Been to Munich?

[rxsumo 33]

I'm off to Europe in a couple of weeks, and I've booked 3 days in Munich - obviously to do the BMW thing - Museum - Factory etc.

Are there any other "must do" things, that people have done in or around Munich - especially car related

[Apex 693]

Spend three days at the BMW museum. There is a lot to do, plenty of site seeing, make sure you have a curry sausage and a beer.

[Driftit 2069]

Can't remember due to intoxication but I am pretty sure the worlds biggest cuckoo clock is there. lol.

Get yourself to a beer hall too. Mmmm Pork knuckle and giant german beers.

If you want to see something a little more eye opening. Visit a Camp. Dachau is near Munich. I went to Mauthausen. Was pretty sad. But I still recomend people visit one.

Man I wish I wasn't so hammered going through Germany. Contiki Tours are not good in that way.

Jelous. Wish I could go back sometime soon.

[simke 0]

If you have time go to Frankfurt and from there to Nurburgring - I'm going there next week, can't wait

[McDuck 0]

BMW Museum and the Technisches Museen (absolutely huge and full of planes, trains and automobiles).

Obviously, it's obligatory to have a Mass (Stein) and Weisswurst at the Hoffbraeuhaus - tip: have a wander upstairs and view the formal beerhall that's decked out with flags and banners etc, if you get intercepted by a waiter just ask nicely if you can have a quick look.

Head to the town square to watch the Glockenspiel in front of the townhall and see the old city architecture. Olympic stadium and tower (great views of the BMW complex, from a different perspective).

Enjoy!

[elmarco 56]

Yup - all of the above. You must try the bier unt bratwurst. Oh and the pretzels. And the bier... Come to think of it, I have never had a bad beer in Germany (and a lot of them are specific to the town or region and unknown out of the immediate area). They must know something!

There is also the Porsche museum in Stuttgart (around an hour 30 from Munich on the Autobahn (A8) - if you want to legally thrash the tits off a rental ).

Edit: the last rental I had there was an E90 manual - surprising how economical it was at 190 km/h.... The camps are a pretty intense and solemn experience even now, and well worth the trip. But expect to be moved emotionally - an aussie mate of mine just burst into tears at one point.

Edited May 26, 2009 by elmarco

[3 SERIES 93]

Pretty much as mentioned above.

You MUST visit a beer hall, talk with the locals, sing their german songs, get a Stein or 3 down ya and make sure you have a Pork knuckle mmmmmmmmm.

Also if you see a pretzel dooo it! Come to think about it, all I did in Munich was eat and drink!

If you have the time and can get to one, visit one of the old concentration camps. Massive eye opener.

Looks like your 3 days are sorted.

1/ BMW Museum/Factory

2/ Beer Hall (dont do this on the last day because you wont make your departure due to intoxication )

3/ Concentration Camp

Edited May 26, 2009 by 3 SERIES

[Yuen 16]

Great time to go to Europe!

As far as BMW activities, there's the museum, factory tour and the Welt. There are tours for all three but I didn't do the museum tour. Factory tour is a must, make sure you book in advance. There are two slightly different tours for the Welt, one focuses more on the architecture. I didn't think the Welt tour was particularly crucial as you'll have plenty of fun wandering around by yourself; the extra is that you get to see the storage area for the cars pending delivery and and watch a video on it. If you have trouble getting a booking on the website, give them a call - it worked for me.

You could could do a day trip to see Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau, or go to Salzburg, both are accessible by train/bus.

[RvT 9]

Everyone has covered off the main tourist items but the Factory Tour of BMW is a must and you have to book online before you go as you are unlikely to get a tour walking up to the counter in spring / summer.

I believe the 5/6 series BMW factory tour in Dingolfing (1 hour by train from Munich) is superior to the 3 Series tour. We went thru it by pre booking online.

http://www.bmw-plant-dingolfing.com/dingol...m/en/index.html

Getting to Dingolfing is easy as you catch a train from the main train station (they run every hour and timetable is at the central train station) and it drops you off in the small town of Dingolfing. You take a 4 minute taxi ride from the station to BMW main entrance then the rest is easy. They have 1 or 2 English tours per day so you need to book in advance. I am not a car nut, but that factory tour in Dingolfing would rank in my Top 10 bucket list and I travel a lot in Europe as part of my job.

If you have any queries, just PM me.

[martyyn 2]

Go to as many wreckers as you can find and buy up all the euro satnavs and radios you can get into your luggage....and if you come across an e39 Alpina front lip

Oh and beer

[joel 0]

beer, and surfing in the park

[rxsumo 33]

Hi Team

Thanks for the advice...great work

Fortunately I have a friend in Munich....not a car guy....who will take care of the Bier stuff , he was out in December, and threatened to show me what a real beer looks like.

The 5 series plant sounds like a must do....

I reckon that the trip might be BMW and beer only....all good

[DRTDVL 0]

Also if you see a pretzel dooo it! Come to think about it, all I did in Munich was eat and drink!

I miss the hot soft pretzels i'd get in the states... 

[3 SERIES 93]

I miss the hot soft pretzels i'd get in the states... 

Yeah, they're compleatly different to the pretzels the size of a 20c piece you get here.

Nice n soft, more like bread.

[DRTDVL 0]

with musterd~!

[Hi-Tek 3]

Go to the Nuerburgring, it's not too far from Munich (4 hours), definitely go to the BMW museum, but no more than 1/2 to a whole day is needed there. I would spend the rest of my time at the Nuerburgring if possible

[RvT 9]

Go to the Nuerburgring, it's not too far from Munich (4 hours), definitely go to the BMW museum, but no more than 1/2 to a whole day is needed there. I would spend the rest of my time at the Nuerburgring if possible

Nuerburgring is tricky to get to as you need a car and taxi / train is expensive. The Grandprix track is easy to find but the Nuerburgring Ring hangs off it and it took us 1/2 hour and stopped 3 locals to get directions to the start finish line. As it is +- 16km long and not well sign posted at all. I was expecting huge signs and directions but it was almost concealed. When you get there, there is only 3 spots to view the track and you need a car to get to them.

We rocked up expecting the M5 to be running and "waiting" for customers but everything was shut up except toilets and the M5 only ran at weekends and needed to be prebooked months in advance. In the end we got talking to the guys to do driver training and they had a class going around. I paid 60 Euros and got 3 hot laps in a VW Production Golf as a passenger. That was a fantastic experience and after all the hassles, well worth the drive.

Bottom line, you need to be on the track to really get a taste for what it is about. It isn't a tourist spot like I was expecting and all the action is on the track. On our first circuit around the track, there were 3 deer eating from the side of the Nuerburgring track itself. Worth going to but if I did it again, I would book a driver training course in advance (number of operators do it based at the Nuerburgring) and it would be another one off the bucket list

[rxsumo 33]

Some updates.....

5 Series factory tour is only open on Mondays @ 17:30, as production now doesnt run all week...so that now out ...my Mondays away are at LeMans or in Tokyo

Nurburgring, was already out, didn't really have time, but found out that the 'Ring Taxi only runs on Sundays, and the Zakspeed Viper rides weren't available until the end of the month. There were only 2-3 hour nights sessions available at the track on the days that I was there....and it was hardly worth hiring one of the 'Ring rental cars for that length of available track time. Read the warnings about taking normal rental cars out ... 2000 euro fines on Avis and Hertz cars if you get caught...bit rich for me to risk.

Still stuggling to get a Factory tour booking at 3 series plant Munich....either there is no bookings available for June via the website, or the website is really only for group bookings, and I'll have to do a phone booking.

[Yuen 16]

That's exactly what happened to me - website was telling me no bookings available even up till the latest date possible. So I called them and there were lots of spots left even less then two weeks away. I think there's something wrong with the website. Mind you calling them can be quite frustrating as it seems there are only a few english speaking operators, but the tour is well worth it

Edited May 28, 2009 by Mpulsive

[QuickSilver 0]

Lots to do in Munich, was there in December, back to see family in Germany (Suttgart = hometown). Popped in to see the museum and BMW world.

Do the rest as suggested above, but to be honest, the museum itself sucked in my opinion. I thoroughly enjoyed BMW world and there is HEAPS to do there, its interactive and interesting. But the museum itself is old and outdated and in need of a re-vamp. This is just my opinion of course.

Time to kill? Why not take a seat in the "Storm of ingenuity" and watch as wealthy business men pick up their brand new BMW's. Yes, there are spectator seats where you can watch as their car is presented to them and they receive their keys and drive away.

If you want to see the best museum EVER go to Stuttgart and check out the Damler-benz museum. - F.T.W.

Edited May 28, 2009 by QuickSilver

[tsamb 0]

Break into BMW storage and find the M8!

[Hi-Tek 3]

Nuerburgring is tricky to get to as you need a car and taxi / train is expensive.

I was there last year, it's not that hard to find, going anywhere in Europe without GPS is a silly idea though. I drove 19,000km around Europe in the car my partner andI leased (would have been so much harder without GPS though).

[moktar 7]

This seems popular

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitge...00.html#ref=rss

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2956]

The footie season is over, and England aren't in town, so it should be a bit quieter than when I last went over

[rxsumo 33]

An update so that if anybody else decides that they need some information on Munich

The Factory tours for Munich, are generally block-booked for new car deliveries, so that's why its differcult to get a booking, however if you rock up to the museum, I found them very helpful, and they said that the spaces for the tours get released daily so when I rocked up they were 6 spare spots, the tour started at 10:30.

The museum was pretty cool - Quicksilver - I'm not too sure when you visited the Museum last, but it didnt seem outdated to me, the Motorsport area was way cool, with a mint E9 CSL from the US - absolutely mint.

There were basically one of every type of BMW model range up until the 90's, however the selection of the models was interesting.

For the E12, there was only an early 520, there was no E34, although the 7's were well represented - having a complete area for the family lineage of the luxury cars....including the only E3, a 3.3iL.

The Deutsches Museum - Verkehrszentrum was also worth a visit, a display of the new Hydrogen cell 7 series, some interesting old cars and trains, and some rare 60 and 70's cars.