Why do we always seem to end up in Munich? I think we have been to Munich four times already this year. We visited twice in a week on the way to and from Italy and we have another trip planned. As often as we have been, I thought it was time to share some of our Munich tips, starting with our Munich walking tour.
As with all our trips, we are travelling (or in this case walking) with a young child in tow. Miss Just-turned-four put this tour through its paces, adding her input. At her insistance, this walking tour includes playgrounds and other kid-friendly distractions.
Where to start
Our original plan was to start our Munich walking tour at Sendlinger Tor. However, on the day of our tour, major works on the tram lines made Sendlinger Tor difficult to reach. We started at Karlsplatz instead.
It was a hot Summer’s day, so our first stop was for Miss M to play in the fountain at Karlsplatz and try to dodge the water sprays. She was not that successful.
Neuhauser Strasse
To start your walking tour, pass under Karlstor and head down Neuhauser Straße towards Marienplatz. If you are looking to do some shopping – perhaps for a Dirndl or Lederhosen – this is a good place to start.
Don’t miss the statues of the wild boar and fish in front of the Hunting and Fishing Museum. They are a great photo opportunity!
After snapping a few happy pics, turn left towards the Frauenkirche.
Frauenkirche
The Frauenkirche – or the Cathedral of our Dear Lady – with its onion spires is a quintessential silhouette in the Munich skyline.
Before the spires could be completed, the church ran out of money. Consequently, the spires remained unfinished for 30 years. Eventually, a leaky roof forced a change and a new budget-friendly design, modelled after the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.
This change sparked a craze. Onion spires are now common throughout southern Bavaria.
You can see the Frauenkirche spires from almost anywhere in Munich – and this will remain the case. The city administration decree that no building in the inner city may be higher than 100 metres. As both towers of the Frauenkirche are nearly 99 metres high, they are unlikely to be dwarfed.
If it is a hot day, your child will probably enjoy cooling off in the fountain. Miss M and numerous other children did!
If you are getting hungry and looking for something to eat, we can recommend the Augustiner am Dom. Miss M loves Weisswurste for breakfast, but not all children will. For lunch, she recommends Brezels and Nurenburger sausages (grilled pork sausages about 10 cm long).
Marienplatz
Neues Rathaus
Marienplatz is the centre of Munich and the focus of Marienplatz is the Neues
While it looks significantly older, the Town Hall is actually only a little more than 100 years old. The 100-metre long facade in neo-gothic style is an imposing sight on the square. This facade hides 400 rooms, most of which are closed to the public.
Glockenspiel
One of the highlights is the world-famous Glockenspiel on the tower balcony of the Town Hall.
With 43 bells and 16 figurines, the nearly 12-minute long Glockenspiel tells the story of the wedding of Duke Wilhelm V. with Renate von Lothringen in 1568. It includes the duel between two knights (Wilhelm’s knight wins of course). On the lower level of the Glockenspiel, the coopers (barrel-makers) dance and twirl and celebrate their survival from the plague.
The Glockenspiel plays at 11 a.m. and 12 p.m.; from March to October, it also plays at 5 p.m. Try and time your visit to Marienplatz to catch the Glockenspiel. You also have a great view from the Café across the other side of the square.
Tower of the New Town Hall
We have Miss M to thank for the next suggestion.
For the best view over Marienplatz, the Frauenkirche and the old town, view them from the top: the 85-metre high tower of the New Town Hall. Fortunately, access is via a lift – so much easier than the 306 stairs of Alten Peter with a child! On clear days, you can even see as far as the Alps.
Old Town Hall and the Toy Museum
The other building on Marienplatz that deserves a look is the Altes Rathaus, or Old Town Hall, which sits at the eastern edge of Marienplatz.
Built between 1470 and 1475, the Altes Rathaus was almost completely destroyed during World War II. It was rebuilt in the 1950s in its original gothic style.
I like its unpretentious nature, especially compared to the New Town Hall. Now, its primary use is representative purposes.
The Alte Rathaus now houses a toy museum. The collection includes vintage model trains, stuffed animals, dolls and dollhouses and tin toys from Europe and America spread over four floors.
The rooms of the museum are small and the staircases are narrow. Visiting it is almost like being in a dolls house.
If your child is like Miss M, they will not enjoy looking at toys that they can’t touch. We gave it a miss this time.
Viktualienmarkt
If you visited the tower of the Neue Rathaus and don’t want to visit Alte Peter for a view over Munich or plan to do that later, continue your walking tour of Munich with a visit to the Viktualienmarkt. Walk under the tower of the Altes Rathaus then turn right. The Viktualienmarkt should be on your left.
For more than 200 years, the Viktualienmarkt has been a Munich landmark and is
The Viktualienmarkt is the perfect place to pick up the ingredients for a simple picnic or afternoon snack. You can find fruit and vegetables, bakeries, butchers, fishmongers, delicatessen and speciality stores and flower stalls – all of it fresh.
Alternatively, wander around the market then find a seat in the Biergarten and grab something to eat and drink from one of the German-style “hot dog stands”. Miss M recommends the Bratwurst and the buttered Brezels.
If you are lucky (and the chances are good), you will even see some locals in traditional German dress: Lederhosen, Dirndl and “Janker” (like a thick wool cardigan).
Jewish Museum
To continue on the Munich walking tour, make your way to the Jewish Centre at Sankt-Jakobs-Platz. The architecture is definitely worth a look!
The Ohel Jakob Synagogue (Hebrew for ‘Jacob’s Tent’), the Jewish Museum and the Community Centre together form the Jewish Centre.
On its inauguration in 2006, the synagogue became the main synagogue for Munich’s Jewish community – the second largest in Germany. This was the first
As the picture shows, the synagogue consists of two cubes, one on top of the other. The base resembles the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.The glass cube that sits above it is interlaced with Stars of David and encased in a bronze metal veil. This represents a tent, which is both, part of the name of the synagogue and a symbol of the 40 years that Jews spent wandering the Sinai desert. The first ten letters of the Hebrew alphabet are on the doors to the Synagogue, representing the Ten Commandments.
You reach the interior of the synagogue via the “Corridor of Memory”. The walls of this passage bear the names of the 4,500 Munich Jews who were murdered under the Nazi regime.
Many young children will not appreciate the symbolism of the synagogue or understand what happened under the Nazi regime. However, between the museum and the synagogue is a small playground. The main feature is a sandpit, with shade, and the museum café next door makes great coffee.
On hot days, there is also a fountain in the square in front of the synagogue. Miss M had great fun (again) playing in the fountain with a number of other children.
Gay and Lesbian Monument
Walk the short distance along Sankt-Jakobs-Strasse and cross Oberranger to reach the start of Dultstrasse. On the footpath in front of you is a mosaic of coloured concrete blocks which form the “Monument to the Gays and Lesbians Persecuted under the Nazi Regime”.
In 1934, a gay bar stood where the blocks now lie. On 20 October of that year, Nazis raided the bar. This marked the start of the systematic persecution of homosexuals under the Nazi regime. The monument was unveiled in June 2017.
While the significance was lost on Miss M, she found the colours pretty. I assume most children will be the same. These colours represent the rainbow flag, as well as the pink and black of the triangles that gays and lesbians were forced to wear in concentration camps.
Asamkirche
The next stop on our walking tour (before turning around and heading back towards Marienplatz) is the St-Johann-Nepomuk-Kirche. It is better known as the Asamkirche or Asam church.
The Asam brothers, Cosmas Damian and Egrid Quirin, built the church between 1733 and 1746. They were builders, plasterers, painters and decorators and were commissioned to decorate numerous churches in Germany, the most famous of which is the Freising Cathedral.
Officially, they built the church as a private chapel. In reality, the church was their showroom, providing examples almost every form of decoration they could produce.
The chapel is a testament to their prowess in late Baroque decorations. While it is somewhat overwhelming – no corner has been spared – it is still worth a visit.
Alter Peter
Alter Peter, or Old Peter, is the tower of Munich’s oldest church, the Peterskirche. The 91-metre high tower has some of the best views over Munich’s rooftops, with 309 drawbacks – that’s the number of steps it takes to reach the top.
If you don’t mind arriving out of breath and going painfully slowly on the way up and then down again so that your child can see the views too, then climb Alter Peter. If you hate steps as much as my knees do and your child would not make it up and down all those stairs, try the tower in the New Town Hall instead – it has a lift. The views are very similar.
Odeonsplatz
Odeonsplatz is the next stop on our Munich walking tour (don’t worry, you are getting close to the end).
Munich is often referred to as Italy’s northernmost city. Why? King
Feldherrnhalle
At the southern end of Odeonsplatz is the Feldherrnhalle or Field Marshalls’ Hall. It is almost an exact copy of the Loggia
The Feldherrnhalle was where Hitler’s Beerhall Putsch was defeated on 9 November 1923. Unsurprisingly, the site later became
Locals would often detour down Viscardigasse to avoid the Feldherrnhalle (and the salute). As a result, Viscardigasse earned the nickname “Drückerbergergasserl” or “shirkers alley”. Gold paving stones now memorialize this resistance.
Theatinekirche
The other point of interest at Odeonplatz is the Theatinekirche. We were too late to go inside during our walking tour of Munich. However, it is a nice contrast to the busy, extravagant Asamkirche: almost everything in the church is white.
The Residence
The Munich Residence is one of the most important palace museums in Europe.
From 1508 to 1918, the Munich Residence was the seat of government and residence of the Bavarian dukes, electors and kings. Over the four centuries, each ruler put his mark on the palace, expanding, decorating and transforming it.
World War II saw much of the Residence destroyed. Painstaking and slow reconstruction work has seen the palace, the treasury and the Cuvilliés Theatre restored to their former glory.
Whether or not you wish to visit with your child will depend on your other Munich plans. If you will be seeing Schloss Nymphenburg or Neuschwanstein while you are in the area, I would skip the Residence. It also depends on how much time you have for your Munich walking tour.
While the Residence is impressive, it is also very large and can start to get very repetitive. It takes around 3 hours just to see the highlights. Miss M can only appreciate so many rooms of fine china (even just passing through) before she will have a meltdown. While she loves feeling like a princess, the Residence would have been one palace too many for Miss M on the weekend.
Even if you decide not to enter the palace, have a look at the impressive structure from the outside and visit the palace gardens.
Hofgarten
The Palace Gardens and the neighbouring Englisher Garten are
Built at the start of the 17th century, the Hofgarten is based on an Italian renaissance garden. Originally, only royals
Arcade-style passages surround the garden. A pavilion, known as the Diana temple, sits in the middle. Spotted throughout the garden are park benches that are an ideal place to relax (and have that picnic food you bought at the Viktualienmarkt). With luck, you may even have a spontaneous concert in the
Englischer Garten
Finish your Munich walking tour with some time in the Englischer Garten, the largest inner-city park in the world.
Let your child run around and explore the woods, meadows, streams and lakes and burn off any last energy. Don’t be surprised if you see nude sunbakers. In Winter, if it is cold enough, you can even go ice-skating on the Kleinhesseloher See.
If you don’t have any other plans, finish your walking tour of Munich with a visit to one of the park’s
Milchhäusl (the milk house) and the Chinese Tower are the closest to the Hofgarten. Even so, they are quite a walk, especially for tired little legs. You may want to consider using one of the bike taxis or rickshaws to get there.
And that’s the end of our Munich walking tour
If you are visiting Munich with your kids, follow our walking tour and our tips and enjoy your trip.
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