Munich city tour and photo walk during summertime
My 10 top spots to photograph in the old town
Last November, I did a Munich city tour with my nephew Elias; it was my first visit back in nearly 30 years. When I went back, I didn’t remember much about the town apart from the fact that the city was famous for its football club, the Bayern München, and the Mercedes-Benz factory.
On my visit last November, I took a tour of the Residenz, which was the home of the Wittelsbach Dukes of Bavaria’s government between 1508 and 1918.
When I went back to for another Munich city tour this summer I had a completely different feeling. Travelling to Munich after a few days in Berlin (you can read the post here), I found my stay there felt more like being on holiday, with life unfolding in the “gemuetlich” (quieter) way. In this post, I will take you on a summer-bound photo walk of new and old places in Munich, where I share 10 of my favourite spots to photograph in the old town.
The English Garden
Even before setting foot back in Munich, I knew that I wanted to visit the “Englischer Garten “. I had completely omitted during my last visit. Watching a few videos about Munich, I knew this was a mistake. This time, I was determined to start my visit with the gardens; an 18th-century urban park with 78km of cycling/jogging trails and a a lakeside beer garden. I started my walk in the old town through another garden called Hofgarten, that has a dome in the middle.
On my way, I met a lot of people playing petanque, and I saw a restaurant with large dark red umbrellas and tables set with pressed dark red tablecloths. This made me think that southern Germany seems much more Latin than the rest of the country. It gave me the feeling that people in Munich have a great work-life balance and take time to enjoy themselves to make the most of their time on this planet.
I had a beautiful walk in the park, crossing the tennis courts and, even more surprisingly, watching people float in the current of the Schwabinger Bach. I wish I were with them, floating in that water that looked so refreshing, but then I saw the skull on the placard, which said swimming was forbidden.
This was the first time I heard of the Eisbachwelle, basically a huge wave through water acceleration coming out of a hydroelectric plant. I watched the crowd of people standing at the bridge overlooking the water and watching the surfers in wetsuits taking turns on their surfboards, trying to hold on as long as possible. This was certainly the highlight of my visit to Munich; some surfers managed to stay on their board for a good 5 minutes, while others only managed 30 seconds. You had lines of them on each side of the river patiently waiting their turn. Again, you had a placard mentioning that this place is not meant for surfing and that this activity is “verboten”. (forbidden). All in all, it looked quite perilous when I saw them disappear under the wave and come out a few meters down the river. This was the same river where I met the people being carried by the strong current.
I imagine this activity was too fun to obey the recommendations. Despite the danger, I greatly enjoyed watching them and taking many photos.
The next day I decided to follow the same circuit I did on day one. I had taken a lot of photos with my phone, but I wanted to finish a few rolls with my 35mm Canon. More and more, when I travel abroad, because of the dreaded X-ray airport scanner, I buy film in the country I’m visiting, or have it delivered to where I am staying and developed there. For these images, I didn’t find a 24-hour lab in Munich, so I sent the film back to the Aperture lab in Berlin. Shipping your film there’s never a guarantee that they wouldn’t X-ray them, but I took the risk, and somehow the scans went back fine
It can sound crazy to follow the same route twice, once with my iPhone, second with a film camera. But the incentive of not having to carry my film with me while travelling back to London made me work harder, and I was delighted with the photos I took on Kodak Portra 160. This was the first time I chose Portra160, and I was curious to see the results. I also had T-Max 400 black-and-white film to test.
Munich old town
I am sharing my favourite spots to photograph in Munich old town :
- Frauenplatz and Frauenkirche:You can’t miss the two church bells of the Frauenkirche while walking in the old town. The church is nearly 100 meters high. Without the right lens for shooting architecture, I chose a different point of view and loved the scenes unfolding under the trees near the church.Sometimes you have to choose a different point of view to tell a story because you haven’t got the right tools, but you have options. The fountain, the church door, and the tree created a 3-tier composition. When you are challenged to take the photo that you had in mind, move with your feet, walk around. For this one, I took a photo on my phone to gauge whether it would be worth using a single exposure on my 36-photo film.
2. The Glockenspiel
This time I was lucky to stand in front of the Glockenspiel while it was in action. If you are in Munich between March and October, make the effort to walk to Marienplatz to watch the ballet of 32 life-sized figures; it is pretty impressive. You can watch them every day from 11 am to 12 pm.
3. Look out for passages
It took me a bit of time to be able to shoot this scene under the Bazargebaude, a very elegant alleyway, and shooting with film, I didn’t have a clue if it worked. I found a few places in Munich where I would stand and wait for the action to unfold in front of my camera. There’s a constant flow of bicycles in town; do not hesitate to photograph them in motion. Make sure to use a fast shutter speed.
4.Look for silhouette
I usually dont shoot a lot of silhouettes, but this one stood out to me; the bicycle, the fountain and the play of light and shadow were telling me a story. In a world in constant motion, I loved the stillness of the figure and imagined the statue atop the fountain as an observer of that moment.
5. Be Curious
I had a peek in this garden next to a church; I loved the alignment of the windows, the two people chatting on a bench and under some parasol trees. To me it looked like a moment of calm in the middle of the city noises.
7.The clash of modern city life
8.Neon light
I didn’t expect to photograph neon light in daytime. I took a similar photo with my phone when I noticed that the ray of light formed an interesting pattern. I had to try this with black and white film, and the result was even better.
9. Look out for a colour palette
I couldn’t resist this orange-pink colour palette; the flowers, the tables and chairs against the strong contrast of the dark orange sun umbrellas gave me enough summer vibe to tell a story about Munich in the summer.
10. Bathing in the Isar River
The Isar is the main river travelling through Munich. This was a nice surprise: a beach in the middle of town. People were gathering around the Praterinsel. I took a walk around the river, crossed the bridge over the small island and got a great viewpoint.
These few days in Munich felt like uncovering a new city. Despite the heat, I greatly enjoyed walking around town; next time I have to try visiting the city during the Oktoberfest, which must be quite enteraining. I dont like beer, but I am sure there will be lots of stories to share with my camera.
Enjoyed this post? You read about my tour of Munich during wintertime and my latest trip to Berlin.
