Heavenly feasts of architecture - and great beer

Jonathan Glancey on Bavaria's staple diet

Munich is Christmas. In many minds at least, and certainly in that of Prince Albert who made the Victorian Christmas what it was and has been ever since: a time of fairy lights and sugary decorations. Bavarians really do enjoy Christmas and the Munich Christmas market or Christkindlmarkt, dating back to 1310, is probably the biggest and most romantic of its kind.

Walking here in the Advent snow between stalls groaning with traditional goodies is one of December's biggest treats. Of course, being British, you will feel yourself playing the part of the poor relation; Munich is extremely wealthy and its people dress either like catwalk models or figures from comic books. Loden coats and hats with feathers are still very much the norm. Yes, and Munich volk taken as a whole - 1.2m of them - really do like their beer and really do eat copious quantities of sausage, dumplings, noodles and sauerkraut.

Munich, capital of Bavaria, is no place for the vegetarian teetotaller, nor for the high-minded purist who finds Christmas decorations and Rococo design the unacceptable face of kitsch; in Munich at Christmas, the two are inter-twined and inescapable.

I came to Munich to see Rococo churches - these are legendary and far exceeded my expectation of them - but got happily bogged down in snow, marzipan and Christmas cheer. Or was it beer? Germany boasts half the world's breweries; of these a third are in Bavaria. Purity laws, far superior to diktats from Brussels, have ensured superb and natural brews here since 1487.

Munich has always been theatrical. It's hero, then as now, is Ludwig the Second, the potty but endearing spendthrift king who ascended the Bavarian throne in 1864 and was murdered by treacherous courtiers in 1886.

Ludwig's portrait can be seen hanging in any number of shops, market stalls and homes throughout Munich and Bavaria. He was Wagner's patron and liked to imagine himself as Lohengrin, the swan prince - he used to dress up as his mythical hero and sailed the lake in his Munich winter palace in a decorated boat pulled by swans. His greatest creation was Neuschwanstein (the swan castle) that extraordinary fantasy palace in the foothills of the Alps less than an hour's drive south of Munich. Ride up early in the morning before the crowds on a horse-drawn sleigh and tumble back through the Wagernian woods for chocolate cake and brandy in the inns at the foot of the castle.

Ludwig's ancestors (the Wittelsbach family ruled or reigned over Bavarian for 738 years) presided over the Counter Reformation at its most gorgeous, and Bavaria remains unavoidably Catholic and Baroque.

Barquoe led to Rococo, and the city of Munich is surrounded by a rosary of incomparable Baroque and Rococo churches. The most extraordinary of these is the Asamkirche (Sendlingerstrasse) a Rococo gem paid for, designed and decorated by the Asam brothers, Egid Quirin and Cosmas Damian. If this marvellous church gets you hooked on Baroque and Rococo design, your next move should be to hire a car and drive out from Munich on a tour of some of the most exquisite and moving churches to be found anywhere in the world.

Among these are Weltenburg Abbey, Rohr Priory, Freising Cathedral, St Katherine at Wolfegg, St Nikolaus at Bernbeuren and the riotous abbey at Rottenbuch. You will have your own favourites. Don't forget to count the cherubs - in one of these I counted more than a hundred.

After such heavenly architectural feasting, come back to Munich for a strict diet of severe Neo-Classical design. Munich boasts magnificent museums (a legacy of Ludwig the First) and amongst these is the Glypothek, designed by Leopold Von Klenze, and housing (along with other Greek and Roman wonders) the entire pediment of the Temple of Aphaia at Aegina which features a kind of ancient Greek x-certificate soap opera frozen in stone.

The Glypothek is at the centre of the city's museum quarter. As this includes the Alte and Neue Pinakothek - the former closed for restoration - and paintings by the likes of Albrecht Durer and Lucas Cranach the elder, you can expect to be delayed for some time.

Afterwards take a stroll in the Arcadian Englischer Garten, a park which becomes much like a forest in parts and stretches three miles along the banks of the Isar. The domes and spires of low-rise Munich disappear completely. My guide book said the Garten was popular with naked sunbathers; during December I would advise caution and leave that sort of thing to cherubs in Rococo churches.

By this time, the short winter day will be at a close. Shops close early in Munich, so hurry to the Viktualienmarkt, a sort of vast outdoor supermarket where you can buy local goods available as well as exotic foods from around the world. Feast on these in your hotel room if you cannot stomach more dumplings and noodles.

You will, however, find yourself without question in one of the city's bierkellers. The Hofbrauhaus is the biggest and most famous, but normally packed with back packers. Avoid it and try any bierkeller packed with locals singing and wolfing huge plates of wurst.

If you keep expecting Hitler and boys to march in, try to stop thinking such churlish thoughts, although of course crazy Adolf did just that, taking a Munich bierkeller by storm with a party of 600 Brownshirts during his short lived putsch of 1923.

Munich was the birth place of the Nazi party and is still home to considerable right wing politicking. Dachau is a short ride north of the city on the S-Bahn. By road, you follow the signs to the concentration camp to reach nearby Schleissheim, one of the finest Bavarian Baroque palaces with a garden to match.

Rococo churches and Neo-Classical museums, Christkindlmarkt and vast umphaaing bierkellers, Dachau and Schleissheim; now that's what a guide book really should call a city of contrasts.

The Munich Christmas Market opens today and runs until 24 December (10am- 8.30pm weekdays, 10am-7.30pm Sundays, 10am-2pm on 24 December). At 5.30pm every day Christmas carols will be sung by Bavarian folk groups from the balcony of the Town Hall, overlooking the market.

The German Travel Centre (0181-429 2900) currrently has a Stansted-Munich return fare on Air UK of pounds 149, and a Heathrow-Munich return fare on Lufthansa of pounds 151. Both theses prices include tax.

For more information about Munich and Bavaria see The Cadogan Guide to Bavaria by Rodney Bolt (pounds 14.99). The German National Tourist Office at 65 Curzon Street, London W1Y 8NE (0891 600 100, a premium rated number) runs a brochure service and can also supply lists of accommodation in the area.