Amazing trip to München - Day 2

This was the only day that I had my entire day in Munich. Most people would do a day trip to the famous "Neuschwanstein Castle", but I didn't want to spend too much time on transportation (takes a 2hour train ride and some walking). So instead I stayed in the city and visited the museums around.

Turned out there was a "museum island" with 3 museums: Pinakothek der Moderne (Modern Art Museum), Alte Pinakothek (Old Art Museum) and Neue Pinakothek (New Art Museum).

Tip: Go to the Pinakothek der Moderne first to get a Combo ticket for 12Euro. With that you can go to the other 2 for free.

Trick: Bags larger than an A4 paper are not allowed in Pinakothek der Moderne, and you'll be asked to store it in the locker room for a small price. Use that at your advantage. Just take out your wallet, camera and a bottle of water (if you have one), and leave the rest there when you go to the other two museums. And remember to go back and claim your belongings before it closes ;)

Pinakothek der Moderne: showcasing designs of vehicles, furniture, and some installations.

My first stop was the Pinakothek der Moderne. I was having high hopes in this one as I wanted to see some architectural and industrial/product designs. However, there were only a few items for display, and the architecture section was closed for maintenance. I was quite disappointed with the exhibitions there.

There was a restriction that one could not bring in bags bigger than an A4 sheet of paper, which had to be stored in the storage for 0.7Euro. Not a big deal, and I treated it as a storage throughout the entire first half of the day =D.

Next I went to the Alte Pinakothek. This was my first time actually getting into an art museum with so many paintings. I was really impressed by the sheer size and amount of the paintings.

Before I left, I stopped by a cafe called Cafe Klenze at the ground floor of the museum for a quick lunch. The meal was just a sandwich and a coffee but was relatively expensive (~8Euro). Though the place was very nice. Since it's inside the museum building, which was itself in Victorian style, the cafe had that classic Victoria vibe all over.

Left 3: Alte Pinakothek, Right 3: Neue Pinakothek

The Neue Pinakothek, on the other hand, had a combination of paintings and sculptures. I was really fascinated by the form and details of the marble sculptures. The soft reflection of the marbles created a nice tone for the skin, and I was amazed by their creators' ability to recreate fabrics. Another interesting thing was there were 3 paintings by Van Gogh. One of which was the famous Sunflowers. I'd seen it so many times in TV or books, only till now I was really inches away from the real deal. Turned out there were a number of Sunflowers paintings and this was one of them (F.456).

I finished visiting all the museums at about 3:30pm. With no further plans, I walked towards the centre of the city: Marienplatz. It was very crowded and lively.

Marienplatz, centre of Munich.

There are a couple of things worth seeing at the Marienplatz:

The Rathaus-Glockenspiel, which is a building with a clock tower. At 11am (also 12pm and 5pm in the summer), it plays some music and has some animations with the figures in the tower for about 10 minutes. While you are waiting for those times, you can walk around the building with lots of shops.

St. Peter's Church, which is a church with a very nice looking ceiling. Not all churches in Munich have this type of paintings on the ceiling, and it's worth a look.

The market, which is just next to St. Peter's Church. There you can find fresh food and dine.

All in all, the whole Marienplatz is a tourist attraction with lots of shops (even an Apple Store) and food.

This concludes my second day in Munich. Did a lot of walking (roughly 7 hours), but it was nice.