Here's a report on my nine days in Bavaria in August 2014. It was a solo trip for me, as my wife and her sister were on a Rick Steves tour of England at the time. I wanted to spend some quality time in and around Munich and hit some of the "guy stuff" my wife wouldn't be as interested in; but mostly to get out among the folks and practice some of my "lower-intermediate-level" German skills. That last part was really the most fun, as Bavarians tend to be warm, friendly and hospitable.
I stayed in the RS-recommended Pension Lindner in the old city of Munich, steps from the newly-pedestrianized Sendlingerstraße. At 45€/night for a clean single room with bath a few steps down the hall, hearty breakfast buffet included, and great location, it was an excellent value. There is a major construction project next door, but the noise only happens during the day when a tourist is likely out and about anyway. At night it was forest-like quiet -- no city noise at all.
I visited a lot of spots discussed in the Munich section of Rick's Germany book, but skipped a few of the more heavily-touristed sites, such as the Residenz tour, Dachau, the Hofbräuhaus, and the Füssen-area castles. Rick's walking tour of central Munich provided an excellent framework for getting acquainted with the city.
Here are a few highlights not mentioned in the book:
-- Dießen am Ammersee, my favorite Bavarian village ever since a student tour took me there in 1968. It's about 25 miles southwest of Munich, on the southwest shore of the Ammersee. It's scenic, historic, authentic, and very friendly. Take the S-8 all the way to the end of the line at Herrsching, on the east shore of the lake, walk a couple hundred meters to the pier on the lakefront, and take one of the beautiful sidewheel steamships across the lake to Dießen.
-- Herrsching itself is nice, too. It's a short bus ride (or 3-mile hike into the forested hills) from Herrsching to Kloster Andechs. During my visit Herrsching had a "Nachtmarkt" on the lakeshore, with live music, food, and booths featuring wares from local artists and merchants.
-- Ingolstadt is the home of the Audi factory. The historic center is appealingly colorful and quiet. Visit the German Museum of Medical History, in an 18th-Century building that once was the Anatomy Building of the University of Ingolstadt. That building is more famous in fiction than in real life, as it was the setting for the original Mary Shelley novel, Frankenstein.
-- Bad Wörishofen is a bright, squeaky-clean town an hour's train ride west of Munich. It's a spa town, with a large hot spring/sauna/pool/waterpark complex (overshadowed only by a similar but even larger facility in Erding, northeast of Munich). Go to the outdoor cafe at the small grass-runway airfield in town and watch skydivers do their thing. Buy a ride in a 1958 Russian-built, 11-seat Antonov An-2 biplane, and see Neuschwanstein or the Fünfseenland from the air, in style (advance reservation necessary, Google "Classic Wings Bavaria").
-- Schleißheim Palaces, summer home of the Wittelsbachs, an easy ride on the S-1 from downtown Munich. The palace buildings and grounds are colorful and relatively devoid of tourists. On the grounds are touching memorials to locals lost in 20th-Century wars. In addition to hometown military personnel, the community lost many civilians to the Allied bombing raids in 1943-45. Adjacent to the palaces is Flugwerft Schleißheim, the air museum branch of Deutsches Museum, a must-see for aviation history buffs. The museum is located on Germany's oldest operating airfield.
(continued)