I'm looking for some feedback on some good apps for Munich, especially public transport maps. I'm also wondering if any guidebooks have more detailed info on Bavaria -- we're staying in the Allgaü, but I can't find any info in any books outside of the obvious places, like Füssen and Oberammergau. I haven't been able to put my hands on the Rough Guide, does that have any detailed info? I'm disappointed that Let's Go has gone a more minimalist route.
I don't know if this website will help you or not. I'll see what else I can find. Oberammergau and Füssen are technically in the Ostallgäu (east Allgaeu). My favorite part of the Allgäu is the Oberallgäu, the Illertal from Immenstadt up to Oberstdorf. (I know Oberallgäu has a website, I'll have to find it.) I also like Westallgäu, which includes Oberstaufen and Lindau. Not actually part of the Allgäu, but attached to it is Kleinwalsertal, a part of Voralberg (Austria), but only accessible from Germany. It is a beautiful Alpine valley, with snow cover rocky mountains on all sides and cow pastures below them. It's a ski area in the winter, so there are lots of lifts to take you up to the tops of the peaks. You get into it by bus from Oberstdorf.
Here is the website for the Oberallgäu. Unfortunately it doesn't have an English side. Here is the best (the official) transit map you'll find for Munich. It shows the S- and U-Bahn lines as well as the boundarys of the four tariff zones. You'll probably find that map in every U-/S-Bahn station in Munich. You can find other transit lines (buses and trams) on the Munich metro website, www.mvv-muenchen.de.
The Michelin Green Guide dedicates about 10-15 pages to the Allgäu, although it gets covered in fractions of other regions. Garmisch-Partenkirchen was my favorite Alpine resort town... until I saw Oberstdorf. As Lee can probably verify, don't expect to hear any language here except German.
Although I am no linguist, I do speak basic German comfortably. Whether they don't speak English at all, or not very well, Germans generally defer to my German. So, I never know whether they couldn't speak English, or just didn't want to. But, except for the owner of the Pension I stayed at, who had been a chef on an American cruise ship, and spoke "sailor English", and his wife, who was English, and my wife, in 27 days in the Oberallgäu, I never heard English. But what's wrong with that? You're in Germany.
What's sailor English? Do they say "ahoy" and cuss a lot? We're comfortable enough with German, can't have any deep philosophical discussions in the language, but we can put together enough to get by. I probably should have been more specific, we're staying in the area around Kempten, does the Michelin book cover that area?
Yes, Kempten gets about a page in the Michelin guide. BTW, the comment about only hearing German was meant to imply that few foreign tourists visit the area, not that you can't find someone to speak a little English if needed.
Well, he didn't say ahoy, and he didn't exactly cuss, but he did say some things I wouldn't say around my friends. Some times I think the Germans, even those quite fluent in English, don't quite understand the vulgarity of some words. We're comfortable enough with German, can't have any deep philosophical discussions in the language. Sounds about like me. I used to panic when I realized the other person didn't speak English and I was going to have to carry the conversation in German, now I just see it as an opportunity. Once, when I was in the Oberallgaeu, I told my host I was going to go for the day to Kempten. He just cocked an eyebrow questioningly and said that there was nothing to see in Kempten. There is an old monastery, I believe, and some archeological digs. And, of course, it's easy to get to the Oberallgäu, and it's the end of the rail line to Pfronten and the Ausserfernbahn. Go to Garmisch-Partenkirchen and stop on the way in Reutte, just to see why most of us say it's not worth stopping in. You can take the Ausserfernbahn to Pfronten and the bus to Füssen, or there is an all rail connection, via Biessenhofen, to Füssen. If you haven't see enough wall ruins, you might want to go up to Kaufbeuren. BTW, Oberstaufen is a cute town, nothing special, but I didn't mind being there. I love Lindau. I think I've stopped there five times, never stayed overnight, but always seen something new.
Thanks for the info. We had planned originally to stay down near Garmisch, but we're having to do Legoland as a day trip, so we wanted to be a bit closer to that. Honestly, outside of Legoland and the castles, we mostly want to hike, let the kids swim, and get lost for a while.
If you want to hike, go up to the Kleinwalsertal. There are lots of hiking trails. I've spent four week long vacations in the Oberallgäu near Oberstdorf, and a lot of Germans come there every year for three weeks, just to hike in the valley. Many of them ride the ski lifts up and walk down (sounds easy until you try it. Coming down those step trails is really hard on the thighs.) Kleinwalsertal has a tourist information office, I believe in Hirschegg. When I was last there we picked up a trail map and used it to hike from Mittelberg to Baad (a pretty easy hike). One of the very best castles in the area, IMO, is Schloss Sigmaringen. This 12th century Hohenzollern castle sits on a rocky outcropping over the young Danube. The fastest way to get there from Kempten is via Ulm. Three people can go round trip from Kempten to Sigmaringen on a weekday using a 3 person Quer durchs Land Ticket for €54. The trip is about 2½ hrs each way.