Rick Steves - Rick Steves Snapshot Munich, Bavaria & Salzburg

SNAPSHOT

Munich, Bavaria & Salzburg

This Snapshot guide, excerpted from my guidebook Rick Steves Germany, introduces you to Germanys cutest corner, Bavaria, and its showpiece city, Munich. Salzburg, just across the border in Austria, adds sparkle.

Municha thriving and livable cityentertains visitors with rollicking beer halls, excellent museums, an inviting traffic-free core filled with grand facades, and a relaxing park that tempts visitors to become temporary Mnchners. Bavaria is home to Europes most famous castlesMad King Ludwigs Neuschwanstein and its cousinsand idyllic alpine scenery. Scream down a mountain slope on a luge, ogle the ornate Rococo curlicues of the Wieskirche, glide up a lift to a summit viewpoint, and explore medieval castle ruins on a desolate hilltop. Then dive into the lively, strollable, music-crazy city of Salzburghome to Mozart and The Sound of Music. Just thinking about the attractions in this book makes me want to yodel.

To help you have the best trip possible, Ive included the following topics in this book:

Planning Your Time, with advice on how to make the most of your limited time

Orientation, including tourist information (abbreviated as TI), tips on public transportation, local tour options, and helpful hints

Sights with ratings:

Dont miss

Try hard to see

Worthwhile if you can make it

No ratingWorth knowing about

Sleeping and Eating, with good-value recommendations in every price range

Connections, with tips on trains, buses, and driving

Practicalities, near the end of this book, has information on money, phoning, hotel reservations, transportation, and more, plus German survival phrases.

To travel smartly, read this little book in its entirety before you go. Its my hope that this guide will make your trip more meaningful and rewarding. Traveling like a temporary local, youll get the absolute most out of every mile, minute, and dollar.

Gute Reise!

Rick Steves

Mnchen

Munich, often called Germanys most livable city, is also one of its most historic, artistic, and entertaining. Its big and growing, with a population of 1.5 million. Until 1871, it was the capital of an independent Bavaria. Its imperial palaces, jewels, and grand boulevards constantly remind visitors that Munich has long been a political and cultural powerhouse. Meanwhile, the concentration camp in nearby Dachau reminds us that 80 years ago, it provided a springboard for Nazism.

Orient yourself in Munichs old center, with its colorful pedestrian zones. Immerse yourself in the citys art and historycrown jewels, Baroque theater, Wittelsbach palaces, great paintings, and beautiful parks. Spend your Munich evenings in a frothy beer hall or outdoor Biergarten, prying big pretzels from buxom, no-nonsense beer maids amidst an oompah, bunny-hopping, and belching Bavarian atmosphere.

Munich is worth two days, including a half-day side-trip to Dachau. But if all you have for Munich is one day, follow the self-guided walk laid out in this chapter (visiting museums along the way), tour one of the royal palaces (the Residenz or the Nymphenburg), and drink in the beer-hall culture for your evenings entertainment. With a second day, choose from the following: Tour the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial, rent a bike to enjoy the English Garden, head out to the BMW-Welt and Museum, orif youre into arttour your choice of the citys many fine art museums (especially the Alte Pinakothek). With all these blockbuster sights and activities, the city could easily fill three days. And remember, many visitors spend an entire day side-tripping south to Mad King Ludwigs Castles (covered in the Bavaria and Tirol chapter). Austrias Salzburg (2 hours one-way by direct train) is also within day-tripping distance.

The tourists Munich is circled by a ring road (site of the old town wall) marked by four old gates: Karlstor (near the main train stationthe Hauptbahnhof), Sendlinger Tor, Isartor (near the river), and Odeonsplatz (no surviving gate, near the palace). Marienplatz marks the citys center. A great pedestrian-only zone (Kaufingerstrasse and Neuhauser Strasse) cuts this circle in half, running neatly from the Karlstor and the train station through Marienplatz to the Isartor. Orient yourself along this east-west axis. Ninety percent of the sights and hotels I recommend are within a 20-minute walk of Marienplatz and each other.

Despite its large population, Munich feels small. This big-city elegance is possible because of its determination to be pedestrian- and bike-friendly, and because of a law that no building can be taller than the church spires. Despite ongoing debate about changing this policy, there are still no skyscrapers in downtown Munich.

Munich has two helpful city-run TIs (www.muenchen.de). One is in front of the main train station (with your back to the tracks, walk through the central hall, step outside, and turn right; Mon-Sat 9:00-20:00, Sun 10:00-18:00, hotel reservations tel. 089/2339-6500no info at this number). The other TI is on Munichs main square, Marienplatz, below the glockenspiel (Mon-Fri 9:00-19:00, Sat 9:00-16:00, Sun 10:00-14:00).

At either TI, pick up brochures and buy the city map (0.40, better than the free map in hotel lobbiesespecially for anyone using public transit), and confirm your sightseeing plans. Private Munich Ticket offices inside the TIs sell concert and event tickets. The free, twice-monthly magazine In Mnchen lists all movies and entertainment in town (in German, organized by date). The TI can book you a room (youll pay about 10 percent here, then pay the rest at the hotel), but youll get a better value by contacting my recommended hotels directly. If youre interested in a Gray Line tour of the city or to nearby castles, dont buy your ticket at the TI; instead, you can get discounted tickets for these same tours at EurAide. For advice on transport and sightseeing passes, see Getting Around Munich, later in this section.

The Bavarian Palace Department offers a 14-day ticket (called Mehrtagesticket) that covers admission to Munichs Residenz and Nymphenburg Palace Complex, as well as other castles and palaces in Bavaria (24, 40 family/partner pass, annual pass also available, not sold at TIpurchase at participating sights, www.schloesser.bayern.de). For avid castle-goers, this is a deal: Two people will save 5 with a family/partner pass even if only visiting the two Munich sights.