Above, left: A look down the central stairwellls. Above, right: One of the many landscaped atriums tucked away inside Lufthansa HQ.

Generally, you should be afraid when a proud company would like to show you its headquarters. I wasn't expecting much when we trundled over to Lufthansa's (relatively) new headquarters for lunch on Thursday. But the design and architecture was as impressive as they obviously thought it was—giant atriums and glass-curtain walls captured an unbelievable amount of light. Not only did every office in the building open onto a window (as required by German law), but most even had narrow balconies overlooking the tree-filled expanses below. Furniture in the common areas were throwbacks to mid-century mod's greatest hits... and clad in screaming Lufthansa yellow.

Above: The mid-century modern throwback furniture in headquarters' many open spaces is, of course, painted Lufthansa yellow.

Read more of Greg Lindsay's travel blog, IN TRANSIT.