Mid-range · 6-hour walk · Munich
The museum quarter and the English Garden in six hours
Königsplatz and the Pinakotheken, then north into the biggest city park in Europe.
Ludwig I wanted Munich to look like Athens and built Königsplatz to prove it; the art quarter behind it is where the Wittelsbach collection ended up. This route pairs that with the English Garden, which is larger than Central Park and where the whole city goes the moment the weather allows. Sunday entry to the state museums is one euro, which is not a typo.
The route, stop by stop
-
Königsplatz
Doric propylaea, Ionic glyptothek, Corinthian antikensammlung — one square, three orders, entirely deliberate. The Nazis paved it for rallies; the grass came back in 1988.
20 min here Walk here → -
Alte Pinakothek
Four hundred years of European painting in a building that still shows its bomb damage in the brickwork, left visible on purpose. Dürer's self-portrait is the one people come for.
80 min here Walk here → -
Pinakothek der Moderne
Four collections in one building — art, graphics, architecture and design. The design basement is the strongest and the least visited.
50 min here Walk here → -
Odeonsplatz
The Feldherrnhalle here is where Hitler's 1923 putsch was stopped by police gunfire. The lane behind it, Viscardigasse, is where people detoured to avoid saluting; the cobbles are still marked in bronze.
20 min here Walk here → -
Chinesischer Turm
A wooden pagoda from 1790 with seven thousand seats around it. You may bring your own food to a Bavarian beer garden, and at this one everybody does.
45 min here Walk here → -
Kleinhesseloher See
Twenty minutes further north and the crowds thin out entirely. Three islands, rowing boats, and the point where the English Garden stops feeling like a park in a city.
30 min here Walk here →
More in Munich
Every walking route in Munich, or the full Munich guide for where to stay and what a day costs.