An Inside Look at Europe's Coolest Cities

London is passé. Berlin has missed the boat. A fierce competition has broken out among Europe's leading cities for a new, creative class of urban professionals. SPIEGEL tells you where they are heading. The answers may surprise you.

There are cities that epitomize boredom: with their nondescript architecture, cookie-cutter shopping malls and corporate-franchised culture, they exude a dull vibe that can be found anywhere around the world.

And then, of course, there are the grand cities of the past that conjure up magical images simply by mentioning their names: mythical places like Atlantis swallowed by the sea, Babylon from the Old Testament condemned for its hubris, or Pompeii buried by a volcano.