Bavaria on 35mm film: Bavarian towns and the Alps - a compilation

This post has it all, city views, smaller quaint towns, and the big Bavarian outdoors. Shot over a few days when my parents visited, here is some of the best that Bavaria has to offer.

I decided to go all out and include these all in one post, as I didn’t feel I had enough interesting shots per location to make up a full post. I also thought this would be a nice way to showcase some of the differences in locations across Bavaria. In this post, we start in Munich, head south west to Landsberg am Lech, a short stop off at the Ammersee, climb (via cable car and back via cogwheel train) up the highest mountain in Germany (the Zugspitze, and incidentally the cover shot for this post), and end up in the 3rd oldest city in Germany, Augsburg.

These locations were taken on different days and not in the order above. Let’s start with Munich. I believe these were taken with my Leica camera loaded with Kodak color expired film (the same I used on previous ‘Bavaria on 35mm’ posts.

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Landsberg am Lech, a really nice medieval town of about 30,000 inhabitants around 30km west of Munich. It has an impressive weir along the river Lech, which also weaves in and around part of the town. The old town area is particularly impressive and nice to walk around.

The picturesque Ammersee.

The famous Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in Germany. I have been up this mountain a few times, but it never ceases to amaze me. I am particularly impressed by the structure they have managed to build on top of the mountain (visitor centre and ski area on the other side), let alone the cog wheel train that goes up one way and the incredibly vertical cable car. The views from the top are really breathtaking, with part of the summit sitting in Austria, and a very clear view over the Alps. The Eibsee (also known as the Bavarian Caribbean) can be enjoyed on the way up and from the top.

All shots taken with my Nikonos camera and Kodak Portra 400 film.

Our final stop on this trip in and around Munich is the city of Augsburg, the 3rd oldest city in Germany with a population of over 250,000. It is about 50km north west of Munich. There is so much colour in the main plaza area of this city and in and around the smaller streets it is a pity I did not have any colour film with me.

Overall observations

Even though these are all of very different locations, I think they fit quite well in a single post. At any rate, these all represent very easy day trips from Munich. I particularly like the shots of the Zugspitze mountain as the weather was really fantastic that day. It was also very interesting to see all the work going on at the top of the mountain, including some pretty impressive helicopter delivering raw materials.

I quite like the mix of expired film and professional Kodak Portra 400 for the colour shots. I can’t remember the black & white film I used for Augsburg, although I feel the shots are lacking a bit of life, and colour may have been a better choice for the colourful subjects.

I hope you enjoyed this latest series of ‘Bavaria on 35mm film’.

I am just about up to date now with all my posts, I have a few more in my back pocket. Then I will probably continue to focus on large format, which I have greatly enjoyed so far.

See you next time!

Neil