Munich is the largest city in the south of Germany and is about an hour and a half drive from the Alps. Most of the time the mountains are just a dark unclear shadow on the horizon, but with the right weather conditions - specifically a special wind called the Foehn, they become crystal and beautifully clear. This is when the postcard pictures get taken. Munich is a very culturally active city too with its orchestras, ensembles, opera houses and theatre. All the major music artists will pass through Munich on their European tours.

This building dates from 1563-67 and was originally conceived as an extension to the castle. Around the middle of the 16th century already it housed one of the first, albeit private, museums north of the Alps. From 1803 to 1983 it was used as an official mint, last by the German Bundesbank. Today's main attraction for visitors is the trapezoid interior courtyard from Renaissance times with its three-storey-high arcade corridors.

The foundation stone of this noteworthy Church of St.John Nepomuk was laid in 1733 by the brothers Ägid Quirin (1686-1739) and Cosmas Damian Asam (1692-1750), builders with the highest reputation of their day. This church, a mere 8.8 metres wide and 28.8 metres long, was erected on their private property next to their richly decorated living-quarters (Asam House). The initial building application was refused, since neither the town council nor Elector Karl Albrecht saw any need for an additional church. But when the brothers promised to dedicate the place to St.John Nepomuk, a Prague martyr who four years earlier had been beatified, the town council changed its mind. The edifice was completed in 1746 and is a foremost example of rococo splendour.

Films have been produced in this exquisite Munich suburb since 1919, amongst others Wolfgang Petersen's widely-known 'The Boat' after the book by Lothar-Günther Buchheim, and 'The Never-ending Story' (1984) after Michael Ende's bestselling novel. Ninety-minute guided tours allow cinema fans to wander around.

More than 18,000 exhibits (amongst them Jacob Sander's town model from 1570) form part of the basic equipment of this museum, which in 1988 was awarded the Council of Europe's museum prize. It is grouped together with the collection of art-history (from the Middle Ages to the middle of the 19th century), the Arts and Crafts Museum (arts and crafts since the Middle Ages) and the Museum of Cultural History (folklore and primitive art).

The Cathedral of Our Lady, as the Frauenkirche's full appellation runs, was built during the second half of the 15th century and consecrated in 1494. The green belfries of its soberly decorated towers are in the form of the so-called 'Welsh Hood'. These towers are frequently seen in southern Germany , and soon became the city's hallmark. They demonstrate the transition from Gothic to Renaissance. Many of the works of art donated to the church attest to the religiosity of the people of Munich through the centuries.

On the banks of the River Isar and visible all around, Pallas Athene, painted shiny gilt and grasping an olive branch, is poised above the tree tops at a height of 23 metres. Looking at the statue from somewhere along lower Prinzeregentenstrasse, the figure, erected for the 25th anniversary of the 1896 victory over France, seems a perfect finishing point to this majestic thoroughfare.

This excellent collection of antique sculptures is housed in an edifice imitating in perfect fashion the classical temple forms. Not only has the Barberini faun enjoyed world fame.

On the grounds of Munich's medieval castle, called Neuveste, and surrounded by wide moats, the Wittelsbachs built their residence in the 16th century. Dukes and Kings reigned here until their abdication in 1918. The manifold alterations made during various construction periods can be clearly seen when you look at the entirety of the edifice. Both its mandators and architects, of differing fashions and tastes, from Renaissance over Rococo to Classicism, have immortalised themselves here.

Besides hunting gear and diverse trophies, a few very rare specimens of the Bavarian fairytale creature called 'Wolpertinger' are on view here.