Most visitors treat Garmisch-Partenkirchen as a base camp with a ticket booth. They ride the Zugspitzbahn, photograph the Olympic ski jump from the bus, and leave before they notice that this place is still two towns sharing one postcode. I stay for Partenkirchen’s Ludwigstraße. House saints, trade symbols, and painted windows lean out over a … Read more
Cross the river from Marienplatz, and the noise drops a notch. Trams slow. The façades lose a story and pick up window boxes. You are in Haidhausen, on the east bank of the Isar, and the square that still behaves like a village green is Wiener Platz — maypole in the middle, chestnut shade, and … Read more
Tour groups hit the Residenz for the Tiepolo ceiling, climb toward Marienberg for the postcard, then hurry back to the coach park. Fine if you only have an afternoon. The Würzburg that holds me is narrower and wetter: a stone bridge over the Main where locals buy a small glass of Franconian wine and … Read more