1999 – Tourists queue for boarding the steamboat Utting at the pier in Herrsching for a cruise on Lake Ammersee in Bavaria. Photo © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com
The story behind the image
Lake Ammersee in Bavaria is a valuable destination at all times of the year. On a sunny summer day in 1999 we drove from Munich to Herrsching and found the little village full of tourists.
While enjoying a walk along the promenade, the steamboat Utting approached the pier. I mounted my tele lens on my Canon AE-1 Program and shot this image showing how tourists queue for boarding the ship.
Now, the interesting bit of the story is the history of the ship. Built in 1950 and put into service the same year, it served for 66 years – until 2016 – on lake Ammersee on both scheduled services as well as chartered services (which had been especially popular with weddings.)
But where is the boat today? What happened after 2016? Well, it is a partyboat today. In Munich. And as landbound as a ship can be.
I’m torn about this outcome. On one hand, it’s clearly a somewhat sad ending of a once beautiful queen of the sea (or lake, in this case.) On the other hand, would it have been any better if she had been silently dismantled? This way, people can at least enjoy the feeling of boarding a historic ship, right in the middle of Munich. And that’s a comforting thought.
Wikipedia has all the details on the ship including a number of photos showing its current location (in German.)
The high resolution image
| Capture Date & Time | 1999 |
| Location | Herrsching am Ammersee, Germany |
| Camera | Canon AE-1 Program |
| Lens | Canon FD 70-210 mm f/4 |
| Image Source | Fuji Slide Film |
| Digital Image Source | EPSON Perfection 4870 Photo |
| Digital Image Source Format | TIFF, 48 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Dimensions | 6383 x 4001 Pixels |
| Copyright | © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
Zanzig.com Photo Hub 