Munich Kids

Munich’s Botanical Gardens (Botanischer Garten) are a real treasure that you should visit at least once while you are in Munich.  You can visit anytime throughout the year, as the flower beds are replanted seasonally, and there is a series of glassed-in green houses for indoor plants. 

The gardens are on the grounds of the Botanical Insititute and they neighbor the park grounds of the Nymphenburg Castle to the south.  It truly is a beautiful site (and sight!).

There is a  sunken formal garden laid out in front of the Institute buildings.  An attractive waterlily pond divides the formal garden of the Schmuckhof.  Additional collections include a spring garden, ecological and genetic selection, peony and iris beds, Bavarian native plant community, moor and heather garden, and a lovely arboretum that includes trees from around the world.   There is also a very picturesque cafe that opens onto the rose gardens.

The gardens are a very beautiful and peaceful place to spend an afternoon, even with three small boys in tow!  Actually, the kids loved the Botanical Gardens.  The only difficulty is in trying to keep them from straying off the paths.  Importantly, the gardens are wheelchair and stroller accessible. 

There are special collections and exhibitions throughout the year, as well as special programs for children.  Check the website for current information.

Entrance fee is 3,00 EUR for adults.  Children up to age 12 are free. 

Address:  Main entrance at Menzinger Strasse 65

Telephone:  178 61 310

Website: http://www.botmuc.de/index.html

Nearest Public Transportation:  Tram 17 (can be taken from Hauptbahnhof) goes directly to the main entrance - stop is called Botanischer Garten

The magazine Kitz is a great resource for families living in and around Munich.  It is written in German, but the format is easy to follow with just a basic grasp of the German language.  In the June/July issue (2007), they have published a great resource for families.  A 3-page table lists almost 60 places to take the kids (of all ages) this summer.  The table includes information on the type of activity, address, telephone, and website, as well as prices for adults and kids.  Even better, the first 23 places listed are free to both kids and adults!  Suggestions range from the children’s farm in Neuabing (free) to the adventure playgruond in Pfanderling (free) to Legoland Deutschland in Guenzburg (daily entrance price).  Pick up a copy of the magazine and hang on to this handy table to keep your kids entertained all summer.  The magazine can be picked up at many places that cater to children, e.g, libraries, kindergartens, etc., or by contacting the magazine headquarters.

Telephone: 08131-50 50 28

Email: redaktion@kitz-magazin.de

Website: http://www.kitz-magazin.de

There are so many things for families and kids to do at the Olympic Park!  You could make an entire vacation out of a long weekend at the park.  I’ll hit some of the highlights, but check it out for yourself.  There is so much on offer, it’d be difficult to cover it all in one post.

The Olympic Park is the former site of the 1972 Summer Olympics.  One of the excellent benefits of hosting an Olympics, of course, is that all of the Olympic facilities remain once the games are over.  For example, there is the swim hall with 5 pools including a 50-meter long swimming pool with 7 springboards and a 10 meter high diving board.  The swim hall also holds a whirlpool, sauna, solarium, and trampoline center.  The leisure sports program is free to visitors to the swimming center.  This gives you access to two gyms, fitness training equipment, and the help of professional fitness trainers.  All of this for the price of a daily ticket (3,60 EUR for adults and 2,60 EUR for children ages 6-16, discounts for families, students, seniors, and persons with disabilities also available)!

Other sports facilities at the Olympic Park include tennis courts, a regatta course, mini-putt course, and an ice sport center.  Housed within the ice sport center is the Socca Five Arena.  There are four full-sized soccer courts and one smaller court for speed soccer.  The fields can be booked for an hour or more.  They also offer a special Kids Party for birthday parties or other special occasions.

Olympic Park is host to the former stadium of the FC Bayern Munich Soccer Team.  After the team moved to its beautiful new stadium at the Allianz Arena, the Park  has had to find creative new uses for the old stadium.  World class athletic competitions and concerts continue to be held  in the 57,000 seat stadium.

Numerous other events and concerts are held at the Olympic Park.  Additional venues besides the Olympic Stadium include the Olympic Hall, Small Olympic Hall, and Event Arena. Detailed information about upcoming events can be found on the website.

Also available on the grounds of the Olympic Park are the Sea Life Center, the Olympic Tower,  and the new BMW museum.  The Olympic Tower houses a rotating restaurant at the top, for a unique Munich dining experience.  Sea Life has been described in detail in another post on this website.  (Search under Sea Life from the home page) .   The new BMW Museum is scheduled to open at the beginning of 2008.

If you (or your kids) are thrill-seekers, try registering for a 2-hour roof climb of the Olympic Stadium, or go abseiling, i.e., hang by a harness and cable from the edge of the tent roof , 4o meters above the ground!

All of these attractions are really just the beginning, as the Olympic Park itself is beautiful.  The grounds cover 850,000 square meters. There is a lake you can stroll beside, while admiring the ducks and geese.  ( A note of caution though.  Geese can be very pushy if they think you are going to feed them, and they are about the size of a small todder.  So, keep your little ones out of their way!) The grounds have mulitple bike and walking paths.  There is also an observation point which can be reached after a short, uphill climb.   On a clear day, you can get a breathtaking view of Munich and the surrounding areas.

 Finally, in the Bavarian tradition, there is no lack of places to find something to eat.  The grounds include restaurants, biergartens, and numerous food stands where you can buy drinks and ice cream.

Address: Spiridon-Louis-Ring 21, D-80809 München

Telephone: 089/30 67-0

E-Mail: info@olympiapark-muenchen.de

Website: http://www.olympiapark-muenchen.de/index.php?id=start&L=1 (in English)

Nearest Public Transportation:  U3,  lympiazentrum; Tram 20, Olympiapark West or Tram 12, Olympiapark; MetroBus 51 and City Bus 173 und 174, Olympiazentrum

At the Fairytale Adventure Park, over 20 fairytales come alive at the push of a button as puppet figures tell their story, in German or English, in the middle of the Isartal woods in Wolfratshausen.  But, as cute as these stands are, they tend to fascinate the parents more than the children, who are automatically drawn to all of the other attractions, such as the fairground-like rides and play areas.

Here, there is something for everyone:  from baby-slides to rollercoasters.  And parents don’t have to worry about letting their kids ride alone - they can hop on and join in the fun!

The park has a beer garden, restaurant, and snack area, as well as coffee and doughnut stands.  There is also a semi-covered picnic area for those who bring their own food.

The park is open from 31st March to mid-October, from 09:00 - 18:00 (last admission 16:00). The rides stop at midday between 12:00 and 13:00 and finish for the evening at 17:45. 

Entrance fee (includes unlimited rides on everything!):

• Visitors over 1.4om                       10.25 EUR
• Children between .85-1.40m         9.25 EUR
• Pensioners (over 60)                      9.25 EUR

2.75% discount when paying cash

Address:  Maerchenwald im Isartal, Kräuterstraße 39 - 82515 Wolfratshausen

Telephone:  0 81 71 / 1 87 60

Website: http://www.maerchenwald-isartal.de 

Nearest Public Transportation: Take the S7 to Wolfratshausen, then the bus (370 and 376) to “Farchet”, towards Geretsried.  From here, it is a 10-minute walk.

By car:  exit Wolfratshausen on the A95 motorway to Garmisch.  The “Maerchenwald” is well sign-posted.  Visit the website to link up to a street-map of the area.

Have you been to the new Transportation Museum yet?  The engineers, race car drivers, and train fanatics in your family will love it.  The Transportation Museum, or Verkehrszentrum is a new branch of the Deutsches Museum which opened in the Fall of 2006.  It is the museum for “cars, trains, and everything that moves us”.

The museum is housed in three halls of the Alte Messe, or old exhibition hall.  The building itself is very pleasant to roam around in –giant open spaces with glass walls and roofs.  We were there on a clear day, and the crystal blue sky was a beautiful backdrop for the exhibits. 

Many of the exhibits are interactive.  You can play with the motors, step onto the trains, and pretend to drive a big delivery truck.  Most of the information placards are in English and German.

The highlight of the museum for my kids was the children’s play area.  An autobahn winds among the exhibits, and children can choose from dozens of “vehicles”, including Bobby cars, tricycles, and laufrads.  There are bins of construction materials to build your own transportation creation.  Numerous Mega Block cars and a series of sectional tables in the form of a race track amused my toddlers for a long, long time. The children’s area is in the main hall, with car exhibitions.

 Additional offerings for children, including a bicycle workshop can be found on their website.  From the main page, follow the link to “Information” and then “Kinder and Jugendliche”. 

A program for children’s birthdays is also available.

Address:  Theresienhöhe 14a, 80339 München

Telephone: 089/ 500 806 140

E-Mail:  verkehrszentrum@deutsches-museum.de

Website:  http://www.deutsches-museum.de/index.php?id=verkehrszentrum

Nearest Public Transportation:   U4 / U5 and Bus 134 to Schwanthalerhöhe

Sea Life Munich opened in Spring of 2006.  It is part of a group of Sea Life centers in the UK, Ireland, Germany, and other parts of Europe.  There are currently 9 Sea Life centers in Germany, of which the Munich center is the largest.

Sea Life Munich covers over 2000 square meters and holds over 30 aquariums. One of the highlights is a  400,000 liter, 7m deep ‘Sea Life’ aquarium.  You can view this giant aquarium at two levels - from the lower level, as you walk through a tunnel, with the aquarium above you, and from the top level, where you can get eye to eye with sharks and other sea life.   A giant shipwreck in the shape of a Trojan Horse adds to the whole aura of being under water.  It really is quite amazing.

A primary mission of of the Sea Life center is to provide visitors with insight into local and regional aquatic ecosystems.  The center is set up so that you must follow it from one end to the other. As you wind along the passages and tunnels, you pass through aquatic exhibits on  the Isar and Danube rivers, through to the Black Sea and the Mediterraenean Ocean.

There are small interactive learning stops, throughout.  Learning stops and information placards are printed in English and German. 

A few words to parents with young children: 1) Much of the center is darkly lit and has a close feeling about it, so young children might be frightened of the dark, claustrophobic feeling of these areas; 2) There is no coatroom or lockers to hang coats, and it’s warm inside, so you may be carrying around a lot of coats; 3) The only bathrooms, as fas as I can tell, are at the entrance to the center.  Once you have entered the center, you must go all the way through it, in one direction, to exit.  So have the kids use the toilet before you go in.

They do have plenty of space for strollers, and  an elevator is available for when you step down to the underground level.

Lines can be very long, on weekends and holidays.  I recommend going during the week, if at all possible.

Entrance is somewhat expensive - 12,50 EUR for adults and 8,50 EUR for children ages 3 -14.  Discounts are available for groups, seniors, students, and persons with disabilities.  There are also several places where you can pick up 2-for-the-price-of-1 coupons.  I picked up my coupon at Pizza Hut.

Address:  Willi-Daume-Platz 1, 80809 München (in the Olympic Park)

Telephone: 089/ 45 00 00

Email: muenchen@sealife.de

Website:  http://www.sealifeeurope.com/

Nearest Public Transportation:  U3 to Olympic Zentrum, follow the signs to Sea Life, about 5-10 minutes on foot

In addition to the Hellabrunn Zoo in Munich, there is another animal park in the Munich area.  It is called the Berg Tierpark Blindham.  I have not visited it myself, yet, but is has been recommended by a reader of Munich Kids.  In addition to being able to see the animals, they have additional offers for children. These include a playground, bungy-trampoline, and guided tours for birthday parties.

The Berg Tier Park is open daily from 9:00 -20:00 during the Summer, and from 10:00 - 18:00 during the Winter. Entrance price is 4,30 EUR for adults and 2,90 EUR for children aged 3 -12.  Discounts are available for seniors, students, persons with disabilities, and groups.  A yearly pass is also available.

It looks somewhat difficult to get there by public transportation.  The nearest stop appears to be a bus stop that leaves you with a 1 km walk on foot.  More details are available on the web site.  From the home page, click on “Besucherinfo”.  Then click on “Anfahrt” to obtain transportation information.

Address:  Blindham 3, 85653 Aying

Phone:  (0) 8063 20 76 38

Website:  http://www.bergtierpark.de/

Nearest Public Transportation: From Aying with Busline 9582 Aying/Bad Aibling or Busline 9581 Aying/Bad Feilnbach to the Aschbach/Haus Hoheneck bus stop.  From there 1 km to the zoo by foot.