Munich's Alte Pinakotek

Munich offers five world-class museums to choose from. We chose the Alte Pinakotek--the old paintings--observing our preference for things that have stood the test of time as well as our interest in the older North German and Netherlands works. The museum is overwhelmingly wonderful.

A view of the Alte Pinakotek

Our favorite, at length, was Breughel's (the Elder) The Land

of Cockaigne, a political satire depicting the sloth and

corruption of the classes...knights, clergy, scholars, peasants

too

Our favorite genre is the damnation...here a detail of one

of Breughel's, torment by fart...

The usual St. Sebastians

Durer's incredible self-portrait

The obligatory Rembrandt self-portrait

(did he paint anything else?)

And this, widely thought to be Velazquez's

self-portrait--something the Prado would

like to have back, one assumes

The largest and most varied collection of

Peter Paul Rubens I have seen; this his

damnation

This, Rubens' self-portrait with his first wife;

one of the few he did of non-obese people

with clothes on...

Rubens' Last Judgment

I have never seen a museum with more live

painters at work

Rubens' powerful death of Seneca

Titian's portrait of Caesar Carlos IV

(or V, depending on whether you're

counting Spanish or Hapsburg

kings)

An incredible museum I'd visit again in a flash. The displays were excellent, the order logical, the audio-guide, for once, genuinely tasteful and helpful.

Botanischer Garten

Right next to the Nymphenburg Palace is the Munich botanical garden, 14,000 species, something I could not resist.

Extent of the place

On the grounds

Early August, most everything still in bloom

Lily pond

Closer up

Mexicohaus

 I love bromeliads, cycads

Tree ferns, like New Zealand

And a visiting exhibit from Yunnan and Sichuan

Hirschgarten

After the Nymphenburg, we headed to the nearby Hirschgarten for a late but leisurely lunch.  Although out in the suburbs, the Hirschgarten is reputedly Munich's largest bier garten--seats 8,000, they say--and the scale is indeed impressive.

Entry signage

A bit, but a representative tiny bit, of the Hirschgarten

The Hirschgarten's old-style Pisshof

Help yourself to a mug; maybe give it an extra rinse

The cafeteria-style food area; I had my favorite bratwurst

mit currysauce and pommes frites; and bier; Vicki had my

pommes frites and a gelato, a balanced choice

Nymphenburg Palace and Park and Amalienburg

We spent the better part of the day out at the Nymphenburg Palace, one of a dozen or so palaces and castles of the Wittelsbach family, who ruled Bavaria for 700 years.

Of course, we ran into a wedding

Nymphenburg, the main building--actually it is a huge

ellipse all around the lake

Main hall

How paintings get restored; how chiropractors get clients

Royal bed-chamber

Queen's bed-chamber, original furniture, where Ludwig II

(Loonie Ludwig) was born

Part of the Hall of Beauties--Ludwig I had

portraits done of 40 contemporary women

he regarded as great beauties (no word on

what the Queen thought of this)

My great achievement of the day was

locating and photographing the portrait of

Lola Montez, in the Hall of Beauties, with

whom Ludwig I had an affair that brought

down his government and forced him to

resign; Lola went on to America and was

a famous personage in the American Wild

West (I speculate: the character of Lillie 
von Schtupp, in Blazing Saddles, is based, 
um, loosely, on her)

Nymphenburg Palace from the gardens

The Amalienburg, the Queen's hunting lodge

A bit of the interior

All solid silver, of course

The kitchen, beautiful tile-work

Hofbrauhaus

Of course we had to revisit the Hofbrauhaus, site of memorable experiences in 1979 (including, not least, an acquaintance, a nurse, who downed 3 mugs in our presence before heading off to work)

A way-old place, re-built twice since the war, but to generally the same specifications

Most people head to the bier garten

Or the ground floor halls

But we headed to the upstairs Festsaal, with its entertainment and 
buffet meal of Bavarian goodies

Including bier; 1 liter is the only size available (at least

that's what I told Vicki)

There was the old German band

And dancing, including slap-dancing and whip-dancing

And, most memorably, this card, stuck to the ceiling above the stage at the 
head of the hall, 30 feet up there; none of the staff conceded any knowledge 
of it

There it is (click to enlarge); I believe it marks the spot where Hitler's bullet hit 
(in the re-construction) in his attempt to quell the Beer Hall Putsch crowd in 1923

(everyone kept putsching and tschoving...); must check this out someday

Munich Sights

We left the Obersalzburg, finally, and drove on to Munich, staying at Camping Thalkirchen (where we had stayed in 1979) for three nights while we re-explored this beautiful city, using the very convenient bus/subway/tram system for transportation.

Yes, we are in the land of super-sized

pretzels

One of the twin domes of the Marienkirche;

the other was under scaffolding

Interior of the church; rather dull, I thought

The Augustiner, one of the older brewhouses

Street scene; the Starbucks dates from 1328...

Another...all this undoubtedly re-built;

Munich was fairly flattened by bombing in

1944-45

The very famous Rathaus

With its even more famous clock

The joust, at the critical moment

Followed by the dancing of the apprentices

or someone else

My attempt at going native ended successfully