Every visitor should check out Marienplatz, the main square. At 11 a.m. daily the dancing figures in the town hall Glockenspiel perform. Nearby is the Frauenkirche, or Church of Our Lady. The 450-year-old, onion-shaped domes topping its towers have come to symbolize Munich. The best view of the city is from the 332-foot-high north tower, where on clear days the Bavarian Alps, only 50 miles away, can be seen. For an even better view, though a bit out of the center of the town, visit the 1972 Olympic grounds for an elevator trip up the television tower, which is almost three times higher.

Munich’s array of art museums is too extensive to list, but whatever your interest —paintings, ceramics, sculpture, ethnology—there should be a collection for you. Of special interest is the Alte Pinakothek, which houses one of the world’s greatest art collections, including rooms full of works by Rubens and Dürer.

The Deutsches Museum features a great technical collection rivaling the Smithsonian’s, and shouldn’t be missed. This museum is a fantasy world of pushbutton fun with machines to crawl through and explore, including an early submarine and classic cars, airplanes and locomotives. The collection seems endless—from replicas of early mines you can explore to a hall full of harpsichords, this museum has every kind of mechanical device and many important inventions. It’s a place children (and many adults) never want to leave.

Another excursion is to Dachau, site of the concentration camp, now preserved as a memorial. It’s approximately a 40-minute drive from the city center.

If you have an extra day or two in Munich, consider a bus tour to the castles of Ludwig II, the Dream King—some called him mad—of Bavaria. A particularly good tour is the Royal Castles Tour, promoted by the Bavarian Tourist Board. The luxury bus trip visits Neuschwanstein (inspiration for Disneyland’s castle), Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee, three great castles built by Ludwig.