The Beetle recently visited Munich for shell repairing and discovered that it is a really nice, friendly, pretty and interesting city, easy to get around with some surprising touches – beautiful architecture, outdoor markets, fountains and sculptures.
How to get there: the airport at Munich is vast and well served. From London you can take Lufthansa and British Airways. It’s a short hop – around 1 ¾ hours. To get into the city centre, there are two S-Bahns – the slow one, the S1 and the faster S8. Either journey takes less than an hour. Tickets costs 9 euros and can be used on your next journey to complete your destination, e.g. the bus. You can buy tickets on the platform or from the airport information counter. The S-Bahns are excellent, cheap, clean, completely safe and frequent. Both go directly from the airport via many stations around the city to the central train station where you can make your connection with one of the other many S and U-Bahns.
When to go: well, the Octoberfest jumps out as a good time to visit Munich, which takes place over four weekends in September/October. Otherwise, any time, although July is very, very hot! There are good Christmas markets in November and December. There is almost always a large festival taking place in Munich during any given month.
What is there to see and do: lots and lots. You can stay in the city centre and easily spend a weekend prowling around the baroque churches, museums, art galleries, the town hall, theatres, outdoor fresh produce market, the Residenz, botanical gardens, the Olympic stadium and the English Gardens. One of the oddest sights was muscle-bound tanned men surfing on an artificially made wave of the Eisbach, about 5m wide in the English Garden. For major label shopping, all of the posh shops are rather conveniently concentrated on one street, Maximillian Strasse, otherwise, there’s plenty of high street shopping to do around Marienplaz and some wonderful off beat shops in Munich’s back streets.
Is there more to do than just a weekend? If you want! You can take self guided walking tours around the city, or join one of many walking tours, run in many different languages, or alternatively, there are a variety of day trips that you can do, solo or in an organised group, including one to Dachau, one of many Bavarian palaces, or even the Alps.
Food and Drink? Large portions seem to be the norm. If you like pork, you’ll be very happy here. There is a wide range of restaurants from the usual fast food outlets to upmarket French, Italian, Thai and local Bavarian speciality restaurants. The Hofbrauhaus may be a little touristy, but it’s well worth a visit for a beer and some local food if you are strolling around the English Garden.
Prices? Eating out is generally very reasonably priced, but hotels can be a little pricey. Search on the internet first and contact the tourism agency.
Language: don’t worry if you don’t speak German, a few basic words go a long way, but most people you will encounter speak some English, and menus written in English are widely available.