Swing a stein or eight at the world-famous Oktoberfest, which lasts for sixteen days in late September and early October. Fourteen enormous tents are available on the Oktoberfest grounds at Theresienwiese, and the drinking goes on from 10 a.m. (9 a.m. on Sundays) until 11:30 p.m. As you can imagine, the crowds are heavy on the weekend and even weekday afternoons and evenings. Book your hotel by the preceding April or you'll have to stay in one of the towns near Munich. It's also good to book a seat in whichever of the tents you'd like to drink.
Explore the Residenz, the main palace of the Kings of Bavaria, located at Max-Joseph-Platz 3. Set aside a day for this, because there's a guided tour that goes through one section of the palace in the morning and another tour through another section in the afternoon. Among the chief features here is the Cuvilliés-Theater, which is still the site of musical performances, the State Museum of Egyptian Art and the Schatzkammer, or Treasury, which is filled with the jewels, crowns, ivory, porcelain, gold, silver and other finery of the Wittelsbach dynasty.
See how those Wittelsbachs spent their summers out at the Schloss Nymphenburg. The main palace, which is still occupied by Franz, Duke of Bavaria, is best-known for the Gallery of Beauties, a room containing the paintings of beautiful women that had been commissioned by King Ludwig I. The Royal Bavarian Porcelain Factory Nymphenburg is located in one of the wings, and there's a porcelain collection on display in the upper floor of the Marstallmuseum. The lower floor houses the family sleighs and carriages. Another wing of the palace contains the Museum of Man and Nature, which examines the natural world and the effect man has upon it. The extensive palace grounds contain several pavilions, including Magdalenenklause hermitage, the Chinoiserie-style Pagodenburg, the Badenburg, or bath house and the Rococo-style Amalienburg shooting lodge.
Take in six centuries of art in three museums located on the same street. The Alte Pinakothek at Barerstrasse 27 has artwork from the fourteenth through eighteenth centuries and includes the work of Dürer, Holbein, Bosch, Rembrandt, Rubens, Hals, Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, El Greco and other Old Masters. One block to the north, the Neue Pinakothek at Barerstrasse 29 covers the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, featuring works by van Gogh, Gainsborough, Friedrich, Delacroix, Renoir, Munch, Goya, Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Turner and Cézanne. The Pinakothek der Moderne at Barerstrasse 40, one block east of the Alte Pinakothek, focuses on art, architecture, design and works on paper from the late nineteenth century to the present day. It displays works by Beckmann, Chirico, Motherwell, Ernst, Dalí, Picasso, Flavin, Bacon, Johns, Twombly, Judd, Klee, Braque and Warhol.
Enjoy what is probably the finest technological museum in the world--the Deutsches Museum, or German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology, located at Museumsinsel 1 on an island in the middle of the Isar River. Spread over six floors, its range of exhibits includes mining, chemistry, engineering, physics, aeronautics, computers, electricity, hydraulics, mathematics, oil and gas, musical instruments, glass, pharmaceuticals and pretty much any other scientific or technological area you can imagine. There's even a planetarium on the top floor. This museum is to technology what the Louvre is to art, so do not attempt to see this all in one day--it can't be done. Either spread your visits over several days or just focus on the areas that interest you most.
Stroll around the Marienplatz, the center of the medieval city. The Altes Rathaus or Old City Hall has a toy museum in its tower. The Neues Rathaus has a very traditional-style Bavarian restaurant in the basement, but its most popular feature is the Glockenspiel on the tower. At 11 a.m. and noon year-round and also at 5 p.m. from May to October, the chimes are sounded and thirty-two figures roll out on their little platforms, twisting, whirling, jousting and dancing.
