Lonely Planet Munich, Bavaria & the Black Forest , livre ebook

Munich, Bavaria the Black Forest

Contents

Plan Your Trip

Welcome to Munich, Bavaria & the Black Forest
Munich, Bavaria & the Black Forest Map
Munich, Bavaria & the Black Forest’s Top 10
Need to Know
First Time Munich, Bavaria & the Black Forest
What’s New
If You Like...
Month by Month
Itineraries
Oktoberfest
Activities
Travel with Children
Regions at a Glance

On The Road

MUNICH
Sights
Activities
Tours
Festivals & Events
Sleeping
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping
Around Munich
Dachau
Schleissheim
Starnberger Fünf-Seen-Land
A Historical Journey
BAVARIA
Bavarian Alps
Füssen
Oberammergau
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Mittenwald
Oberstdorf
Bad Tölz
Chiemsee
Berchtesgaden
The Romantic Road
Würzburg
Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Dinkelsbühl
Nördlingen
Donauwörth
Augsburg
Landsberg am Lech
Nuremberg & Franconia
Nuremberg
Bamberg
Bayreuth
Coburg
Altmühltal Nature Park
Eichstätt
Regensburg & the Danube
Regensburg
Ingolstadt
Freising
Landshut
Passau
Bavarian Forest
Straubing
Romantic Residences
SALZBURG & AROUND
Sights
Activities
Tours
Festivals & Events
Sleeping
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping
Around Salzburg
Schloss Hellbrunn
Untersberg
Hallein & Bad Dürrnberg
Werfen
STUTTGART & THE BLACK FOREST
Stuttgart
Ludwigsburg
Swabian Alps Region
Tübingen
Burg Hohenzollern
Schwäbisch Hall
Ulm
The Black Forest
Baden-Baden
Karlsruhe
Freudenstadt
Kinzigtal
Freiburg
Schauinsland
St Peter
Breisach
Feldberg
Titisee-Neustadt
Schluchsee
Triberg
Martinskapelle
Villingen-Schwenningen
Rottweil
Unterkirnach
Lake Constance
Konstanz
Meersburg
Friedrichshafen
Ravensburg
Lindau
Dramatic Landscapes

Understand

Munich, Bavaria & the Black Forest Today
History
People & Culture
Food & Drink
Landscapes & Wildlife

Survival Guide

Directory A–Z
Accessible Travel
Accommodation
Climate
Customs Regulations
Electricity
Embassies & Consulates
Health
Insurance
Internet Access
Language Courses
Legal Matters
LGBT+ Travellers
Maps
Money
Opening Hours
Post
Public Holidays
Safe Travel
Telephone
Time
Toilets
Tourist Information
Visas
Transport
Getting There & Away
Entering the Country
Air
Land
Getting Around
Air
Bicycle
Bus
Car & Motorcycle
Hitching
Local Transport
Train
Language
Behind the Scenes
Our Writers
Welcome to Munich, Bavaria & the Black Forest

Hilltop castles and green energy, beer halls and luxury cars, Alps and edgy art – southern Germany blends thigh-slapping tradition with clear-headed modernity like nowhere else on earth.

Alpine Air & Munich Flair
Bavaria is definitely a place for those who prefer their air fresh rather than freshened. Though the Alps only tickle Germany’s underbelly, locals know how to get the most out of their peaks, stringing cable cars up the vertical reality of the Alps; marking out entire atlases of cycling, hiking and cross-country skiing trails; even running a train up the inside of the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain. Yet all this is just a short ride from the urban joie de vivre of Munich, a sassy, sophisticated and self-confident city with a nonchalant, slightly Mediterranean feel.

King of the Castle
Southern Germany is famed for its castles, from medieval fortresses to the 19th-century follies commissioned by Bavaria’s most celebrated king, Ludwig II. Mad about Versailles (and some claim just plain mad) he ‘single-handedly’ launched Bavaria’s tourist industry and even stirred Walt Disney with his story-book Schloss Neuschwanstein. You could spend a month zigzagging between sugary palaces, stuccoed baroque residences, wind-cracked Gothic ruins and vista-rich chateaux. Palace fatigue? Then retreat to a cosy tavern and raise a tankard to this marvellous corner of Europe.

Cuckoo Clocks & Lederhosen
If you’re in search of strapping Alpine types in Lederhosen, buxom wenches juggling platters of pork, tipsy oompah bands and lanes of Hänsel-and-Gretel cottages, you’ll be pleased to hear that Germany’s south keeps all its clichéd promises. Nowhere is this truer than on the Romantic Road, a 350km route from Würzburg to the Alps stringing centuries of quaint walled towns along a ribbon of history and tweeness. And if you think the folksy fuss is just for the tourists you’d be wrong – many Bavarians keep a pair of Lederhosen or a Dirndl in their closets for special occasions.

Southern Comfort
The Germans have a word for it – Gemütlich-keit – that untranslatable blend of cosiness, well-being and a laid-back attitude. Nowhere does this mood permeate deeper than in the prosperous south where it awaits you in a region of fairy-lit beer gardens, Alpine views, medieval towns and rousing hilltop castles. But there’s another facet to Gemütlichkeit: it’s also a marble-smooth autobahn of luxury cars speeding to gourmet restaurants and chic Alpine spas, Munich’s high-brow cultural scene robed in black, and cappuccinos at dawn on intercity expresses. The two southern Germanys coexist side-by-side, an incongruous mix but reassuringly predictable.

Nuremberg | MITCHFOTO/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Why I Love Southern Germany
By Marc Di Duca, Writer
Is it the sap-scented hills and trails in forests Black and Bavarian, the Franconian beer and dark tourism of Nuremberg or the emotions stirred by the tragic Ludwig II story? Or is it a mildly envious admiration for southern Germany’s knack of producing cars that work, its galleries packed with modern art or the awe I feel for the German intellect as I face yet another devilishly complex Deutsche Bahn ticket machine (perhaps not)? I suppose it’s all the above and heaps more that has me returning time and again to this quirky yet level-headed corner of Europe.
For more, see our writers .
Munich, Bavaria & the Black Forest’s Top 10

Munich
Confident and cutting edge, traditional and twee, Bavaria’s capital takes all the state’s quirky variety and condenses it into one of Europe’s most intriguing destinations. The ‘city of art and beer’ wows with its world-beating collections of old masters, Gothic sculpture and pop art; but when the high-brow day ends, Munich retreats to the beer hall to savour a hop-infused culture like no other. Factor in some intense nightlife, world-class museums and easy-going locals and it’s plain to see there’s much more to Munich than just Oktoberfest.

Neues Rathaus and Marienplatz | TIHI_PHOTO/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Oktoberfest
Social barriers evaporate, strangers become friends and everybody sings too loudly, drinks in excess and has way too much fun at the world’s biggest beer bash in Munich. The event lures a global posse of hedonists, but there’s a quieter, folksier side, with less raucous beer tents and time-honoured traditions teleporting visitors back to its early 19th-century beginnings. So squeeze into your Lederhosen or Dirndl and get on down to the Theresienwiese – it’s an experience you won’t forget, if you can remember it at all, that is.

PAVEL L PHOTO AND VIDEO/SHUTTERSTOCK ©


Top Experiences
Beer Halls & Gardens
Munich and Bavaria are synonymous with the beer hall, a time-warped institution of towering tankards, tightly trussed, strong-armed waitresses, and resident oompah bands. The (grand)daddy of all beer halls is central Munich’s Hofbräuhaus , but there are plenty of equally characterful, and perhaps less touristy, spots throughout the south. If you prefer your watering holes alfresco, Munich’s beer gardens have been plonking down wet ones for over 200 years, and this summertime passion certainly has another two centuries’ worth of elbow bending to come.

ROSSHELEN/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Romantic Road
As roads go, western Bavaria’s Romantic Road is something pretty special – a 350km-long ribbon of higgledy-piggledy walled towns and soothing countryside. However, it’s not all medieval quaintness; the route passes blockbuster Schloss Harburg, the Unesco-listed baroque Wieskirche and Ludwig II’s Neuschwanstein. Yes, it’s tourist-clogged, and yes, the renovation can be more Technicolor than Teutonic, but come in the snow, stroll after the tourist buses depart or tackle the route by bike, and the Romantic Road begins to live up to its name.

DMITRY SHISHKOV/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Baden-Baden
Some 2000 years ago the Romans raved about baden (bathing) in the therapeutic waters of Baden-Baden , and the spring-fed town still hasn’t lost its touch. Royalty and celebrities from Queen Victoria to Victoria Beckham have put this classy Black Forest spa town on the global map, but its merits speak for themselves. Nestled snugly at the foot of thickly wooded hills, this is a good-looking, good-living town of pristine belle époque villas and sculpture-strewn gardens, cupola-crowned spas, and ritzy boutiques, cafes and restaurants.

Trinkhalle | MEINZAHN/GETTY IMAGES ©


Top Experiences
Hiking
If you’re a fan of wandern (hiking), boy, are you in for a treat – the hiking in southern Germany is about as good as it gets. Whether you want to ramble among the mythical mountains of Berchtesgaden, splashed with jewel-coloured lakes; crest the country’s highest peak, 2962m Zugspitze or trek from hut to hut in the Alps, there is a trail with your name on it. Edging west brings you to the wonderful solitude, bristling spruce forests and mile after glorious mile of footpaths in the Black Forest.

Berchtesgaden National Park | ROLF G WACKENBERG/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Nuremberg
The beer is as dark as the tourism in buzzing Nuremberg , where some of the region’s most evocative Nazi heritage sites, including the mammoth rally grounds where the faithful came en masse to Heil Hitler, draw those on the Third Reich trail. So with all its Nazi and W