From the sky

7 August 2011

I love taking aerial photos from aeroplanes, especially when I can later identify what I was seeing. I therefore tend not to take photos of anonymous settlements and fields, but watch out for interesting landmarks and landscapes that I have a hope of finding on Google Earth once I’m back home.

As we made our approach to Munich Airport just over a week ago Suzy and I were looking out of the window at regimented field upon field of crops, great tracts of land split here and there by channels of water flowing through them, not a gentle meander in sight until we flew over the Isar river.

I took a photo of a settlement full of typical German terracotta roofs, proof at least that we were about to land in the right country. Together with the next couple of photos and a bit of Google Earth detective work, I discovered that this was Eitting.

Then came the Middle Isar Channel, a channel branching off from the Isar river. The big car park was something I thought would be easy to find on Google Earth and indeed it was the main pinpoint of finding my location. In fact on Google Earth you can see the “Park and Fly” advertising writ large on the tarmac of the car park.

I had seen this building apparently crossing the channel in the previous shot and zoomed in to get a closer look. It looked somehow like a German castle, or stately home of some kind, but a bit of research reveals it is neither. It’s the Eitting hydroelectric power station in operation since 1925, according to Wikipedia.

I like the internet.