Guest post by stagliavia
Map tips: each color represents a different day. Click a marker to learn more about the spot, and click the star in the map header to save the entire map under Your Places in Google Maps.
Day 1: Salzburg
- Munich Marriott Hotel
- Mozart’s Birthplace
- Hohensalzburg
I flew from Philadelphia directly to Munich, Germany on American Airlines. The flight was seamless, took the Sbahn regional train from the airport to the Ubahn in the city of Munich. My husband was traveling on business and we stayed at the Marriot in Munich. When I arrived, my husband and his colleagues had a car so we drove to Salzburg. This trip was approximately 1.5 hours. We saw Mozarts birthplace, several churches of Baroque design, and the Hohensalzburg Fortress. We recommend the incline up to the top of the fortress. You’ll see a beautiful view of the city.
Day 2: Munich
- Marienplatz
- St. Peter’s Church
- Hofbräuhaus München
- Trattoria Da Fausto
We took the Ubahn to the center of Munich on the second day. We visited the Marienplatz and saw the Glockenspeil, a puppet show at the clock tower several times a day. Near the Marienplatz was St. Peters church. Make sure you go up into the clock tower to see a great panoramic view of the city. Beware, there are several hundreds of narrow, steep steps but it is worth it! The original Hofbrauhaus is a must. Get a beer and some pretzels. They do have an English menu so be sure to ask for that if you need it! Also, they have 1/2 liters of beer if you ask as well if 1 liter is too much!
For dinner, we chose an Italian restaurant near the hotel called Trattoria Da Fausto. It was delicious, however communication can be difficult if you don’t speak German. Make a reservation as it is one of the most popular places.
Day 3: Neuschwanstein Castle
We booked a tour before traveling to Neuschwanstein Castle. This is highly recommended as the castle sells out almost a year in advance. Our tour was a bike tour with Mike’s Bikes of Munich. Mike was very nice and there were about 60 people on our bus. The trip was 2 hours but well worth it! We biked around the town of Fussen near the castle and got to swim in an alpine lake. The castle tour was approximately 20 minutes and is led by the state. The state led tour isn’t that exciting as the castle was never fully finished and you only see about 6 rooms. But this is the castle Walt Disney based the Magic kingdom design on. The day with Mike’s bikes made this trip very fun.
Day 4: Dachau
Another tour we booked was to Dachau. I’d also recommend this as the concentration camp is about 20 minutes outside of Munich. Although this was not a “fun” tour, our guide was a history buff and made this tour very informative. Dachau has several original structures within the camp and several memorials on the grounds.
Day 5: Munich
- English Garden
- Restaurant and Beer Garden at the Chinese Tower
- Deutsches Museum
- BMW Welt
- Olympiapark München
The English Garden is a beautiful park within Munich. It is HUGE. The park is great for running, biking, walking, and enjoying some beer at the various beer gardens. Two beer gardens we loved were Seehaus and Chinesischen Turm. Make sure to try a “Raddler” in the summer time (beer and sprite, lemonade). Many of the people working at the beer gardens speak English so ask if you have any questions. They have traditional German food as well as fish, salad, pretzels.
The Deutsches Museum is a science and engineering museum in Munich. Although my husband enjoyed the museum because he is an engineer, most of the exhibits were not translated into English. The exhibits were older and the museum itself is HUGE so it was a little challenging to navigate.
The BMW Welt is basically a showroom for BMW. This is not a factory tour. Although you don’t get to see cars being made, the showroom is free and you can see several different types of cars.
The Olympiapark is where the 1972 Olympics were held. This park was basically a “ghost town”. Nothing has been done to maintain the park itself. Although the design of buildings is unique, the stadium itself was actually a let down. We were hoping to see the track and field area, however they were setting up for a Billy Idol concert so we saw nothing.
We flew home the next day.
Traveled in July 2015
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