Covering an area of over 200,000 square metres (almost 55 acres) the Botanical Garden in Munich, Bavaria is not not only home to about 14,000 plants but also one of the most important botanical gardens in the world.

In the glasshouse complex you can go on a botanical journey to hot and humid regions, evergreen mountain forests and hot and arid deserts.

Or would you like to get some inspiration for your own garden, you get that in the large ornamental courtyard. In the large arboretum and the order beds will show you the family relationships of plants as well as their ecological needs.

Very interesting too is the alpine garden on the Schachen, located in the Wettersteingebirge about 90 kilometres south of Munich at a height of 1,860 metres, which not only is an invaluable basis for research but also serves to preserve rare European plant and bee species.

Throughout the year several events take place in the Munich Botanical Garden. From December till April you can see tropical butterflies in the greenhouses and from May 18th to May 29th 2011 there will be a Bonsai exhibition in the Winter Hall (Winterhalle).

From the Botanical Garden you can easily get to Nymphenburg Palace with its large park. You can either go for a walk or visit the Museum of Man and Nature (Museum für Mensch und Natur).

Opening Hours of Munich Botanical Garden:

• January, November, December: Main entrance: 9am, – 4.30pm    Glasshouse complex: 9am – 4pm
• February, March, October: Main entrance: 9am – 5pm    Glasshouse complex: 9am – 4.30pm
• April, September: Main entrance: 9am – 6pm    Glasshouse complex: 9am – 5.30pm
• May, June, July, August: Main entrance: 9am – 7pm    Glasshouse complex: 9 am– 6.30pm

Nymphenburg Palace or Schloss Nymphenburg as it is called in German is a Baroque palace in Munich, Bavaria.

Nymphenburg Palace used to be the main summer residence of the Bavarian electors and kings and commissioned by the prince-electoral couple Ferdinand Maria and Henriette Adelaide of Savoy to celebrate the birth of their son and heir. It was designed by the Italian Architect Agostino Barelli in 1664.

Nymphenburg Palace © Julia Höfer-von Seelen

From 1701 on the palace was systematically extended, two pavilions by Enrico Zucalli and Joseph Effner were added in the south and north of the original palace and the southern section was even further extended to form the court stables.

The massive Great Hall (Steinerner Saal) was beautifully decorated in Rococo style with ceiling frescos by Johann Baptist Zimmermann and F Zimmermann. Also worth a visit is the ‘Gallery of Beauties”, painted by Joseph Stieler for King Ludwig I.

Today the court stables are home to one of the most important museums of ancient carriagas, the Marstallmuseum, and also house a collection of Nymphenburg porcelain. The factory being founded by Maximilian III Joseph was also located in the palace complex. The handcrafted products of that factory were of legendary kind of quality and are comparable to Augarten andSevres.

Nymphenburg Palace view from park © Julia Höfer-von Seelen

The large 490acre (200hectare) historic park of Nymphenburg Palace and the Botanic Gardens invite visitors for a walk. In the park you can see a number of beautiful pavilions such as the Pagodenburg (1716-1719), Badenburg (1719-1721), Magdalenenklause (1725-1728), Amalienburg (1734-1739) and Apollotempel (1862-1865).

The palace as well as the park are one of the most famous and most popular sights of Munich and really worth a visit.

This year the Munich Oktoberfest is going to celebrate its 200th anniversary. It will be held from September 18th to October 4th, 2010.

The Oktoberfest is the world’s largest fair and an important part of Bavarian culture. It traditionally takes place during the sixteen days in up to the first Sunday in October and is held on the so called Theresienwiese (or Wiesn for short) in Munich, Bavaria. More than 6 million visitors come from all over Europe, the US, Canada, India, Japan, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand.

Oktoberfest Munich © flickr/digital cat 

The Oktoberfest was first held in October 1810 to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig (later King Ludwig I) and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hilburghausen. The citizens of Munich were invited to join the festivities held at the Theresienwiese (Theresa’s field) outside the city gates and a horse race marked the end of the festival. The decision to hold a horse race again the following year gave rise to the tradition of the Oktoberfest.

And still today you can see horses drawing the carriages on the opening day of the Oktoberfest. On that day the ancient brewery carriages and the horses will be magnificently decorated.

If you want to catch the officially opening ceremonies you should be in the Schottenhamel tent at noon on September 18th.  The lord mayor of Munich then will have the honour of tapping the first keg of Oktoberfest beer. And once the barrel has been tapped, all visitors will be allowed to drink beer too.

Oktoberfest © flickr/sanfamedia.com

At the Oktoberfest not only about 70,000 hectolitres of beer will be drunk,  visitors will also eat huge amounts of typical Oktoberfest food such as Hendl (chicken), Schweinsbraten (roast pork), Haxn (pork knuckle), Würstl (sausages), Weisswurst (white sausages), Brezn (pretzel) and many more.

Since 1850 the statue of the Bavaria, the worldly Bavarian patron, has been watching the Oktoberfest. It was first sketched by Leo von Klenze, roanticised and ‘Germanised’ by Ludwig Michael Schwanthaler and constructed by Johann Baptist Stiglmaier and Ferdinand von Miller.

This year special events will be held to celebrate the anniversary of the Octoberfest. There will be a historical Oktoberfest with ancient fun rides and beer tents and a horse race will also take place. Even a special anniversary beer will be brewed. Normally every brewery has its own beer for the Oktoberfest but this year there will be a special beer brewed by all of them using old recipes that are slightly modified to match today’s taste .  Visitors interested in the history of the Oktoberfest can learn more about it in the Museum Tent.

Carnival in Germany is can also be called Karneval, Fasching or Fastnacht, depending in what region you are.

The most famous probably is the carnival in Cologne, Düsseldorf or Mainz. The date for carnival by the way is related to Easter. As the Lenten season is a periode of 40 you will have to count back from Easter to get to Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Lenten season. The Sundays don’t count though, because you wouldn’t like to fast on a Sunday, would you.

Köln©flickr-Rich B-S

The real beginning of the carnival season though already is on November 11th at 11:11 am every year.
The outdoor carnival then really starts with the so called “Weiberfastnacht” on Shrove Thursday (Feb. 11, 2010). On this day you can see women in fancy dresses everywhere in the city, as it is the women’s day. In Düsseldorf the women enter the guildhall to cut off men’s ties.

In Cologne you can see one of Germany’s largest carnival parades on Carnival Monday (Feb. 15, 2010). The whole city will be dancing and celebrating. The well known call on that day is “Kölle Alaff”. It is said that the old battle call in Cologne was “Coellen all aff” which meant “Cologne over all”. But the parades in Düsseldorf and Mainz aren’t any smaller or less interesting. The special call here is Helau.
On Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Lenten season, you usually have a fish dinner in one of the pubs or restaurants.

In Braunschweig (Brunswick) you can see one of the largest parades of the North of Germany. It already takes place on Sunday (Feb. 14th, 2010) as Carnival Monday here is a normal work day.

In Baden-Württemberg carnival is called Fastnacht and here you see many witches, devils and carnival fools in traditional costumes.

In Munich the market-women traditionally dance on the Viktualienmarkt on Carnival Tuesday.
But in other parts of Germany you can celebrate carnival too of course.