Overall, traveling with a baby in Bavaria in the winter was wonderful, but I do have to note one major mistake:  Linderhof.  This is a (the?) summer palace of Mad King Ludwig (of Neuschwanstein fame) and is based on Versailles.  It's pretty much on the way between Neuschwanstein and Munich, at least the scenic route we took, so we decided to stop and tour it.

Bad plan.

I'm sure it's gorgeous in the summer when the grounds are at their best, but in the winter it was treacherous and icy (and not all that attractive).  With the baby backpack we nearly wiped out several times, hours away from medical help.  Once at the palace, we found we couldn't take the backpack inside (we knew strollers weren't allowed, but the people at the ticket counter thought the backpack would be okay).  So not only did we have to leave the pack with all the stuff in it outside, but we had to carry the baby in our arms the whole tour.  Which no one enjoyed.

As usual, the baby loved the snow and being outside and seeing stuff, but the parents were less happy.


On the other hand, a good thing to do with a kid, palace-wise, is Nymphenburg Palace in Munich.  It's kind of a haul from the Marienplatz, but is acres and acres of protected grounds where you can stroller a child (if you have an all-terrain stroller) or let older kids run to burn off that energy.  We didn't even go inside the palace, but spent almost a whole day wandering the grounds.  Lovely!