Only a quick stop-over in Munich but well worth it. I arrived the day before yesterday, on a wonderful train journey over the Swiss alps from Montreux and then across the verdant rolling hills of Bavaria. For train buffs, interesting that the train set took off the electric loco and took on diesel after completing the Swiss Alps (becoming double-headed diesel) – clearly part of the twisty route down and through Bavaria is not electrified. Rolling in to Munich main station, there were a few train enthusiasts ready with cameras and notebooks at the loco end, so there is clearly some interest in what is a minority type of traction on Germany now.

Onto Munich. I stayed very close to the railway station and bimbled in to the old town in the evening. It’s a mixture of old Bavarian architecture, some baroque and some brand new. It’s very pleasant to walk around, particularly the number of churches and older, grand buildings in the old town. Yes, including that beer cellar.

I had a whole day in Munich and filled it full of art. There are some national collections in Munich, housed in the Alte and Neue Pinakotheken – themselves impressive 1930s and 1950s buildings in their own rights. The Pinakothek started when the last Kaiser, Ludwig, donated his impressive art collection to the state, and Germany’s first pubic museum was founded. Ludwig had a good eye for German Realist artists as well as encouraged investment in new art. The collection is now housed in the Neue Pinakothek, which is art from 1700 onwards and includes French Impressionists, a whole room from the Glasgow School of the late 1800, 4 Van Goghs and many other impressive pieces. The Alte Pinakothek is art 1200 – 1700 and includes multiple rooms of Reubens (!), as well as some Rembrandts, Italian art particularly Titian and Tintoretto and excellent Flemish art including a particularly terrifying Hieronymous Bosch.

There were some particular pieces that caught my eye unexpectedly – a sculpture by Henri Daumier of Ratapoil I, a painting of Christopher Columbus by Carl Theodor von Piloty (which made me realise: where are all the painters of the discoverer of the free world?), a really wonderful ‘Heroic Landscape with Fishermen’ by Gericault. Eduoard Manet painted Claude Monet in his studio boat, which Monet would push out in to the view Seine in order to take in the light and reflections on the water from a perspective no other artist on land could achieve, and it was lovely to see how this looked.

The four Van Goghs were wonderful and varied pieces: one of his sunflower paintings, a view of Arles, a view of the wheatfields outside Auvers Sur Oise and one of his much earlier peasant paintings, of a weaver. The view of Arles and the wheatfields outside Auvers Sur Oise I am very grateful to have seen; it was wonderful to stand in front of an interpretation of what Van Gogh felt and saw, compared to what I remember seeing. The way he felt and, I think, almost heard colour and movement, and was able to express increasingly confidently in these two paintings in particular is incredible to take time to take in. His letters to his brother, whilst he never brags or lets on a lot of pleasure – he was certainly a harsh self-critique – do describe a growing assurance that painting how he felt, as well as what he saw, was the right thing to do, in spite of its lack of market value or the fact that it was light-years ahead of what was coming out of Paris in terms of Impressionism at the time.

Unlike Britain (for now, although this is becoming less adequate), national collections in Germany might receive state and/or Bundesland funding, but the museums need to charge entry to make ends meet. The Pinakotheken have a wonderful scheme to make art more accessible – one Euro entry to each building on a Sunday. Alongside the two Pinakotheken, there is an art ‘shack’ with more examples from the collections and a whole museum of modern art as part of the campus, which I didn’t have time to get to in one day. I spent 7.5 hours in the two Pinakotheken alone. What would normally cost 12 Euros for a combined ticket costs 1 Euro per collection choice on the Sunday. The café at the Alte Pinakothek was clearly a popular choice for Sunday brunch – it reminded me of the V&A in terms of being a social spot as well as a place of superb art.

Thus, I would recommend going for the art. In terms of arriving by train, the journey over the Swiss Alps was stunning as well as the Bavarian countryside. I attempted some photographs but apologies for the quality.

The journey I completed today, from Munich to Prague, was through rolling green hills, past forests and lakes, working through south-east Germany across the Czech Republic via Pilsen. It was a lovely journey; I followed the Man in Seat 61’s advice – you can take a coach to do the journey, but it’s not that picturesque. Or you can take a little longer and go on the train, changing trains twice, but easily done. Buying from Czech railway in advance means that the ticket costs all of 14 euros for 6 hours train journey, too.

Today, a potter around Prague and some treats. Full-on touristing tomorrow. Dobrou noc!