Lübeck, Germany

Lübeck sits on the Trave River at the Baltic Sea, where roughly 217,000 residents live within a city named the "Queen of the Hanseatic League." Its 1143 city charter made it the first Hanseatic headquarters, and the old town has held UNESCO World Heritage status since 1987. The 1477 Holsten Gate, with its two round towers, spans 106 meters by 34 meters as the city's emblem, while the 1247 Saint Mary's Church rises 38 meters with a brick-vaulted nave that modeled Baltic Gothic architecture. Thomas Mann and Willy Brandt were born here, and Niederegger has produced its marzipan since 1806. What still lies inside Mann's family home, however, remains the deeper story.