Regions and Cities of Germany

Munich is the capital of the free state of Bavaria, located in the south of Germany. It has a population of approximately a million and a half inhabitants and harbours one of Germany's largest universities, with around 102 800 students. It is a rich and prosperous city in which a great number of companies have their headquarters, such as BMW and Siemens.

Munich has recently become the second most popular destination in Germany after Berlin, greatly due to its proximity to other tourist destinations such as Prague and Budapest. The city is a refuge for high culture, with an amazing array of museums and a vigorous artistic scene. The all time favourite Oktoberfest (Beer festivities celebrated in October) is typical here in Munich.

In general, the locals are conservative and proud, although none the less friendly. However, one shouldn't be surprised if one finds them to be slightly droll, especially when trying to make oneself understood, as the Bavarian dialect can even be a language barrier of Germans at times. Even so, at university students study in "Hochdeutsch" (standard German).

The climate is cold, with snow in winter and plenty of rain. When the wind gets up it can become rather unbearable, although in late spring and summer on good days it gets quite warm.

Munich has a large airport, Flughafen München Franz-Josef Strauss, which is situated 30 km from central Munich. One of the most affordable transport options is taking one of the S-Bahn lines, such as S1 or S8 which will get you to the Marienplatz or Hauptbahnhof, from where you can then take one of the subway lines (U-Bahn). The city offers a wide range of transportation means: taxi, subway (U-Bahn), tram, buses, suburban trains (S-Bahn).

Being a relatively large and prosperous city, Munich has all sorts of entertainment available: theatres, concerts, movie theatres, opera, cabarets, discos of all styles (grouped mainly in the Kunstparköst area) and bars of all sorts.

At the Olympic Park (Olympiapark, U-Bahn U3 to Olympiazentrum) huge concerts and sporting events are held. It is also ideal for wandering, sun baking (when its actually shining) or participating in some sort of sport; there is even an indoors pool open to the public.

Another park, even more famous than the former, is the English Garden (Englischer Garten, U-Bahn U3/U6 to Universität), situated behind the university area of Ludwig Maximilian Universität; whenever the weather is tolerable, it is full of people and has many places to go and see.