Hannover Hauptbahnhof, Hannover

640 trains stop at Hanover's biggest train station every day. Once destroyed by the ravages of World War II, Hauptbahnhof now proudly stands in the center of the city. In front of the building (built in 1880), on a monument, King Ernst August rides on a horse pointing the new arrivals, the way to the inner city. The monarch, sometimes jokingly referred to as "The Stationmaster", looks down from his high horse onto the Bahnhofsstrasse, with its low pedestrian passages, named "Passerelle" by the bureaucratic city planners.