Hotel Monaco and Munich » Daytrips around Munich

Biketour from Munich to freising

admin — Fri, 27 May 2011 06:41:04 +0000

What to do on a sunny day in Munich – Riding by bike to Freising
Hello
finally the bicycle season has started again.
We people from Munich are anyway quite spoiled on this topic, as our city offers so many beautiful and safe streets for bicycles. That way most of us do not use any car or subway a lot during the summer time- we just go by bike wherever we need to go.

But not only the inner city offers a lot of nice ways for bikers, there are even quite many trails within Munich´s surroundings which can be explored in very nice daytrips.
Today I want to introduce you in one of our favourite biketours: Riding along the Isar river to Freising – an easy managable as a very flat trail of around 34 km one way.
There´s the option to return by train to Munich.
On sunny weekends you will meet a lot of people on bikes, on foot and on everything on the first 5 – 10 km, after that you will not be bothered by a lot of people.

And here are the routing details:
From Hotel Monaco we go via Stachus and Odeonsplatz through Hofgarten into the English Garden.
Follow the direction „Freimann“ and „Allianz Arena“ or „Aumeister“ until you arrive at the huge „Aumeister beergarden“ starting from here you just follow the signs „Freising“.
Large areas you can ride on both sides of the river.
We recommend the left hand side.
Mostly the trail is nicely inbedded in a shaddy forest and lots of little beaches invite you for a short break.
Once you have reached Freising follow the signs to the station (Bahnhof), there make a left into „Bahnhofstrasse“ and after 500 meters you have arrived in the nice inner city of Freising.
We highly recommend you to spend almost a couple of hours in this cute little town to visit the dome, the Marienplatz and to have some coffee or beer in one of the beautiful cafes. (e.g. Parkcafe in the alley „Am Wörth“)
If you are too tired to return all the way by bike again you can take the train back to Munich. There are trains leaving almost every 20 minutes and they offer space for your bike as well.

Our reception staff will be happy to give you more detailed informations about schedules and prices.
And we will even be happy to tell you where you can rent a bike if you didn´t bring your own with you.

We wish you a wonderful daytrip

Yours
Sandra
Hotel Monaco

Visit in Munich

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:05:13 +0000

Tuesday, 22 Dec 09

Checked in late last night, but the hotel was really close to the train station and easy to find. Saw a brochure in the morning with some walking tours of the city centre. Not a bad way of seeing the city’s sights

Got lucky because the weather was good and we had clear blue skies. Made the climb up St Peter’s church’s tower all the more rewarding. Huffing our way up the narrow but solid staircase. Reminded me of the climb up La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and also El Micalet in Valencia. Clear views of the city all around. Always brings a smile to my face seeing an expanse of greenery like the English Gardens. Should come back in the different seasons when the garden is in flower or orange and gold with autumn

Ended the night with a great excursion of beer history in Bavaria, people from different parts of the world with their own stories and, of course, beer itself. Definitely appropriate to describe Bavarian beer as delicious

Will be coming back to this city. Cheers to more beer!

Tze Haung

Bus excursion to Schloß Neuschwanstein

admin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:04:14 +0000

My wife and I spent our last full day in Munich by taking a bus excursion to the Wittelsbach castles of Linderhof and Neuschwanstein. The latter is one of the most famously photographed castles in the world, and a “model” for the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. Both sit amid gorgeous alpine mountains, lakes and forests. Linderhof is the smaller and older of the two, in a more conservative and flamboyantly rococo architectural style. The various rooms are almost overpoweringly opulent in the guilded wood carvings and extraordinary colors, with a “mirror” room that, despite its modest dimensions, gives the appearance, with huge mirrors on opposite walls (like Versailles, and intentionally) of being much larger. Out front, a beautiful gold fountain erupts on the hour in tall columns of water. Neuschwanstein, of course, was the home, though only briefly, of “mad” King Ludwig II of Bavaria. It remains incomplete, since it was left that way when the king, aged only 40 years, died under mysterious circumstances after being deposed due to mental illness in June 1886. He virtually worshipped the great German composer Richard Wagner, and the large wall paintings in several of the major completed rooms of Neuschwanstein depict scenes from various Wagner operas. Tragically, the king died before any of them could be performed in the newly finished concert hall within the castle, whose extraordinary acoustics were demonstrated by our tour guide. I should point out that, on the guided tours inside both castles, photography and video recording are forbidden. This will come as a major disappointment to shutterbugs, but when you consider the number of visitors in what are often relatively crowded rooms, the absence of anyone fussing over a perfect pose or shot (and, especially, electronic flashes going off all over the place) becomes rather a blessing for all concerned. Of course, as the castle management probably intends, you can always purchase a color picture book of the castle (offered in many different languages) from the souvenir shop. Our bus tour guide highly recommended eating lunch at a local restaurant, the Müller, though less expensive offerings can be had, even along the walking path up the hill to the castle from the small town below it (where the buses must park). Time is tightly organized on these tours and, in our case, a lingering lunch at the Müller left us without enough time to take the extended walk behind Neuschwanstein to the Marien Bridge, from which spectacular photos can be taken of the castle.

Robert Apfelzweig
Foster City, California, USA

Daytrip to Eagle´s Nest, close to Munich

admin — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 06:37:09 +0000

My wife and I visited The Eagle’s Nest (Hitler’s alpine headquarters near the Austrian border), which has been preserved as a museum and tourist attraction. We purchased tickets the evening before at a tourist information office next to the central Hauptbahnhof train station. We assembled in front of the Karstadt shopping emporium at 8:30 this morning, just a short walk from our Hotel Monaco. The large, comfortable bus provided a pleasant and detailed description of the journey and destination by our guide, who spoke generally exellent English. We were fortunate that the entire load of tourists (about 30 in all) spoke English, and so we did not require multiple translations. The excursion features a ride up some narrow mountain roads with spectacular scenery, and takes about 3 hrs. to get there and somewhat less time to return to Munich. For those interested in World War II and, especially, 20th century German history, this visit is a must. The Eagle’s Nest itself (Kehlstein) is mostly a bland restaurant atop a mountain peak, and there are separate fees for the bus from Munich, the ride in a smaller bus up the narrow road to the base of the mountain, a short walk through a cool and damp tunnel and then an elevator ride from the base to the top. The elevator is quite large and lined in mirrored brass. The mediocre food at Kehlstein contrasts quite sharply with the delightful and fresh variety of fruits, meats, cheeses, cereals and baked goods we were served at our hotel’s breakfast bouffet. The most interesting part of this visit, besides the incredible views, is the history display of the Nazis’ rise to power and how that power was used to inflict untold terror and misery, and surviving bunker system of Kehlstein at the Documentary center where the tour buses park. The pictorial displays, featuring photos, letters, official (and often signed) documents by various Nazi officials, and some original artifacts from the 1930′s and early 1940′s are all described only in German (a deficiency that really demands correction), but a recorded translation, item by numbered item, can be rented for only €2. These give a remarkably chilling narrative on one of the bleakest chapters in human history.

Robert Apfelzweig
Foster City, California