The Architecture of Southern Germany

A couple weeks ago I took a fairly unorthodox solo 4 day trip around mostly Bavaria. I love pedestrianised historic streets with churches and castles and riverfronts, so that’s what I went and saw. I had seen many buildings / areas I wanted to see online and I took advantage of the Deutschlandticket (which gives you entirely free infinite local transport for a monthly subscription) to visit 10 different cities in the four days where I had time off and spent very little money to do so.

Routing: Overnight 9 different buses/ trains from where I live in Mainz to Passau (photos 1-2 and this Mainz to Passau 13hr trip was entirely free btw) -> Regensburg (3-5) -> Landshut (6-7) -> Munich (8-10) -> Ingolstadt (11) -> Augsburg (12) -> Füssen / Neuschwanstein (13-15) -> Memmingen (16) -> Ulm (17) -> Home in Mainz

I only ate Döner, bakery and supermarket food so I had more time for seeing new buildings. This also kept the overall cost of the trip low. I Also woke up very early including at 4am one day to go from Augsburg to Füssen.

The entire trip cost around €110 including everything - food / hostels / singular bus I had to pay for a view of Neuschwanstein (which I’ve since learned I didn’t need to do since you can walk up to Marienbrücke). This budget doesn’t include my Deutschlandticket because that doesn’t count I use it for other things like I’d own it without this trip. I never paid to enter any attractions nor did I buy souvenirs or go to any restaurants.

Don’t be afraid to travel in unorthodox ways when ur young if that’s what u wanna do! It was a great way to get a feel for a bunch of different places, I’ll be going back to my favourites!

My favourite places:

Regensburg: I went during Labour Day so it was full of events, many live music performances and street stalls. Youthful fun city vibe. Is it wrong for me to say it felt like Berlin if Berlin was pretty?

Passau: Passau is insanely pretty along the river and the old town is very extensive. Unlike other cities it doesn’t feel like an old town plopped into the middle of a post war german city since the more modern buildings are the other side of the station, so you are really immersed in the old architecture.

Füssen and Neuschwanstein: The nature surrounding it is very cool considering most of Germany is fairly boring fields. Great architecture too.