Questions on a few day trips from Munich

Posted by kapke on 01/12/15 10:12 AM

Returning to Munich this Summer for 4 or 5 nights before moving onto Berchtesgaden, both places we visited last year, we will be travelling by train. I am using Munich as a base for a few trips we did not manage last year.

I would like to travel to Nuremberg for one night and most likely take a Third Reich tour, would it be feasible to stop travel to Rothenburg the next day by train on a Bayern ticket, spend some time there and return to Munich ? Would another town offer similar medieval features/on a more direct route by train ?

A day trip to Innsbruck/Mittenwald/Garmisch-Partenkirchen ? Which would you choose ?whichever one i go to, the purpose would be look around town and to get up high via cable car etc to enjoy the views, i believe the train journey is particularly scenic as well.

Finally (for now) we would like to go to Chiemsee, would we be able to break our journey to Berchtesgaden with a stop here, have a days sightseeing and complete our journey by train on the Bayern ticket ? If so, would there be anywhere we could leave our cases in Chiemsee ? If not we may use DB Bahn courier service, worked well last year.

Thanks in advance you lovely people

Cheers

Paul

Posted by Russ

Paradise

01/12/15 11:57 AM

6640 posts

"would it be feasible to stop travel to Rothenburg the next day by train on a Bayern ticket, spend some time there and return to Munich ?"

Sample weekday itinerary:

Lv. Nuremberg 9:21; ar. Munich 17:35. 3.25 hours in Rothenburg. 5 changes of train total. Or stay a couple of hours longer in Rothenburg and arrive a couple of hours later in Munich. Leave luggage in Rothenburg station lockers.

On weekends you can leave Nuremberg earlier as there's no after-9-am-only restriction on the Bayern Ticket.

You can play with the DB schedules yourself at the DB itinerary page, you know - just enter your data (dates, # of passengers, station names, stopover station, and length of stopover; also click on "only local transport" under "means of transport," as that's how you pull up local and regional trains for use with the Bayern ticket)

DB itin. page

Start station: NUREMBERG
Destination station: Munich (München)
Stopover station: Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Whether the 5 or so hours of train time are worth it is your decision.

"Would another town offer similar medieval features/on a more direct route by train ?"

You could visit Iphofen, a walled town with wineries and art studios and shops. Nuremberg - Iphofen - Munich would mean 3 hrs. 50 minutes train time plus whatever time you spend in Iphofen. You would have only 2 changes of train - one in Iphofen, then one in Nuremberg. Leave your bags at Nuremberg station in a locker before you board for the trip to Iphofen. (The trip from Iphofen to Munich takes you back to Nuremberg, and you'll have a 15-minute layover there to retrieve your bags.)

Iphofen is truly lovely - and compared to Rothenburg, almost tourist- and trinket-free. See photos:
IPHOFEN
Iphofen brochure

Posted by Russ

Paradise

01/12/15 12:10 PM

6640 posts

Prien am Chiemsee, the DB station for Chiemsee, is on the main line you will use out of Munich and on the route to Berchtesgaden. Prien station has lockers.

Prien station is not right at the lake. From Prien you can get a separate train (Chiemseebahn) + boat ticket to get out to Herrenchiemsee Palace (if that's your plan.) The train goes to Stock station where you board the boat.
Photo of Stock Station by lake

Posted by kapke OP

01/12/15 06:04 PM

44 posts

Russ

Thanks for that information, very useful, it means our final day in Munich we will then do the stop off on the way to Berchtesgaden.

We do not mind so much the time on the train, give us a chance to read up on the places we are visiting.

Iphofen looks like a lovely place to visit, stop and have lunch we may well do that trip.

Thanks again

Paul

Posted by Lee

Lakewood, Colorado

01/12/15 06:38 PM

19092 posts

Another alternative to Rothenburg would be Nördlingen. It's on the Romantic Road and similar to Rothenburg, but without the tourism. The wall around Nördlingen is almost completely intact, with a Wehrgang you can walk on, but it lacks a Christmas Shop and a C&P museum. It does have a tall church tower in the center of town that you can climb for a great view. Nördlingen sits inside an ancient meteor crater, the walls of which were used to train the Apollo astronauts. There is a museum in town dedicated to that crater.

From Nürnberg, it will take you just under two hours to get to Nördlingen by train, with changes in Treuchtlingen and Donauwörth. Depending on the time of day you leave Nördlingen, it will take just over two hours to Munich with a change in Donauwörth.

If you start after 9 AM on a workday (or anytime on a weekend), you can do the entire trip with a Bayern-Ticket.