And speaking of majestic, a tour of the former Wittelsbach family homes offers a glimpse of how the rulers of Bavaria lived. They controlled Bavaria from the middle of the 12th century to the beginning of the 20th -- that's an 800-year reign, the kind you could have in the good old days before term limits. The family spent the winters in town, at their palace known as the Residenz. These days, visitors can roam through its halls and see the royal apartments, the crown jewels and an extraordinary collection of objects from the royal court of Bavaria.

The Wittelsbach summer place on the edge of town, Nymphenburg Castle, is also open to the public. Its original design called for an astonishing 76 bedrooms, 53 sitting rooms, 33 reception areas and four ballrooms -- but no bathrooms. Clearly, a great creative vision can neglect the occasional detail.

For a place where no detail has been overlooked, stop into the ultimate German beer hall, Munich's Hofbrauhaus. Noisy, bawdy and filled with tourists from practically every nation in the world, it's worth a brief visit. The Hofbrauhaus came into being in 1589 as part of a fund-raising program for Duke Wilhelm V. At the time, Munich's beer was being imported from independent states in northern Germany, a practice that was destroying the prince's balance of payments. The prince's top accountant suggested that a local brewery and beer hall could work wonders for his majesty's bank account. And so the first Hofbrauhaus was introduced.

If you find yourself on the premises, you might enjoy tasting a "radler." Half-beer and half-lemonade, it was invented for people who go about on bicycles or operate heavy machinery. At some point, you should also taste the local sausages, traditionally eaten as a late-morning snack. The German word for sausage is wurst, and dozens of different kinds appear in German cooking.

The people of Munich think the best of the wurst is a white sausage called weisswurst. But anyone ordering a white sausage past noon is committing a serious faux pas. Before being eaten, the meat is removed from its casing by what could be considered a surgical procedure and then dipped in sweet mustard, to be accompanied by a pretzel and a beer. My preference is the wheat-based beers. Keep in mind that toasts made with wheat beer are clinked only at the base of the glass, while regular beers get clinked with a full broadside.

Don't forget your pretzels while in Munich. The city is the capital of all things pretzel, and they can be found anywhere and at all times. According to folklore, the curved bread was developed by French or German monks as a symbol of hands praying, and given to children to remind them of the importance of prayer. "Pretzel" comes from a Latin word meaning little arms. Usually, pretzels are presented as bread in a basket rather than as a snack. At the end of the meal, your server may ask you how many you ate and charge accordingly. Keeping track of one's pretzel intake is probably a good idea, anyway.

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