weather/clothing
 

We will be in Munich, Garmisch, Fussen and along the Romantic Road in May. What is the weather typically like? Shorts warm???
Also, the first time I traveled to Europe I took a back pack as my day bag. What do others usually take??
Thanks!!!!

I will be in those cities this May as well. Daytime temps should be in the mid 60's. I plan on shorts and sandals during the day and long pants only for the mountains and for dinner at night. My wife plans on wearing capris and tying a light sweater about her when it gets chilly.

We were in this area last May/June. Didn't take shorts, didn't need shorts, didn't see shorts.

Check weather.com the day before you leave. The only typical thing about the weather is that it impossible to predict this early. Snow is rather unlikely though :-)

Seems a trifle chilly for shorts. And you won;t see many on locals - except for the folk dancers in Lederhosen.

www.wunderground.com can give you information on typical weather patterns for that time of year

www.accuweather.com can give you a forecast before you go

www.wunderground.com
No detail for Germany available.

Maybe for historic data try
www.weatheronline.co.uk
But the problem is that stable weather patterns like in the med sea simply dont exist in central Europe. You can be lucky or maybe not...

Didn't see shorts in Germany? I find that very difficult to believe--unless you were only in cities. Germans are very much into wearing shorts (and sandals with socks) while on vacation outside the big cities.

True, you dont ever wear shorts when you re at home in Germany, but the moment you go on holiday its shorts, "hawaii shirts" and sandals...

You can spot any of my fellow germans easyly. :-)

Wunderground has information for Germany. This is the page for Munich, for example:

http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/10866.html

You can get a whole month's history if you put in a specific date last year for a history search (like May 1) and then when it shows up click on "month" for the history. There might be an easier way, I don't know that site very well. I actually don't care for wunderground, although maybe if you use it a lot it is easier. I like the historical information and weather on yahoo.com, it's a lot easier to use for me.
http://weather.yahoo.com/

Just type in "munich" in the box, for example, and then click "records and averages" at the top right and you get monthly average data.

I thought Germans wore short more than anyone, that's kind of funny they don't wear them at home. I have a German friend who lives in the US now, and when some relative came to visit, she wanted to go to the dept. stores to buy a lot of shorts (I didn't understand why she didn't have enough already).

>Wunderground has information for Germany. This is the page for Munich, for example:

Thanks for the link. Very detailed historic information. Wonder why I didnt find it myself. Its a mixture of german and english language, but that is maybe because I am accessing the page from Germany?

Didn't mean to imply that no one wears shorts in Germany. It was simply not warm enough while we were there.

glad you find it interesting, logos. Hard to say why you couldn't find it, I sometimes can't find things that seem obvious later, but maybe there is some difference from Germany. When I view the Munich page, it is all in English, for example.

I just typed "munich" into the city box for searching, and then had to pick Munich, Germany out of the lists of all Munichs in the world.

I get things like:
this page to your Favoriten
Wind: 7 miles/h / 11 km/h from the Nordost
Tropisches Wetter: South Indian Ocean
Mondphase: Waxing Crescent, 10%

It sounds funny, but I get all the Info.

I was in those towns last year at the tail end of May and it was pretty cool. The warmest moment was sitting in a beer garden one day (the Englischer Garten?) in short sleeves and pants. Otherwise we typically wore layers, including cotton sweaters plus jackets. The day we toured the castles in Fussen it was very rainy and cool. Also, in Garmisch it was quite cool and damp walking the Partnach gorge (which I highly recommend), and cold on top of the Zugspitze. I doubt you'll wish you had shorts with you, and I highly recommend layers.

Doriana, We were planning on walking the gorge in Garmisch next month. I have no idea of the layout of the trail. Would you recommend a jogging stroller or kid backpack in which to bring our 2 year old daughter on the hike. Also, is it slippery or dangerous? Thanks, Whitey
PS. what would you recommend we bring our daughter in for the ride up the Zugspize?

Whitey -- That's a tough call. I think the trail would be difficult to navigate with a stroller, particularly a long jogging stroller. It's not a hard trail to manage, but I do seem to recall having to climb over things here and there and go through small tunnels. Whether a backback is a better option depends in part on how good you are at judging when to duck! As far as whether it's slippery or dangerous, it was very wet when we were there because there had been lots of rain, but I never felt as if it was dangerous. You should know there's a bit of a hike to get to the gorge, unless there's some way to get driven right to it. We parked at the Olympic Stadium and I think it might have taken us a good 15 or 20 minutes to walk there, but my memory is hazy. I recommend you get there early. We got there pretty early, but not obscenely so (8:30? 9?) and had the place virtually to ourselves most of the time; at the tail end, though, a lot of people were coming toward us, which makes it harder to navigate. Also, if it's drizzly, a hat works a lot better than an umbrella.

I googled partnach and came up with this site with a good picture of the trail: http://www.fliegenfischer-forum.de/garmisch.html

As to the Zugspitze, you won't have to hike at all -- you just take a cable car or train up the mountain and then an elevator or escalator (again with the hazy memory) to the observation deck. So I would think the stroller would be fine, though my sister thinks she remembers they didn't want strollers. Sorry I can't help more there. We did the Zugspitze even though the forecast was for clouds. The truth is we couldn't see a thing up there. But we enjoyed the cable car ride and took pictures of each other climbing the big mound of snow they blow into a pile on the observation deck, creating the impression we'd hiked our way up there. But given how expensive the cable car is, it might not be worth it if you won't have a view.

GirlHouse, think layers. You can peel things off and adjust as necessary. It seems too chilly for me as far as shorts go, but I tend to be cold all the time.

I just bring lightweight items that coordinate and can be layered as necessary.

I always bring my back pack.

Doriana, Thanks for the info and the link - Wow, the gorge looks pretty cool! I think we'll go with the backpack for both the gorge and Zugspitze.

Take warm clothings with you, when visiting the Zugspitze. In May the skiing season is still not finished and you have to be prepared for snow (not in the valley, but on the tops of the mountains).