MUNICH PICTURE GALLERY: Want to see some great pictures of Munich Germany? Messing around one night I discovered the genius of Bing Maps' birds-eye view perspective. This cool feature lets you pan around and take in the sights over different cities. The images were apparently taken from low-flying aircraft. It's just like cruising around in a hot-air balloon or something, and a hell of a lot more convenient. So climb aboard, I'll get the gas-burners fired up and we'll take a tour of Munich from the sky.
FIRST STOP: Ah, a classic Munich picture view from above. That's Munich's cathedral, the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) on the left and the Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall) on the right. You can get a similar view - albeit not as high as we are now - by climbing the Alter Peter church tower.
GOING UP..: Let's head north first. Up here we can see Munich's opera central, the Nationaltheater, in the top right. The royal Munich Residenz palace takes up most of the rest of our view to the left. Both buildings both front onto Max-Joseph-Platz.
SECOND PLATZ: Look down there, just left of the middle you can see Odeonsplatz, where it seems like they're setting up for an event of some kind. It's fronted onto by the Feldherrnhalle - Field Marshalls' Hall (with the arches) and the yellow Theatinerkirche church.
PLEASURE GARDEN: Also next door is the Hofgarten, the royal gardens. You really get a sense of its precise design from up here - the garden was done in the French/Italian formal style. On the right is the Staatskanzlei, a government admin centre.
ART ATTACK: The big building down there is the Haus der Kunst, an art gallery built in the Third Reich days. It's surrounded by the southern reaches of Englischer Garten, a massive park. Surfers cut the waves on an artificial wave just to the right of the museum.
THIS BUILDING RULES: Continuing to the right along the street here we come to the Maximilianeum, the Bavarian Parliament building, on the east bank of the Isar River.
PARK LIFE: Let's float north now, over the park. Here's Munich's most famous beer garden, the Chinesischer Turm, so named for its 25m high pagoda. Feel like a drink? We can't descend just now though, just a sec, I think I've still got a few bottles up here in the basket...!
TO THE LEFT: Back on the main road to the left we can see Munich's famous university, LMU, the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität. The square at its heart is called Geschwister-Scholl-Platz. The name honours the leaders of the a World War Two student resistance group called the Weiße Rose. There's a museum dedicated to the group inside the uni.
GATEWAY: Further up the street we have the Siegestor (Victory Gate). It was built to honour the Bavarian Army's role in kicking Napoleon out of Germany. Look closely and you can see the lion-drawn chariot on top.
GAME ON: A few kilometres up on the outskirts of the city we see the Allianz Arena, the new home of Munich's famous soccer team, FC Bayern Munich. From up here it's easy to see why some call it an oversized rubber dingy!
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Destination Munich
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