I have homework!!

...because I'm now in the first week of my intensive 4-week German language class at the Goethe Institute.  

I think it will be good, but they aren't kidding about the "intense".  And I'm much more used to giving homework in these last many years than getting it.  Ugh.  However, I do always tell my own students that you "learn by doing" so I have no leg to stand on, as it were, in terms of complaining...

So I took a placement test on Monday (It was hard!... but I guess that's the point, to see where you start to struggle) and then we started yesterday.  Unfortunately, my intermediate class (level "B22") meets in the afternoon 1:15 to 5:30 p.m.  I was really hoping my class would be in the morning, due to the kids' school schedules, but there was no choice after my placement (unless I faked being a beginner again...) Anyway, luckily the kids are old enough that being home for a couple hours on their own isn't too bad, but even for my own schedule, mid-afternoons are not optimal for my brain performance!

I need to keep this short, to get at the homework.  More reports to come.

The Alte Pinakothek

I'm trying to finally catch up on blog-posting... here is the last of the "touristy"things I did with my parents -- last but certainly not the least!  

   We spent Wednesday morning (Oct 10th, their last day here) in the marvelous Alte Pinakothek, which is one of the five Pinakothek art museums in Munich.  This is probably the most famous, housing a huge collection of "Old Master" European paintings, ranging from the 13th to 18th century.  (The Neue Pinakothek has 19th works, the Pinakothek der Moderne, you guessed it, the more modern works, but there are a couple more-recently-built smaller art museums also.)  Official Alte Pinakothek site

The building itself is massive and imposing but in many places naturally lit with beautiful windows and skylights.  It originally opened in 1836, but was heavily damaged by the second world war.  Actually, when it was rebuilt in 1957, the architect Hans Döllgast chose to replace the many sections of damaged façade in the center with bare bricks -- so that the "wounds" of the building can still be seen.  Very effective I think as an architectural memorial (and I wish I'd taken a picture... but you can kind of see it here).

Once inside, the stairway to the second floor is impressive too.

All the major works are in a long sequence of galleries on this top floor.  The galleries themselves are large and airy and colorful -- it's lovely just to be in the space  The building was designed with a huge center gallery specifically in order to display Rubens' "Great Last Judgement," apparently one of the largest canvasses ever painted.   I took a picture of it, but this doesn't begin to capture the impact of standing in front of (well... beneath) it.

 Peter Paul Rubens:  The Great Last Judgement,  from 1617  (it's over 6 meters high, nearly 20 ft)

In the same gallery, are two of my favorite (for whatever reason) paintings by Rubens, both of them quite violent, really:

Rubens Lion Hunt ca. 1621

Rubens The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus  1617/1618

 There are lots more Rubens masterpieces in the museum.  (Dad is looking here at The Death of Seneca, where the ancient Roman philosopher Seneca is forced to commit suicide after being accused of treason by his own student, Emperor Nero.)

After I got over being blown away by the lush color and movement (and nudity) in all the Rubens, I started appreciating the other works.  I wish I knew more about them, but here are a few that particularly impressed me.  (You're only allowed to take pictures without flash, or tripod, so these are not great, but if you're interested it's easy to find good images of all these masterpieces on the official website.)

Raphael The Canigiani Holy Family ca. 1505/6

Raphael Madonna and Child ca. 1508

 Leonardo da Vinci Virgin and Child  ca. 1473  (I believe this is Leonardo's earliest known work; he was 21 years old.)

Fra Filippo Lippi The Annunciation ca. 1450

And lastly, check out the look on the face of the apostle Paul in the far right of these 7-ft high panels by Albrecht Dürer.  (St. Mark, beside him, isn't looking so trustworthy either...)

Albrecht Dürer, The Four Apostles 1526

I'm the first to say I am very ignorant about art history (except for the little I "had to" learn as it related to music history) but the works in the Alte Pinakothek are astounding.   I will go back, and check out the other Pinakotheks too!  (Consider coming with me... :-) )

Finally, as a post-sciprt to this last day of Mom and Dad's visit, we made a quick side trip to the Asamkirche (officially the St. Johann Nepomuk church, but known by the name of the Asam brothers who built it in the mid-1700's).  This small Catholic church is famous for being the very epitome of over-the-top Baroque ornamentation.  There is essentially no surface left undecorated.

View down the narrow interior.  

The ceiling painting is hard to see here but full of angels and celestial glory, with a tower looking like it points straight up to heaven (Babylon?) if you look at it from the right angle.

In the entrance, however, is some interesting statuary.  Apparently this represents "Fate cutting the string of life"... (see the scissors in the skeleton's hand?)

So, sadly, Mom and Dad left (over a week ago now) so I'm not doing as many touristy things these days.  My 4-week intensive German class at the Göthe Institute starts tomorrow though (I took the placement test today, Oct 22), so I'll get lots more German culture via language for the next little while...

Palaces day 2. The Residenz and Treasury

Wow.  The amount of wealth accumulated by several centuries of Bavarian rulers is quite breathtaking. On Tuesday (last week) Mom and Dad and I went to the Munich Residenz (Palace) museum and the Schatzkammer (Treasury) within the palace and saw enough riches to feed the world for a few days at least...

TREASURY
We started in the Treasury, where we were astounded by the unbelievable amounts of gold, precious gems, ivory, crystal, you name it, from many different eras.
My favorite is this ruby- and diamond-covered statuette (50 cm high) of St. George slaying the (emerald-encrusted) dragon.

I won't include many of the thousands of treasures displayed there, but here are a few highlights.  (If you go to the link above, for the Treasury, you can find more detailed descriptions of various pieces.)

The "crown of an English queen" from the late 14th century.  Apparently this is the oldest surviving crown of England (passed on to Bavaria as part of a dowery).

The necklace below is huge -- the chain would fit around your waist and the stones are at least an inch across.

Here is the crown of the "kings of Bavaria" and the other royal insignia commissioned in 1806 when Napoleon declared the then prince-elector Maximilian IV Joseph to be King Maximilian I.  (The history of Bavarian rulers is very complicated, but essentially the rulers went from being "dukes" in the middle-ages to "prince-electors" in the 16- and 1700's, to kings from 1806 to 1918.)  The smaller crown to the right, for the queen, is made of many different sizes of pearls.

Many more crowns and jewels...

Then several rooms of carved stone and crystal.  I'm amazed that these delicate vessels are carved out of a single piece of rock-crystal.

For me the most intriguing thing in the Treasury was this traveling set, designed for, and given to, Napoleon's second wife.  There are more than 120 items which fit cleverly in this relatively small (and very beautiful) case -- from a gilded dinner set for two and writing instruments to toiletries and dental tools.

THE RESIDENZ:

As if these ten rooms of opulence in the Treasury weren't enough, we then went into the palace itself.  

This huge palace, in the center of town, was first built as a moated castle in 1385, and has been greatly expanded over the years.  It was the residence and seat of government for the Wittelsbach dynasty (the family who ruled Bavaria) from 1180 to 1918(!)  

There is a brief but interesting history of the Residenz here.  Much of it was destroyed by bombs during WWII but it has been beautifully restored (actually restoration is ongoing).  Most of the artwork had been removed from the city during the war, and so we saw many original pieces of furniture, paintings, china, etc.

I love the Ancestral Gallery, in Rococo style, which has over 100 portraits (set into the paneling, and with gilded frames) of the members of the Wittelsbach family.  I think there over 1000 years worth of ancestors depicted here.

The palace is immense (the roof is 23,000 square meters, that's nearly a quarter million square feet):  it has two floors, innumerable rooms, and many courtyards, so I won't begin to show a representation, but again here a few pictures. 

Most impressive to me was the Antiquarium, which the largest (66 m long) and most elaborate Renaissance style room north of the Alps.  

Duke Albrecht had it built in the late 1500s to house his collection of antique sculptures.  I think you can find every Roman Caesar in here...

The "Green Gallery" is lovely, with many mirrors, and gilded paintings.  It is at one end of an elaborate length of the palace called the Reiche Zimmer (ornate rooms)

Looking down the hall through all the doorways (with a painting above each) connecting the Reiche rooms...

 My camera can't do justice to this hall of mirrors, but it was very cool to be in there!

Here is the other end of the hall of ornate rooms.  It's called the "cabinet of miniatures"(with tiny, detailed, paintings set into the gold and red-enamelled walls) and has a large mirror in the center to give the impression of the rooms stretching out to infinity.

In the royal apartments on the 2nd floor, a bed fit for a king,

more long hallways

with pictures of the family,

 and of course you'd need a few hundred gold plates to serve the family properly...

Outside is also elaborate, but currently under a lot of renovation.  One of the courtyards, called the Grotto Court, has an elaborate "grotto" built in the 1580's next to the Antiquarium hall.  The fountain in the center was under construction, but the whole facade is covered in shell decorations.

That was a very full but very worthwhile day.  If any of you want to come visit, I'd love an excuse to go again!

Palaces day 1. And the Glockenspiel!

We really filled the last three days that Mom and Dad were here with lots of spectacular Munich sights.  The weather forecast was only good for the Monday, so we planned mostly outdoor trips that first weekday.

Monday, Oct 8:  the grounds of Schloss Nymphenburg

It was a beautiful day to walk around the stunning grounds of the Nymphenburg Palace.  This  was built as a royal "summer residence" in the country starting in the 17th century.  We didn't visit inside, but the gardens, canals, fountains, and many statues make for a peaceful "park" in what is now west-central Munich (since the city has grown around the estate in the last centuries).

We walked around for an hour or so, and discovered one of the royal "lodges" -- or small palaces -- on the grounds:  the Magdalenenklause is, interestingly, built to look like a ruin.  Elector Max Emanuel had the romantic idea of constructing a hermitage on the grounds for contemplation and escape, and ordered it built in 1725, but it looks many centuries older than that, with purposeful cracks and missing mortar.  There are apparently three other small palaces to discover, if you cover the whole (nearly 500 acre) grounds, but we wanted to go back into downtown while the weather still held.

Actually, at we wanted to be at Marienplatz, the heart of old downtown, by noon.  That is one of the times when the famous Rathaus-Glockenspiel (town-hall carillon) chimes.  We arrived with 15 minutes to spare and sat in an outdoor cafe seating area with the perfect view (and the triply expansive coffee, but well worth the price for the location).

Then we walked a few steps to the famous downtown Victualienmarkt ("Victuals Market") where we had a quick lunch -- more Bratwurst sampling, and some delicious zwiebelkuchen (onion torte) -- before moving on...

To the grounds of the Munich Residenz: (the "in town" palace, or residence).  Like the Nymphenburg palace gardens, the layout is very symmetrical, although a lot smaller!  There is a lovely central pavilion (with cellist that afternoon), and a fountain in each of the four corners of this Hofgarten (court garden).

We just stayed outside and visited the gardens that afternoon.  There will be more about the amazing Residenz itself next post!

Playing host and tourist too... Alte Peter and the Alps

I'll briefly log here some of the great things we did while Mom and Dad were here (from Oct 4 - 11) since it gave us yet more chances to enjoy Munich and Bavaria.   For this post, I'll just begin with the first couple days of their visit.

After the quick Oktoberfest tour (previous post) we met the kids and Thomas who had all gotten out of school/work early on the Friday.  Since it was a gorgeous day, we climbed up the 302 narrow steps of Alte Peter (the tower of the oldest church in the city) to get the classic 360 view of the Munich skyline.

It's hard to take a picture of the Alte Peter church itself (St. Peter's Church) since it's surrounded by many other buildings, but here's the inside.

     

That evening we hit a classic bierhalle-restaurant for some good Bavarian roast pork, potatoes, sauerkraut, and beer.  Good fuel for the next day's hiking!

                                                                         Since the weekend weather was only looking good for Saturday, we got up early to fit in a full day in the Alps -- again to our favorite region of Garmisch-Patenkirchen.  We took Mom and Dad on the same wonderful hike we'd done in August - not the Alpspitze, but the less strenuous and absolutely gorgeous  Partnachklamm hike...

The weather was perfect.  After taking the cable-car up and hiking through a mix of forest and meadow, we had a hot lunch at the little farm "Hutte" near the top of the mountain.

The gorge "Patnachklamm"is essentially how you get off the mountain and back down to town.

Perfect day hike.

We got back to the train station just after 4 p.m.  Now a choice:  the town of Mittenwald lies half an hour by train south from Garmisch, and we had all hoped to go if we got back from the hike early enough.  Mittenwald is apparently a quaint little town in the Alps that has been famous for violin, viola and celllo making since the 17th century.  Mom's violin, that Benjamin now plays, was made there (!) at least 60 years ago and Mom really wanted to go see the town.  Unfortunately, the next train would not get us there until 6 p.m., and any sort of wandering around and finding dinner would mean not getting back to Munich (2 hours on the train) until quite late.  Benjamin really wanted to go back home, so I volunteered to go with him, and Thomas and Julia took Mom and Dad on down.  Sounds like the town was beautiful, and Mom was delighted to have seen it.  I'll have to make a day trip of it myself soon (and maybe see about getting Julia a viola there?)

Sunday in Munich was rainy, which gave us all a good excuse to relax and do very little... well the kids actually did homework, and I had a 4-hour Bach Choir rehearsal, but Mom and Dad had some well-deserve down-time after a very full day in the Alps.

More touristy time in Munich to come...