, to be pretty spectacular.

Some of it is the work of European royalty of the last hundreds of years, and some of it definitely draws from more antique sources.  I'm looking at you, ancient-Greek-looking-university-esque building.

And then there are just massive churches.

There also seems to be a habit of putting things underground.  In the area of our dormitory, one can find garages that begin and end suddenly on the surface of the earth.  Cars go in one after another after another and one begins to wonder how they all fit in a building that looks to be the size of a small house.  Well, it turns out that the area architects put everyone's garage under the apartment complexes.  I saw a guy open his building's garage by sticking his room key into post outside of the sliding door.  A light went on and the door started rising, and he walked inside to get his car.  German engineering.  Wondrous every time.

Oh, and sometimes they turn century-old beer cellars into bomb shelters (above pic), but that's a different story and one that hasn't been in play for a while.  Now there's no beer or bombs, and only tour groups come through to dispel the cobwebs and dust.