Munich's Museums

Beyond the Deutches Museum's planetarium is the Frauenkirche in Munich

Our last full day in Munich was a cold and rainy one... we took our hop on, hop off bus again just before 10am and got off at Deutches Museum, which focuses on science and technology with over 28,000 items.

A self-playing keyboard and drum!

the museum was founded in 1909 and is geared towards families and many had young kids. A random trivial fact is that for a time the museum was used to host rock and pop concerts for acts like The Who, Jimi Hendrix and Elton John.

When we arrived there was a lineup, but went quickly and we decided to tackle the museum from the top down. The top floor is a planetarium, but it wasn't open yet, and it talked about all kinds of things related to space, from the sun to the constellations, how telescopes can see so far into space and how the black hole works, using a silver ball rolling around slowly into a spiral that spins very quickly at the end before disappearing into the hole.

On the same floor, the sixth floor, there is an outdoor area where you can see the museum has a tower that shows the barometer and hygrometer, which measure the humidity and water vapor in the atmosphere; the recording was a bit on the high side because it was rainy that day, which sadly made it difficult for us to take some nice scenic pictures of Munich.

The Wright brothers' plane

We also saw exhibitions on things like engines, a man demonstrating how to blow glass, the history of ceramics and how bricks are made in a factory. Another one that I found interesting was musical instruments, though it focused on keyboards.

There was a very small keyboard with black keys called a spinett and a clavichord, both about two-thirds the size of a piano. There was even those self-playing pianos -- one that included the drums too -- and they were pretty massive machines.

One Yamaha looked like today's upright pianos, but this one was different -- it can help musicians record music, as the movement of the hammers is scanned by an LED light barrier. The information is then stored in a MIDI file in the computer. When the music is played back, the signals are electronically converted, and the piano keys move hydraulically in the same way the pianist struck them. Wow.

A plane that was similar to what The Red Baron flew

I had heard of the hurdy-gurdy, but this was my first time actually seeing it. It was a giant box on wheels, but it's supposed to be a stringed instrument that makes sound when it is cranked by hand. The roller rotates and the bellows are then operated, this makes the pins of the roller open valves so that air flows to the corresponding pipes.

There was even a very old jukebox and not the ones we think of from the 1950s -- this one was from 1900 that was shown at the World Exhibition in Paris. Very neat.

Down on the first floor were flying machines including the one made by the Wright brothers in 1909, the first engine-driven plane. We also saw the Fokker Dr. I, the World War I fighter plane made famous by Manfred von Richthofen, or The Red Baron.

The Alte Pinakothek is only 1 euro on Sundays!

The airplane's wings only had a span of 7 metres, making it easier for the plane to fly tight turns. To be honest I don't know much about The Red Baron -- only from what I read from Snoopy comic strips! Nevertheless it was fun to see the plane in person.

We had a quick lunch in the cafeteria which offered decent food and after we finished we noticed there was a big line out the door for people to get food. When we left the museum, we saw a very long line that was almost a block long. Perhaps this was a way to spend a rainy Sunday.

Gorgeous flowers by Rachel Ruysch

After our dose of science and technology, we headed to Alte Pinakothek, an art museum that houses over 700 artworks from the 14th to 18th centuries. The museum was commissioned by King Ludwig I and built from 1826 to 1836 in a Neoclassical style. Originally the building was meant to hold the entire art collection of the House of Wittelsbach, and the king allowed the public to view the works, and it continues this tradition today.

It was still raining when we got there, and there was a giant lineup to buy admission tickets. We soon found out why -- on Sundays admission is only 1 euro!

The building is long and narrow and basically two floors. There are a lot of religious paintings with all kinds of themes from the nativity scene to the crucifixion, angels and depictions of heaven and hell.

I preferred the non-religious pieces, portraits of ordinary people, country scenes, and there's one of a bouquet of flowers by Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750). She was the daughter of Dutch botany professor Frederik Ruysch and she used his vast collection of animal skeletons and botany samples to practice her drawings.

Albrecht Durer's self portrait that is Christ-like

She was so good that at one point she taught her father and sister how to paint. At the age of 15, Ruysch apprenticed with a well known flower painter, Willem van Aeist, and he taught her among other things how to arrange flowers so that they looked more spontaneous. While she continued to work with him, Ruysch was already selling her own work at 18.

Ruysch would later go on to marry Amsterdam portrait painter Juriaen Pool and have 10 children! She continued to paint while married.

Another famous work we had to see was Albrecht Durer's Self-Portrait with Fur-Trimmed Robe, 1500.

He painted this when he was 28 years old and it is considered unusual because of its frontal angle and meticulous details. Durer based the style of this portrait on icons of Christ the Saviour, his hand raised in the sign of the blessing.

Madame de Pompadour by Francois Boucher

One fabulous piece of Rococo art has to be Francois Boucher's Madame de Pompadour, 1756. She was the official mistress of King Louis XV of France and here she is wearing an elaborate afternoon dress surrounded by books, sheets of music and drawings. We were mesmerized by the detail in the folds of the dress as well as the reflection in the back. Her proportions seem a bit off though -- she must have been extremely tall according to this painting and had very tiny feet! In any event a beautiful portrait that shows off the lifestyle of the aristocracy in that period.

Munich: The Grandeur of Nymphenburg Palace

The idyllic fresco on the ceiling in the Grand Hall

It was raining this morning when we woke up... but the precipitation let up by the time we left the hotel to catch a tour bus to Schloss Nymphenburg. It was built as a gift from Bavarian Elector Ferdinand Maria of the Wittelsbachs to his wife, Henriette Adelaide of Savoy, who finally gave birth to an heir to the throne, Maximillian II Emanuel, in 1662.

Construction began two years later, employing Italian architect Agostino Barelli. Henriette Adelaide of Savoy was an Italian-born princess, and called her Baroque home, "Borgo delle ninte", or "Castle of the Nymphs", hence Nymphenburg.

Maria Leopoldine of Austria-Este

After Elector Maximillian Emanuel grew up, he expanded the country home to create a summer residence, expanding to its left and right to accommodate the entire court during the summer months. Today the additions create a giant curve around the man-made pond and canal.

There is a long driveway to the palace and then for just 6 euros you can check out some rooms inside the palace. It isn't on the same scale as say the Palace of Versailles, but still grand nonetheless.

The first room we entered was the Great Hall, which is in the centre of the palace with a lavish Rococo style. There's a fresco on the ceiling featuring an idyllic scenery and suspended are stunning chandeliers that are covered in crystal beads.

On the walls are portraits of many people, some with interesting backstories. One is Maria Leopoldine of Austria-Este. She had the misfortune of marrying at age 18 to the 70-year-old Elector Karl Theodor.

Her main role was the produce her husband an heir, but she refused to obey, and after Karl Theodor died in 1799, she managed to negotiate the succession to another line of the Wittlesbach family, than a competing Habsburg imperial house.

The Chinese-themed walls and lacquer cabinet

As a result she became very popular which helped Mari Leopoldine become an estate owner, successful property agent and a stock market speculator. She was a very independent woman in the 18th and early 19th century.

Meanwhile the rooms are furnished with beautiful pieces, like a table that has designs of realistic-looking birds, flowers, fruits and insects that are inset with precious stones in marble. Another room has a Chinese theme, the walls looking like floor-to-ceiling screens, while the room also features a beautiful lacquer table with gold Chinoiserie design.

There's one room that has 36 portraits of women that King Ludwig I of Bavaria deemed beautiful women. They weren't all aristocrats or royalty -- there's even a daughter of a shoemaker in one of the portraits painted by Joseph Stieler. Interesting to note is that the king had something for brunettes...

This "collection of the most beautiful" was made open to the public. They were shown in two salons in the Festsaalbau of the Munich Residence, and only after the war in 1945 were the portraits moved to Nymphenburg.

From his youth, King Ludwig I was fascinated by female beauty. He was also a generous art patron, transforming Munich into the art centre of Germany.

A beautiful table of flowers, birds, insects and fruits

One of the bedrooms we get to visit is Queen Caroline's, which still has the original furnishings for visitors to see, complete with mahogany furniture.

In 1842, then Crown Prince Maximillian II and his wife Marie of Prussia took up residence in Nymphenburg Palace. Three years later, she gave birth to the heir to the throne in this bedroom. The son was named Ludwig in honour of his grandfather, Ludwig I.

However this son, Ludwig II ascended the throne at the age of 18, but he had a difficult relationship with his parents and he had is own psychological issues. Partly because he was so indulged and reminded of his royal status, Ludwig II became eccentric, shunning big social events and preferred to be secluded, and became very interested in the works of Richard Wagner.

The bedroom where the future King Ludwig II was born

Ludwig II also spent a lot of his money constructing castles, the most famous of which is Neuschwanstein, located about an hour a way by train from Munich. Apparently Walt Disney modeled his famous fairytale castle on Neuschwanstein.

In the end it was determined Ludwig II suffered from paranoia and was deemed incapable of being king; in the end he died a mysterious death, found dead in shallow water with one of his psychiatrists in 1886...

After wandering through the palace apartments, we took a long stroll to try to find the Chinese-inspired pagoda. We did find it, a Baroque-style small building, and inside is Chinoiserie style wallpaper and furniture. However, the security guard said that our ticket did not include admission to this pagoda so we had to leave.

The palace should really have staff on standby in these extra places to accept additional admission fees -- it is already a 20-minute walk to get to the pagoda from the palace -- why can't we just pay extra on the spot?

A look at the palace from the garden at the back

Nevertheless, we had a good time visiting the palace, as well as seeing all the birds, in particular the swans and ducks that occupy the grounds. They make good natural lawnmowers, which means we had to avoid the green-coloured poo...