Unwinding in Munich, Germany | Notes from the Archive
the eighth official city on my 2012 inter-railing trip!
*SHARED TO THE BLOG IN DECEMBER 2025.
ARCHIVE / aar•kive / (noun): a collection of historical documents or records providing information about a place, institution, or group of people.
Welcome to a new Notes from the Archive post, a series in which I am sharing some of my old & well documented travel notes to the blog. I’ve been keeping detailed notes and journals from my travels abroad long before I ever started sharing that content to this little corner of the internet. For some reason, it only dawned on me recently that, although not as thorough as my note-taking and journaling of today, this information could a. be useful to someone out there planning a trip, b. offer a glimpse into my travel days of yore, or c. just be fun for me to relive briefly under the pretense of being useful — so I figured why not share them here!
If you have stumbled across this post on a deep-dive through the blog archives, hello! I have done my darndest to make sure every piece of information shared here is just as relevant today as it was the day it was scrawled in my journal. I would also like to take a moment here to apologise in advance for any poor-quality photographs. You have been warned.
Today’s Notes from the Archive post — Unwinding in Munich, Germany — covers everything myself and my then-boyfriend got up to during our 2012 inter-railing trip. Munich was the eighth official city of the trip, and, aside from a couple daytrips, our last real stop before heading back home to Ireland! Fortunately, I’d been to visit family in Munich a few times before, so this time ‘round we used the city as a place to relax & unwind a little after three hectic weeks of non-stop traveling. Spoiler alert: it was glorious!
Listed below is all the useful information I could garner from my trusty old journal, divided into the following categories for ease: getting there / where we stayed / where we drank / and where we touristed.
Enjoy, friends!
getting there
Here’s how we made the journey in to Munich, and also how we made the journey out of Munich:
we took the train from Berlin Hauptbahnhof to München-Pasing station, which took a lengthy 6-hours and 40-minutes.
from München-Pasing station, we took the S4 S-Bahn heading in the direction of Geltendof, and got out at the Buchenau (Oberbay) stop, which took around 20-minutes.
from Buchenau (Oberbay) station, we walked a very convenient 5-minutes to my great-aunt and -uncle’s house.
if you’re counting along with me, this journey from Berlin to Munich was the sixth official use of our inter-railing tickets, which allowed us to travel on any 7-days within a 1-month period. For more info on the different inter-railing tickets, see the official website here.
FYI: inter-railing tickets allow for free travel on all German S-Bahn trains — but ONLY the S-Bahn trains, and not any U-Bahn trains, trams, or buses! However, if you’re hoping to avail of a free S-Bahn ride, be sure to plan accordingly and line the journey up with a bigger travel day, as you’d need to deduct this from one of your official travel days.
a couple days later, we needed to head from Buchenau to Munich International Airport for our flight back home to Dublin with Ryanair. Here’s how we did it:
from Buchenau (Oberbay) station, we took the S4 S-Bahn heading in the directions of Haar and got out at the Hirschgarten stop. This train took about 30-minutes.
from Hirschgarten, we then took the S1 S-Bahn heading in the direction of München Flughafen Terminal, which delivered us directly to the airport in around 40-minutes.
where we stayed
Buchenau, Fürstenfeldbruck // I am very fortunate to have family that live in this neck of the woods, and we absolutely took full advantage of that. It was so nice having a real home base for a few solid days; we did our washing, cooked actual meals, had relaxing days where we did nothing but hang out in the garden etc., it was wonderful! The town itself also isn’t too far away from Munich city centre, only about 35-minutes on the S-Bahn.
where we drank
Ordinarily, this would be a where we ate section — but we didn’t eat out anywhere on this leg of our journey, choosing instead to eat at home with my great-aunt and family. However, we clearly didn’t go all the way to Munich without drinking some wonderful beers! Here’s where we stopped:
Augustiner Stammhaus // Augustiner is my favourite beer of all time and when we randomly strolled past this spot it felt like fate. We both ordered a beer & a giant pretzel, obvz. A must visit. Address: Neuhauser Str. 27, 80331 München
Viktualienmarkt Beergarden // because this beer garden is city-owned and not brewery-owned like every other one, they buy in a large amount of beer from one of the city’s six local breweries and just keep serving it until it runs out. Lucky for us, they were serving Augustiner when we visited, which we enjoyed with a ginormous salty pretzel each. A must visit. Address: Viktualienmarkt 3, 80331 München
where we touristed
Keeping in mind that we planned to mostly relax in Munich, here’s what we got up to when we actually dragged ourselves out of the house:
Walk of the Century, Munich Edition // you guessed it: we opted for another SANDEMANs free walking tour. This one started at the base of the Rathaus-Glockenspiel in Marienplatz, ended at Odeonsplatz, and had us walking about 2.3-kilometres around the city. Here’s what we saw:
Rathaus-Glockenspiel // which we watched do its twice daily reenactment of Munich’s history, with life-size wooden characters.
Frauenkirche // the highest landmark in Munich’s skyline, with two onion shaped domes sitting on top of its towers.
St. Peter’s Church // aka: Alter Peter — the oldest church in Munich.
Viktualienmarkt // a large food market and square that houses the city-owned beer garden.
Hofbräuhaus München // the city’s most famous beer hall, founded in the 1540s!
Max-Joseph-Platz // a big fancy square, lined on one side by the Bavarian State Opera, and on the other by the royal palace, Munich Residenz.
Drückebergergasse // aka: Dodger’s Alley. A narrow side street people would run down to avoid having to pass and salute a Nazi memorial at Feldherrnhalle.
Odeonsplatz // another fancy square
Fürstenfeld Monastery // from the outside, it looks rather bland: pale green, a hint of baroque architecture, nothing too eye-catching. But then! The decor inside is ridiculously over the top: Rococo style, pink and frilly, covered in tiny decorations everywhere, with paintings and sculptures all over the walls and ceiling, not to mention how huge the place feels, creating the most fantastic dwarfing feeling. It’s amazing. Would recommend. Address: Fürstenfeld 7, 82256 Fürstenfeldbruck
Daytrip to Stegen am Ammersee & Dießen am Ammersee // one of the perks of staying with family in foreign countries is that they’ll often tote you around to places you wouldn’t naturally have come across, and that’s exactly what happened here! My lovely great-aunt drove us out to two gorgeous towns on either side of lake Ammersee, and it was so nice! We took in the lake views, stopped for beer & pretzels, strolled the boardwalks, did a spot of duck watching, stopped for ice-cream, and browsed around some fancy boutique galleries and shops. Would recommend!
Daytrip to Salzburg // more on this coming soon — but a daytrip between the two cities is totally possible; the train only takes about an hour and a half! Would recommend.
And there we have it: Unwinding in Munich, Germany! I hope you enjoyed this latest post in my Notes from the Archive series! I’ll be back soon with the next stop from my inter-railing trip: Salzburg!
Until then,
Vicki xo
*Date of trip: 2nd - 7th June, 2012*
related posts
My 2012 Inter-Railing Itinerary | Notes from the Archive
Munich City Guide
Bremen, Germany