At Altes Pinakothek

Titian

Francesco Salviati

Tintoretto

Titian

Tintoretto

At the Altes Pinakothek. Stunners!

Rogier van der Weyden

I love the subject of this painting. St Luke is the patron saint of the guilds of painting because according to legend, he painted the portrait of the Virgin Mary. This rendition is very interesting to me.

The galleries

Albrecht Durer

Pietro Perugino

Hieronymus Bosch

Master of the Marienlebens. I love the unusual details in these paintings!

Albrecht Altdorfer

Albrecht Durer

Save the best for last. This work is stunningly beautiful and moving. I’m a new convert to the north.

Some from the north now, not just Italian which is always my favorite era.

Hans Holbein

Albrecht Durer

Lucas Cranach

Filippino Lippi

Sandro Botticelli

Domenico Ghirlandaio

Matthias Grunewald

More from my visit to the Altes Pinakothek. I may be in Germany, but I’m lost in the Italian Renaissance, my happy place.

Fra Bartolommeo

Fra Filippo Lippi

Fra Filippo Lippi

Unknown painter

Worth any amount of trouble getting to Munich! The painting is housed at the Altes Pinakothek.

I’m going to let the painting and label speak for itself. It is magnificent.

Let’s look at some details.

I saw this cool sight in Munich today. It was a hot summer day and I felt the coolness from the water as I stood watching from the bridge above. It was a pleasant relief, and a fun sight!

The waves on the Eisbach river at the entrance to the Englischer Garten  attract surfers and onlookers from around the world. The spot is famous throughout the world for being the largest, best and most consistent city centre location for river surfing. People have been surfing here for 40 years.

By the way: in 2024, the Eisbachwelle was voted one of the top 100 most beautiful beaches in the world. This is the only ranking in Germany and ahead of Ipanema beach.

The man-made Eisbach river emerges from underground just a few steps away from the Haus der Kunst (art gallery) on Prinzregentenstrasse in the Lehel district. A stone step at the outlet generates a standing wave about half a metre tall.

The Eisbach is a 1.2-mile river that flows across the Englischer Garten, a public park located in Munich, Germany.

Despite being a small distributary of the Isar River, the Eisbach features a very fast stream, making surfing a reality in an inland city.

The Eisbach wave is a stationary, human-made wave located just 50 yards away from the Haus der Kunst modern and contemporary art museum in front of a nearby bridge.

The standing wave breaks in cold, 15-inch ( deep and 40-foot wide waters.

The surfing conditions at Eisbach vary depending on the weather and the time of the year, but it could produce a solid three-to-four-foot wave.

The best time of the year to ride Germany’s quintessential river wave is from March to November when water levels are not too high and not too low.

The average water temperature ranges from 62 °F in summer to 50 °F in winter.

Eisbach means “icy creek” or “ice brook” in English.

Although the Eisbach River wave rarely freezes due to its strong currents, it can easily reach extremely low temperatures of around 34 °F.

I’m living near the Olympic stadium, which of course hosted the 1972 Olympics.

I use the incredibly efficient and clean Ubahn and Sbahn transportation system, which is a dream to use compared to Berlin.

Here’s my typical experience:

And away we go!

On August 13, 2024 I had my first chance to visit this august institution. Something happened then that in my lifetime of working in and visiting art museums all around the world has fortunately never happened. An alarm went off and the guards ushered all of the visitors down the staircases and out the door, all the while telling us not to panic.

The 100 or so of us visitors gathered in the shade of trees on the large lawn in front of the museum. It was a very hot day in Munich.

Soon firetrucks arrived and these brave men entered the building and apparently swept it, finding no real reason for the alarm, I guess, for within 15 minutes, they let us all enter the building again and continue our enjoyment of the collections.

This was a first and it made me realize how lucky we are in general to take safety for granted when visiting an art museum, no matter where in the world it is. I hope it remains that way.

As an aside, there is no country other than mine, the US or Germany, that I would hope to be in in such a situation. The museum personnel and firemen handled this situation with aplomb.