Trip to Munich and Castles

You've obviously done some excellent planning and sounds like you're doing most of the things I'd recommend. Definitely make sure you see Schloss Nymphenburg.

I'd also add a trip to Dachau. Very, very moving and easy short (about 25 min) trip on the S-Bahn.

Sounds great! I would definitely go to the Alte Pinakothek and the Glyptothek. I enjoyed both of them much more than the Neue Pinakothek.

We liked our stop at Wieskirke, a delightfully ornate church in a field, just off the Romantic Road north of Fuessen.

Hi,

For Munich I wouldn't bother with Schloss Blutenburg - there really isn't alot to see there. Nymphenburg is recommended though.

I've found Sundays to be bad Deutsches Museum days - it gets very packed especially if it's raining.

Check out this link for Erding opening times in English
http://www.therme-erding.de/de/100686/100888/view/342/thermal_thermalwater_relax_sauna_paradise_galaxy.html

As far going naked is concerned - you don't have to if you don't want to.

Have a great time in a wonderful city.

Stuart
(Came to Munich on a three month contract 20 years ago!!)

P.S. for beer garden visit go for Hirschgarten which combines very well with a visit to Nymphenburg (googlemaps link:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=hirschgarten&sll=48.144194,11.480693&sspn=0.009894,0.01929&ie=UTF8&ll=48.153719,11.504316&spn=0.039567,0.077162&z=14&iwloc=A).

Here you will be visiting the largest beergarden in Munich (seating for 8000) and can enjoy two of the best beers - Augustiner Helles (which is the lager type beer) and King Ludwigs Dunkles which is a dark ale.

Hotels are used to early arrivals. If your hotel is near the station you could call them and ask if you can already check in, even at 8 or 9am.

If either one of you is into trains, streetcars, cars, etc. you should know that the Deutsches Museum has taken the transport-related exhibits from the main site on the Isar island to the Old Fairgrounds (near Oktoberfest grounds).

Ditto on Blutenburg. Not much to see. But in Nymphenburg you can also get a combo ticket for the main "palace" and the small ones in the huge park. Since you are in the vicinity, you could have lunch at Hirschgarten, the biggest beer garden in Munich (and probably worldwide) which is in 15min walking distance from Nymphenburg castle.

Your trip to Linderhof.. if you leave by 8am you do not avoid the rush, but your are IN the rush hour. Go until 7 or after 9. On your way to Linderhof you could stop in Murnau. Or Glentleiten open air museum - but that will take at least 2 hrs. The "other town" you want to visit on that day, besides Oberammergau, could be Garmisch - though it's not a highlight on my personal agenda. Mittenwald is a much nicer, IMO.

As mentioned before, the Wieskirche should be easy to see once you are in the area.

At Englischer Garten it's also fun to watch the surfers. The spot to look for is on Prinzregentenstraße, between Haus der Kunst and the Bavarian National Museum.

You night out at the clubs should be (as probably anywhere on the planet) either a Friday or Saturday night.

seccus.. you beat me in time on Hirschgarten. But it's really a "must". And it got decent beer.. not the ghastly Löwenbräu or worse

Be sure to check what's open on Mondays--in the way of museums, etc. That's closing day in many places.

There is a neat little restaurant around the back side of the Frauenkirche, a block or so west of the Marienplatz called Andecher am Dom. Good food and beer from the Andech's brewery, which is really good - probably our favorite beer that we tried in Munich. Also they have a nice patio area out front so good for hanging out on a nice afternoon.

I also recommend the beer garden at the Hirschgarten - great place.

seccus, if we like it there, can I get one of those three-month contracts?

Seriously, though, the Hirschgarten sounds good, and we will definitely go. The Augustinerkeller sounds good, too, does anyone know?

Thanks for the link to the English hours of Therme Erding. I don't know why I couldn't find it. Maybe the browser was being funny. That's what I thought the translation would be.

We already planed on watching the surfers, and maybe joining in, if they invited us. But probably not.

To be completely clear, if you don't mind, we would be leaving our hotel which is a block from the main train station at 8am and going out of the city. Would we still hit rush hour? I know leaving from the city center in some US cities avoids the morning rush hour.

Surfers in Germany? I'm confused. If you have the chance to Paraglide...do it...we did in Austria almost 3 weeks ago and it was awesome!

Be sure to stroll thru some of the large department stores like Kaufhof while in Munich and purchase some Ritter or Milka chocolate for snacking!

I doubt that anyone will invite you to surf
It is illegal to surf at that spot because it is extremely dangerous. And the Eisbach (ice creek) does not have that name for nothing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFQKP5z6OcA

If you have a good city map, you can avoid the busiest streets for the morning rush. Try to avoid the Mittlerer Ring (middle ring road, also labelled as federal highway B2R) by all means. Ask your hotel concierge for the best way "out", since the area south of the central station is mostly one-way streets for a few blocks. Once you made it to Southbound A95 freeway, you will be safe.

But it's cool to watch for some time.

Oops.. sorry.. last sentence should have been after 1st paragraph.

Be sure & eat some marzipan from a dept. or grocery store, too. Recently priced it at a specialty candy shop in the U.S. and the prices were atrocious! May try making it from a recipe web site.

The following is an excerpt from my trip report that included Ehrengerg.

Arriving at Ehrenberg in the mid-afternoon, we went through the gate to the fort area, had a quick lunch at the Gasthof and headed off to see the ruins. It is about a half hour walk through the woods, mostly uphill, to the lower castle site. After a long ride, the walk felt good. As you can see in the pics, the scenery there is beautiful and the ruins are, well, ruins. After exploring the lower site we debated whether to climb to the upper castle site since it looked to be quite a climb. We decided to do it since we had come all that way. The climb to the upper site was long and rugged on an unimproved path. In some places we had to grab onto branches and even roots to pull ourselves along.

We finally reached the upper site and were rewarded with a spectacular view of the valley below. The castle ruins were also most interesting. My senior citizen bones found this to be a rewarding experience well worth the climb and I recommend it if you are physically able. The descent was, well, interesting.

If you would like to see pictures of Ehrenberg, you can go to www.flickr.com/photos/basingstoke2/collections
The Ehrenberg pics are in the collection Germany with Seth.
There is one of the lower ruins taken from the upper ruins that will give you an idea of the climb.

Also, the Pension Schwansee has a nice patio restaurant serving nicely done typical Bavarian dishes at very good prices. It is on the road leading to Neuschwanstein about a mile before the castle.

I was in Munich last year for work which is near the Rosenzplatz. Here are some of the restaurants we enjoyed. Also the website is very good.
Munich Restaurants
Bella Italia A finance lunch place, pizzas
Gast In the Symphony complex, make to order pastas, pizzas and salads
Piu Italian around the corner from the office
Café Haidien A finance lunch place, German food
Molly Malone Irish pub at end of block that the office is on
Gausthof Isator German brauhaus that finance took us to for dinner
L'Incontro-casual Italian restaurant, good fish
Casa della Pizza-Italian downtown, good fish
Rue des Halles French near the office
Prinz Myshkin Vegetarian, downtown

This is a great resource!
http://www.toytowngermany.com/munich/restaurants_in_munich.html

Hey Methuseus,

Send me your CV and we'll see what we can do about the contract

Augustiner Keller is fine. Foods OK - beers great - service is the luck of the draw!!

I also agree with Cowboy1968 re rush hour. You really need to be outside the Mittlerer ring before 07:00am or wait until around 9:00am.

a friend of mine has a saying:

Happiness is successfully second guessing the traffic dynamics at Luise-Kieselbach-Platz at 7 o'clock in the morning!!!

Re. Dachau - it is well worth a trip but be prepared to be very depressed!

Does Neuschwanstein make sense as a day trip from Munich, via train, in early February?

Train trip is said to be about 2.5 hours and sun sets at 5 PM that time of the year, IIRC.

Shorter hours in the winter?

ARe these castles lit up at night, worth seeing and photographing?

One late tip. It isn't surfing but if you guys like rollerblading and it's sunny on Monday evening (3rd) you can take part in the Munich blade night.

Once a week they block off the roads for anywhere between 5 & 15000 people to skate. Routes vary between 12 & 24 km long and the whole thing kicks off at 21:00. Mondays is the South route and is 17km. They start and finish near Theresienwiese where you will also see preparations for the Oktoberfest well under way.

You don't need to worry about equipment as K2, Powerslide and Rollerblade lend out skates and the organisers everything else if you get there early enough before it's all gone. It doesn't cost anything to use but you will need to take your passports (or other picture ID) with you to leave as security.

Just an idea for something a little different. If you see a guy wearing a white shirt with Stuart & 40 on the back, say hello to me

Stuart
aka seccus

I thought the surfers were nuts - and I come from a surfing town with plenty of nutcases (both surfers and otherwise ) The sides of the Eis river there are some sort of rock or concrete block designed to look like rock. One false move and bam. We went swimming in the river farther downstream, and while it was cool, we didn't find it too cold - just refreshing.

We will definitely be there Monday night, as long as we are physically able. We will try to find you and say hi.

That bit about sending my CV is very tempting, too...

scrb, the train goes to Fuessen, which is, from what I've read, 7 miles from the castle. There is also a bus. Others can correct me, but I believe that would be fine as a day trip. They do light up the castles at night, I believe every night. We chose to get a car because of the other areas we wanted to visit nearby.