Sights

English Garden
Europe's largest city park (5km x 1.5km) is the place for nude sunbathing, as well as your everyday strolling, boating and imbibing Pilsner in a beer garden.
One of the beer gardens even has a Chinese Tower plonked in the middle of it, dating back to the park's construction in 1789.  An arm of the Isar River flows through the park, with surfing an added attraction on one of its chilly rapids ever since a GI from the occupying US forces waxed down a makeshift board and set off to find some waves in a landlocked state. The formerly bohemian suburb of Schwabing runs parallel to the English Garden. Head there for its graceful Jugendstil architecture and lively restaurant and bar scene along buzzy Leopoldstrasse.

Königsplatz
This square is surrounded by Munich's major art museums. The square plays host to open-air cinema and the occasional rock concert. The square is dominated by two Greek-revivalist piles commissioned by Ludwig I to house yet more museums. The Glyptothek borders the square to the north, packed full of Greek and Roman sculpture nabbed by Ludwig I during a jaunt to Italy. The mock-Etruscan villa adjacent to the Glyptothek is Lenbach House, former home of Bismarck portraitist Franz von Lenbach and now displaying a staggering array of 19th-century German paintings; the section upstairs devoted to the Blaue Reiter painters is perhaps more appealing, especially if you're a fan of Franz Marc or Kandinsky.
And for yet more museums, head further north for more Pinakotheks than you can shake a charcoal stick at: visit the Alte Pinakothek to see works by Botticelli, Dürer, van der Weyden and Rubens; to the Neue Pinakothek for Van Gogh, Manet and Goya; and to the Pinakothek der Moderne for applied arts, graphics and architecture.

Marienplatz
This famous square is the heart and soul of the Altstadt (the old city centre). Its features include the glowing Mariensäule (Mary Column), erected in 1638 to celebrate the removal of Swedish forces; the neo-Gothic Neues Rathaus or city hall; and the flamboyant nonsecular St Peterskirche.
Visit Marienplatz on a warm sunny day and you'll find the world and its dog enjoying this open expanse of cafés. The spikes and turrets of the 19th-century neo-Gothic Neues Rathaus grace the square's northern border, while the forlorn bombed remains of the original town hall, the Altes Rathaus (1474), squat at its eastern end. The obvious photo opportunity is the Glockenspiel in the centre of the Neues Rathaus; the marvellous figures spring into action at 11am, 12pm, 5pm, 9pm. Take a lift to the top of the ridiculously spindly spire for more pix. The square is graced by two churches. If the Föhn is blowing you can see the Alps in all their glory from the top of the Gothic St Peterskirche, and the rococo ceiling of the Heiliggeistkirche is just as gob-smacking. The other church you can see to the northwest is the city's trademark Frauenkirche - those oxidised copper onion domes are reproduced on everything from beersteins to tea towels. Ludwig the Bavarian is buried here. To the north there's Ludwig's Alter Hof, home of the Wittelsbachs before they moved to the Residenz; it received its severe neo-Gothic facelift during 19th-century renovations.

Residenz
The palatial pile that housed the Wittelsbachs from 1385 to 1918 looms over the northern aspect of Max-Joseph-Platz. The complex today houses the Residence Museum, the Residence Treasury, the Old Residence Theatre and the Egyptian Art Museum.
The Residenzmuseum's extraordinary number of rooms are jam-packed with Wittelsbach treasures. There's an antiquarium, rooms filled with Italian portraiture and Romantic depictions of Italian vistas (Italy was obviously all the go in the 18th century), the gold-splattered Ancestral Gallery of Bavarian rulers, halls devoted to battles once fought and rooms filled with porcelain from Berlin, Meissen and Nymphenburg. If diamonds are your best friend - along with rubies, emeralds and sapphires - you'll swoon over the treasury and Bavarian crown jewels. There's also an excellent display of antiquities on show at the Egyptian Art Museum, perched on the Residenz's northern corner on Odeonplatz. The Hofgarten is opposite, with a central Diana Temple and views of the pepper-pot towers of the Theatinerkirche St Kajetan, another favourite city landmark.

Schloss Nymphenburg
This picture-perfect Baroque palace was built from 1664 to 1758 as the royal family's summer residence. And what an over-the-top escapist fantasy it is. There's a two-storey dining hall decorated with fabulous frescoes, a room stuffed with Gobelin tapestries, a Heraldic Room, Chinese Lacquer Room and the Gallery of Beauties, lined with portraits of 38 local stunners who'd caught Ludwig I's eye (including a smouldering depiction of Lola Montez). The Royal Stables feature Ludwig II's unused wedding coach (the engagement faultered), and the Porcelain Museum is housed in the former Nymphenburg Porcelain factory. An English-style park surrounds the palace, highlighted by a central canal, various follies, a crystal and gilt-bedripped hunting lodge, Chinese teahouse, bathing house, witch's cottage, tropical greenhouses and a natural history museum.

Viktualienmarkt
The bustling Viktualienmarkt is one of Europe's great food markets, perfect for topping up your supplies or hunting for some edible souvenirs. In summer it's transformed into one of the finest and most expensive beer gardens around, while in winter there's warmth and schnapps in small pubs around the square.