Munich was not exactly the charming, quiet Bavarian town we had pictured. It was lively, crowded, and full of energy — with construction cranes almost as common as church steeples. The city felt like it was constantly in motion, from the hum of trams to the buzz of renovation projects. Still, amid all that activity, we found plenty to explore — from historic beer halls and royal palaces to sleek car museums and a massive palace just outside the city.

Here are a few days we spent in Munich where, beyond Old Town and the city center we saw the BMW Museum, Olympic Park, Nymphenburg Palace and Gardens.

Old Town

In the heart of Munich sits the Altstadt (Old Town), a lively area filled with shops, cafés, and stunning architecture. Marienplatz, the central square, has been the city’s gathering place since 1158. It is surrounded by historic buildings, most notably the Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall) with its famous Glockenspiel. Twice a day 11AM and Noon, (3 times in the summer) the clock chimes and the life-size mechanical characters from Munich’s history perform a short show.

When we arrived via train, it was lunchtime so we set out to find some German specialties for our first meal. There are many Houf Brau houses all over the city. The term Houf Brau means “Court Brewery” or simply today, Brew House. We stopped for lunch at an Augustiner Wirtshaus, one of the city’s traditional taverns pouring beer from Munich’s oldest independent brewery, Augustiner-Bräu, which dates all the way back to 1328. We ordered classic sausages with sauerkraut and a freshly poured Augustiner brew straight from the barrel. Simple, traditional, and delicious

After lunch, we continued wandering through Old Town. We came upon, Munich’s Frauenkirche, the city’s iconic cathedral with its twin green-domed towers that have become a symbol of Munich. The Frauenkirche was completed in 1488. Despite suffering damage during World War II, the church was rebuilt and remains a central part of the city’s skyline.

Inside, it’s more understated than many European cathedrals, with clean Gothic lines and high vaulted ceilings. Still, it holds a few surprises — most famously, the “Devil’s Footprint” near the entrance. According to legend, the devil made a deal to help build the church under the condition that it contain no windows. The architect tricked him with clever design, and when the devil realized it, he stomped his foot in anger, leaving a mysterious black footprint behind.
That’s what we were told anyway….

Then stepped further inside and we looked up to see a massive statue of Jesus hanging from the ceiling. It was a dramatic and powerful presence in a seemingly simple cathedral. Like so many of the churches and cathedrals in Europe,

While wandering the Old Town, we stepped into St. Peter’s Church, Munich’s oldest parish church. It was built in, the 12th Century. From the outside it seemed fairly sedate with simple lines and basic facade.

But on the inside, it could not have felt more different from the Frauenkirche. Where the cathedral was open and minimalist, this church was full of color and drama. The gold-covered altar was stunning, framed by towering columns and intricate carvings. We were glad to have seen both with such contrasting styles just a short distance apart.

Frauenkirche and St. Peter’s Church were two fascinating architectural and historical sites to spend a short time in the city.

Time To Relax

After a morning’s train journey and then logging in 15,000 city steps it was time to relax back at our hotel. (Note the crane in the background!)
More adventures ahead tomorrow!

The BMW Museum and Olympic Park

In a trip that is filled with historic sites and thousand year old churches taking a morning at the ultra modern BMW museum is a treat. BMW was founded here in 1916 and was primarily an aircraft engine maker. Their first car came out in 1928.

There are two sides to the BMW Museum, the Welt (world) and Museum itself with all the history of BMW.

The Welt has all the latest models of BMW, Mini and Rolls Royce. That’s right, if you were not aware, BMW owns all three car companies. The space itself is a sleek, modern exhibition space that's free to enter and feels more like a futuristic showroom than a museum.

Your Next Car

We saw the Spectre which is Rolls‑Royce’s first fully electric production car, launched in late 2023. We learned the specs are a range of around 320 miles, and can go 0–60 mph in 4.4 seconds, delivering 577 horsepower — all while maintaining that signature Rolls‑Royce quiet ride.

When we finished in the Welt, we crossed the street to the museum (the paid side of the experience). The museum takes you through it all — from vintage classics to race cars and concept designs.

Inside the museum, we saw BMW’s very first car, the BMW 3/15, which rolled out in 1928 — a compact little vehicle that looked worlds away from the electric we’d just seen, but fascinating to see as the starting point of the brand’s journey.

There was also an extensive display sharing the history of BMW and Formula 1 racing. They first began with Formula 1 as an engine supplier in 1982. They went on to have their own teams and cars winning a few times before withdrawing from F1 in 2009.

The BMW 3 Series is their most popular car but they had a whole display of their 5 Series which started manufacturing in 1972. There was so much to see in all, but you get the idea, this is a place for car lovers. As fans of BMW, it was fun to spend a couple hours learning about the history and seeing some amazing cars at the BMW Museum.

Olympic Park

Since you are at the BMW museum a stop at the Olympic Park, across the street, makes sense. Munich hosted the Summer Olympics in 1972. These Summer Games were intended to present a new image of Germany — modern, democratic, peaceful — in contrast to the Berlin Games of 1936. This entire park was built in support of the Olympics.

As of this writing in 2025 there is not so much to see here. The tower is under renovation (completion date 2026), as is much of the park.

We took a peek inside the Olympic Swimming Hall, that at the time, was a state of the art facility. Today it is still used as a training facility, as well as a public swimming pool.

We wandered over to the massive stadium that was built for the opening and closing ceremonies. What was surprising was that even on a day with very few visitors, they were charging a few to simply enter and look around, so we skipped it.

For these Olympics, Germany wanting to present their county in a whole new way, even nicknaming them the “Happy Games.” Tragically, they were overshadowed by the Munich Massacre, a terrorist attack that took the lives of 11 Israeli athletes during the games. Today, there stands a moving memorial of the events that occurred on September 5 & 6, 1972 inside the park.

A last look at once was the Olympic Village, housing for the athletes. Today, it serves as homes overlooking BMW and the site of the 1972 Olympic games. We do hope the reinvesting continues here, as this was a beautiful area just outside the city center with a lot to offer.

Nymphenburg Palace

A great thing to love about this bustling city is the public transportation system. We found both the underground and above ground tram system easy to figure out and navigate. We were anxious to get a bit out of the city so we bought our round trip ticket and hopped on the above ground tram.

Since we were getting out of the city, where did we go? To the biggest palace we could find, Nymphenburg. Our hotel was near the Central train station, getting a ticket and finding the right train was easy. In about 15 minutes we were at Nymphenburg Schloss, the station for the Palace. It was then about a 10 minute walk to Nymphenburg.

In a continent with a lot of palaces this one felt massive but only because of its very large grounds. This sprawling Baroque estate that once served as the summer residence for Bavarian royalty. Summer residence?

As of this writing, timed tickets are still required. We’d purchased our tickets the day before, which included an audio tour. It’s self guided but walks you through a good example of the opulent rooms.

The first stop was The Steinerner Saal, or Stone Hall, is the central showpiece of the main palace. It features soaring three-story-high ceilings, large arched windows and massive crystal chandeliers. The ceiling fresco, painted by Johann Baptist Zimmermann in the mid-1700s.

This room was used for royal ceremonies, balls, and court receptions — and it’s clearly designed to impress. (Although we were a little underdressed!)

Below is the Queen’s bedroom, built originally for Queen Caroline who gave birth to King Ludwig II here. He later, famously became known as “The Mad King,” for his erratic and eccentric behaviors.

We also noticed that almost all the bedrooms had the painted frescos of various scenes. Could you sleep in this room?

The Queen’s study, which, after all the highly adorned ceilings and glitz in other rooms, we thought was lovely with it’s understated silk walls and matching furniture.

One thing to know in all these beautiful castles and palaces, is that they are not climate controlled due to their age. On this summer day it was approaching 90 degrees outside and very warm inside.

Inside the palace walls sits over 400 acres of gardens, ponds, greenspaces and hidden pavillions. Right behind the palace itself, the gardens are very formal, as they were built over the 18th and 19th centuries in the “English Style.”

You could spend all day wandering through the gardens. At this point, you have turned in your audio guide so we relied on the Palace website: HERE and Wikipedia for our information.

While the palace itself was busy, there were times in the gardens we were completely alone - except for the ducks.

One last look at the palace from far into the gardens. There is far more history about the Nymphenburg Palace as well as all of Bavaria than a post could possibly cover. It was well worth a visit to learn a small piece of the history of Nymphenburg.

The Walled Exit

After wandering (and getting lost a couple of times) through the massive gardens we found an exit. The wall remains today as it was hundreds of years ago.
Next to the Palace are the Nymphenburg Botanical Gardens. For a small fee you can see over 19,000 species of plants from around the world. On this day, we just admired the exterior and beautiful greenhouses from the outside before making our way back to the train.

Hard to believe this massive, and peaceful, palace is just outside the bustling city of Munich. It was a beautiful day to visit and learn a bit more about Munich and Bavaria!