My husband and I are about to book a train from Prague to Munich so that we can get a night train to Venice, leaving 9:23pm.
Is there much to do around Munich HBF train station? I'm wondering whether we should get there late afternoon, put our luggage in storage and have dinner and drinks somewhere until our next train. It would be good to break up the train trips because they are both longish.
Any ideas?
You can book a train from Prague to Munich. There are also Bahn IC buses that take about an hour less.
In my opinion, there is not a lot to do in the immediate vicinity of the Hauptbahnhof, but it's a short S-Bahn ride to Marienplatz with shopping and restaurants.
The only thing of interest around the Hauptbahnhof is the city's best Biergarten, the Augustiner. Everything else is in the opposite direction, which as Lee noted, is a short Sbahn ride away. Or just walk, it only takes about 15 minutes to get to Marienplatz.
Have either of you been to Marienplatz? Are there good options for restaurants or pubs/bars?
Serena,
What to do in Munich will depend on how much time you have between trains. You could certainly store your luggage and then walk or take transit to Marienplatz as there are lots of restaurants there. Be sure to leave lots of time as it could take a few minutes to retrieve your bags.
If you have a generous budget, another option would be the IsarBar or Délice restaurants in the Sofitel Munich, which is right next door to the station. You can walk there in about two minutes, and probably take your luggage with you (may have to store it at the desk?). That's a very posh hotel, so the meals and drinks won't be cheap.
Thanks all.
As we haven't yet booked the train which gets us into Munich HBF, we can have as long or little time as we will need. I don't think we would want to travel too far from HBF but it would be good to break up the two trains. I am assuming we could get there 3-4 hours before our train to Venice and that would be enough time to grab dinner and drinks in Marienplatz. Let me know if anyone disagrees with that
Your fine. 3 to 4 hours will be a nice break. The Marienplatz is the center square of the city with the famous Neues Rathaus (New City Hall). There are outdoor cafes on the square, and if you time it right, you can watch the knights fight when the clock tower rings the hour. It doesn't happen every hour, I forget the schedule, but if a big crowd materializes 5 minutes before the hour, its about to begin. Two knights emerge from the tower and joust. One is in the blue-checked livery of Bavaria and the other in the red-with-white-stripe of Austria. The first go around nothing happens. They come out again for a second go, and while I don't want to spoil the suspense, if someone wants to bet on Austria, take the bet.
Serena,
A time of 3-4 hours should allow a quick visit to Marienplatz. I can suggest a nice restaurant in that area if you're interested (it's close to the famous Hofbrauhaus beer hall and you may want to take a quick look at that too, as it's quite a spectacle). Again, be sure to check the hours of operation for the luggage storage, and leave lots of time to retrieve luggage.
I'd suggest walking to Marienplatz, as by the time you go downstairs to the Metro, buy tickets, wait for the trains, etc., you could almost be there. As I recall, the Metro there is on different levels for trains going in each direction, and I found it a bit confusing at first. You might want to print-out a small map so that you can get there as quickly as possible without getting lost.
Oh great, good to know about the beer hall. Sounds like fun!
Can someone tell me how early we would need to be at Munich HBF before the train departs? I can't find that information on the Bahn.de website and the ticket is in german!
Serena,
I'd probably be there about 20 minutes or so before departure.
