Munich Surroundings, Munich

Favorite thing: Go on a day excursion to CHIEMSEE ('Bavarian Sea') where the beautiful SCHLOSS HERRENCHIEMSEE is situated! This is Ludwig II's most ambitious palace, a replica of Versailles. However, only the central wing of the building was completed as he was dethroned shortly. Another long story...

Favorite thing: Check in on HOHENSCHWANGAU: This castle is built by Ludwig's father, Maximilian II & located in the vicinity of Neuschwanstein. The originial sturcture of this castle dates back to the 12th century knights of Schwangau. Maximilian II bought it in 1832 & completed the restoration in 4 years. Ludwig stayed here for the first 17 years of his life & received Richard Wagner in its chambers here.

Favorite thing: Photo: Panorama of the city of Miltenberg on the Main River.

The Alpine foreland with its exquisite lakes such as the Chiemsee and the Königssee, the Bavarian Forest with its National Park, the Franconian Jura, the Fichtel Hills, the Steigerwald, the Spessart and many other scenic areas of the state offer tourist incomparably enticing opportunities for rest, recreation and enjoyment of nature.

Fondest memory: Lake Chiemsee with its stunning beauty peacfully dozes, surrounded by Alps. Herrenchiemsee castle by king Ludwig II is built on one of its islands. Gallery of art on the Zugspitze's summit - where art meets nature!

Favorite thing: Munich or, actually Munchen like it's called by locals, is a capital of Bavaria, and a very, very, very beautiful city. The surburs of Munich are just as pretty: the lake of Chiemsee, all the 4 castles of king Ludwig II. Great atmosphere: moderm, industrilized city and at the same time so close to national culture and so traditional.

Fondest memory: Being from Dublin (and those visitors who have witnessed city officials scooping tons of burger joint detritus from the waters of the Floozy in the Jacuzzi in O'Connell Street will see where I'm coming from!) it was a real culture shock to visit the neatly manicured, spotlessly clean, architecturally quaint villages and towns in southern Bavaria. I'm only sorry that I was experimenting at the time with black and white film in my camera - these places are a riot of colour as well as lovely.

Favorite thing: In the castle courtyard the facades are adorned with illusionist paintings that delude the viewer into seeing oriels, window frames and molded corners. Below the Hohes Schloss is the magnificent baroque complex of the former Benedictine Monastery of St Mang, whose history goes back to the 8th century. In addition to the Basilica, the largest and most magnificent of the numerous baroque churches in Füssen’s medieval center, where the oldest preserved fresco in Bavaria (about 980, Teichenau School) can be viewed in the east crypt, it is in particular the Füssen Heritage Museum that is well worth seeing. The richly decorated baroque halls give an impression of the earlier prosperity of this Benedictine collegiate church. In the Anna Chapel, accessible through the museum, the Füssen Dance of Death is on view, Bavaria’s oldest Dance of Death cycle still preserved.

The museum’s own collection of valuable historical lutes and violins recalls Füssen’s position as the cradle of European lute-making, where in the 16th century the first European lute-makers’ guild was founded. Regular tours of the town, the museum and the churches as well as special tours for groups are available throughout the year.
Entertaining festivals against an historical backdrop, open-air culture on the market squares or in the courtyards and the Christkindles Städtle, or Christmas Market, in the pre-Christmas season invest Füssen’s medieval center with a magic of a very special kind. The town’s high-caliber program of events has had a new cultural highlight to offer since April 2000: the premiere of the musical “Ludwig II – Longing for Paradise” in the newly-built Neuschwanstein Musical Theater carries the spectators off into the dream world of the Bavarian fairy-tale king and is Bavaria’s first major musical.

Favorite thing: As if drawn by an artist’s hand, the Füssen’s medieval town center rises high above the banks of the River Lech. Different historical epochs meet here in a harmonious ensemble, whose unique flair is an invitation to go on journeys of discovery into the past or to take a look around the shops. The Hohes Schloss, the former summer residence of the prince bishops of Augsburg and one of Swabia’s largest and best preserved late gothic castle complexes, is Füssen’s landmark, towering over a maze of narrow lanes. The living quarters once occupied by the bishops today house a branch gallery of the Bavarian State Collections of Paintings, which focuses on late gothic and Renaissance works of art from the Allgäu-Swabian and Franconian region.

Favorite thing: The town’s charming location on the edge of the Alps is impressive: framed in by imposing high mountain peaks and an idyllic lake district, at an altitude of 800 – 1200 meters above sea level, thus making it Bavaria’s town at the highest elevation, the ideal starting point for visiting the royal castles of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau only four kilometers away or the Wies Church (29 km).

Favorite thing: I had been told that you could see the Alps from Sabine and Sascha's apartment, but morning after morning we woke up to cloudy skies. Then it happened.