Hubby & I will have 5 full days in Munich, arrive early evening on 4/25 (first stop from USA), depart 5/1 (morning train to Vienna). We have not been to Germany before this trip. Would appreciate comments/change suggestions on our proposed activities while in Munich:

1. Day trip to Dachau
2. Day trip to Salzburg
3. Deutsches Museum (for hubby!)
4. Old Town & English Garden
5. April 30 - Century Old Fair & Jumble Sale; more Old Town

I like to take photos & I had hoped to get some of the old-fashioned fairy tale German style architecture - the style with decorative & wooden buildings. Will I find that in Munich, Salzburg, or even (although not German) Vienna? If not, is there a short train ride to such a place that I could squeeze into our Munich schedule? Maybe just spend 1 day in Munich Old Town rather than 2 days?

I also love clocks of all kinds & especially cuckoo clocks. I know about Titisee, but that is too far for this trip. Is there any place with a short train ride from Munich?

Can't take an extra day from Vienna because we arrive via train on May 1 & depart via air to Berlin on May 4; that's only 2 full days. We have May 4 arrival in Berlin until May 12 departure. Now I am questioning our itinerary & thinking I should pay the airline ticket change fee & exclude Vienna, maybe take some days from Berlin, & give more time to Bavaria???? But where - a couple of days in Rothenburg? Or, we can leave the Romantic Road, Neuschwanstein area, Rhine, Rothenburg, Nurnberg, etc. for our next trip?

Thanks, Julie

Munich is reconstructed biedermeier type architecture, of course no wooden buildings the city has burned down several times. Vienna is more interesting in that respect. For old wooden farm houses, you could visit the farmhouse museum in Glentleiten! Highly recommended. For vintage citoyens homes Regensburg and many towns north of Munich are interesting. Some of the upper Bavarian towns south of Munich have old style buildings too, some are, some aren't. Not that interesting from the point of architecture. Wooden houses are rare and rightfully belong to the museum. Visit Glentleiten!!

I would combine Dachau and the museum-half day for each. Then use the the extra day to train to Mittenwald or Rothenburg to see the German decorative buildings.

If you know how to drive, DO rent a car, you won't be able to see any of the more interesting places using only public transport, no matter what other will claim on this board.
No cuckoo clocks in Munich, (except for the ones in the tourist shop downtown). It will take one day driving to the Schwarzwald and back, should you want to buy a clock.

http://www.glentleiten.de/Page10569/...fos/infos.html

You could rent a car, go to Dachau and then continue up the Romantic Road to Nordlingen, Dinkelsburg, and Rothenburg. Do see the concentration camp and all three would be too much, but you could have a quick stop in one and then maybe a few hours in antoher. We made it as far as Dinkelsburg, but not to Rothenburg, but maybe we left late or something...it was in the 80's so I don't remember the details.

>Dinkelsburg
Dinkelsbuehl, also highly recommended!

After you arrive in MUC, spend a couple of days visiting Dachau (half day, by S-Bahn train) and the Deutsche Museum (Half day)as well as Nymphenburg (half day)and the old (i.e. rebuilt) city center.

Then rent a car and drive a 3-day loop: Oberammergau, Mittenwald , Salzburg (via the back way through Reit im Winkel, Berchtesgaden). Return you car In Freilassing (just across the Austrian - German border accessible fromSaklzburg by S-Bahn. This way you avoid the high drop off charges for the cross-border car rental. Take the train Salzburg to Vienna and contoinue with your original plan, flying open jaw : USA - Munich, Vienna - Berlin -USA
I don't know from where in the US you will be departing, but I found decent connections Denver to Berlin on British Airways via London, and from Munich to Denver vis Londopn in May.

Thanks for your responses. I checked out all of your suggestions & several of them are doable by car in 2 hours or more, not train.

How about Oberammergau? It is less than 2 hours by train & we would not have to bother with renting a car? It appears to have the type of architecture I want to photograph.

Thanks, Julie

The oldest building in Munich is halfway between Marienplatz an Isartor and is the location of the Oktoberfest Museum. It is the only building that has survived from the 14th century. The tour lets you climb to the roof truss to see the genuine wooden structure. It's not such a big museum so you can visit in less than one hour. Once you're up there, there's one single staircase down to street level, do take a picture. just to see how steep it is.

Yes, Oberammergau is nice, but remember it's like Disneyworld, while there are so many genuine places you could visit too. With people eager to tell you about the history and past of the place and how those former generations lived. You won't find that there. The pictures may be nice, however. And as a foreigner you may not even notice the difference?

Hi; Landshut [about 45 miles from Munich] might be a good destination for a day trip. Possibly could combine with Dachau. Richard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/landshut

Weißenburg has a nice roman bathouse. It is a larger compound and only parts have been reconstructed. Those roman type restrooms, "far" away from home, just hilarious. I'd recommend visiting that too! And the celtic burial sites you find in almost any forest north of Munich. And the Altmühltal, I'd go there too.

The only thing you have left off is Fussen and Neuschwanstein. If you rent a car you can see the castle then drive over to Oberammergau, Wiese Kirche, and Ettal Monastary. I would agree that half days are good for the Deutsches Museum and Dachau. Rothenburg and Dinkelsbuhl are very close together (about 10-15 miles) and both have a photo opportunity on every corner.

Since you are going to Berlin, have plenty of time and want great photos of old architecture, then you might want to consider visiting Luebeck and Quedlinburg. Quedlinburg is a UNESCO site too. You won't find as many tourists there either.

http://www.luebeck-tourism.de/

http://www3.quedlinburg.de/neu/englisch/

You could also check out Bad Feilenbach II it is about 20 minutes from munich not far from Bad Tolz. Bad Feilenbach II is an old village. I lived there about 20 years ago and they have old houses (Traditional) I hope are still there. We had a creek in our back yard that went into the woods. It was a great area to hike also. HTH's

P.S. Dachau is a definate Must go there.

With regards to your Munich and Bavarian itinerary, this sounds pretty good to me (although I don't know anything aboout the Century Old Fair and Jumble sale - and if it is one of those horrific pseudo-historic fun fairs where people are ripped off with pathetically over-priced food that is to be eaten with hands and useless pottery items that are priced in fantasy currency of "Talers" rather than real money, I'd run a mile). What I'd change is, I'd rather cancel the second half day in Munich Old Town (it's not that big that you would not have covered it before) and instead try to work in an excursion to either Tegernsee or Starnberger See for some nice scenery.

Why take Vienna off your itinerary again?
The original schedule seems pretty good to me. There are old houses and towns everywhere, so as a matter of fact and practicality you will always be limited in your options. Vienna is definately more scenic and there is more to do there than in the tourist hellhole of Rothenburg or in boring Nuremberg for example.

I like the suggestion of Luebeck or even Quedlinburg (although in contrast to surprisingly and seemingly many people around here I am not fond of the Harz region) as both of them will give you an idea of completely different ancient German architecture than what you are going to see in the South, but I have no idea how you'd fit either of those places into your itinerary as none of them is nowhere near Berlin.

I do stick to my belief that your stay in Berlin is at least 1 day too long, though. Many may want to protest saying that Berlin is so vast and exciting and what not and one could spend in excess of 2 weeks there, but honestly which major city isn't? If you want to get an idea of a few regions, I'd take one day out of Berlin and add that to the end of your trip. You could then indeed fit in Luebeck as a daytrip from Hamburg if you are still obsessed with old towns. But on the other hand I also think you are covering quite a bit of ground anyway on this trip and it may be nice to have a more relaxed schedule towards the end of the trip.

In other words: I would not worry too much about all the small towns mentioned here (some of which may be nice enough, others of which must be truly hidden treasures as their significance for sightseeing has so far been rather limited) and stick to what already is a pretty well-thought out itinerary that includes somewhat significant European cities with options for pretty doable daytrips.

>Century Old Fair and Jumble
That refers to the Auer Dult, years ago it was quite interesting, but has become very commercialized, just like you described. Lots of overpriced things nobody needs anyway, but those pipe cleaning detergent and other demonstrations can be fun unless you watched too much of it on TV already. ;-)

However, visiting the Dult won't take you more than 30min.

http://www.auerdult.de/warenangebot/index.html

I have been to the Auer Dult several times. Overpriced? YES! But I bought a few nice antiques anyway. And a couple of times, there was a booth with the lace curtains that I love. I found the prices on those to be a bargain.