Infrared Imagery - An infrared tour of Bavaria

In August/September 2004, I made a bicycle trip around the southern half of Bavaria. The total odometry after the 12 days was nearly 937 kilometers and the highest altitude was 952 meters above sea level (according to GPS). If you know me, you'd expect me to take along a laptop, a digital camera and my "infrared gear" (tripod, filter and adapter) on such a trip: you're absolutely right - and the images turned out to be really amazing, even though (or possibly because) the weather wasn't perfect most of the time!
I had to use a very small tripod placed on my bicycle seat or on rocks, which isn't as stable as a big tripod while removing the filter adapter, so most of the RGB images in this section will not match the NI versions exactly. At least the tripod helped me keep the camera in position for the up to 10 seconds of exposure (when there were clouds on the Herzogstand and I still had the ISO speed set to 100 to reduce image noise).
Anyway, here are some of them...

Oly 4, 1024x576	The first day I followed the Danube from Regensburg to Vilshofen, without any spectacular infrared images. The next morning, going to Passau and up the Inn river, I accidentally crossed this dam and found myself in Austria.	Oly 4, 1024x576	Visible-light (RGB) version of the image to the left.
Oly 4, 1600x481	I followed the the Inn river for several hours on astonishingly long and straight embankments, and before reaching Simbach/Braunau, I climbed a bird observation tower and took this panoramic image (stitched from three frames) of the biotope surrounding it. (Thanks to Jockal for helping with color balance between the frames!)	Oly 4, 1600x412	Visible-light (RGB) version of the image to the left.
Oly 4, 1024x576	Between Simbach and Wasserburg, I caught this view of sunlight rays breaking through a thunderstorm cloud.	Oly 4, 1024x576	Visible-light (RGB) version of the image to the left.
Oly 4, 1024x576	Not too long after that, the sunlight came back and cast a very peculiar light on a single tree. (The RGB version was cropped from another image taken a few minutes earlier when the lighting was still different)	Oly 4, 1024x576	Visible-light (RGB) version of the image to the left.
Oly 4, 1024x576	I followed the Inn river up to Rosenheim and then turned west and rode up into the first, lower mountains of the Alps. After the first serious uphill cycling (+300 meters elevation) I looked down into this valley before transforming my accumulated gravitational charge into kinetic energy and brake pad wear.	Oly 4, 1024x576	Visible-light (RGB) version of the image to the left.
Oly 4, 1024x576	... then I cycled through Fischbachau ...	Oly 4, 1024x576	Visible-light (RGB) version of the image to the left.
Oly 4, 1024x576	... and a few hours later, after going along the Schliersee (lake) and another up- and downhill ride through the woods I took this photo of the Tegernsee (lake) and the mountains at its southern end. This image is a very good example of infrared light showing details in distant objects that seem totally featureless in visible light.	Oly 4, 1024x576	Visible-light (RGB) version of the image to the left.
Oly 4, 1024x576	After a night in Bad Toelz I followed the Isar river south for a few kilometers, then again turned west and up into the "Jachenau" valley. Because the only road there was full of motorcycles and other noisy things which mountainbikers don't like, I tried to bypass it using a more strenuous cycle path along the side of a smaller valley - from where I got a good view into the "Jachenau" and the mountains at its western end, where I knew I would be going next.	Oly 4, 1024x576	Visible-light (RGB) version of the image to the left.
Oly 4, 1024x576	From the same viewpoint as the image above, but with 3x optical zoom and a clearer view of the mountains which show a lot more features in infrared.	Oly 4, 1024x576	Visible-light (RGB) version of the image to the left.
Oly 4, 1024x576	Staying in Jachenau for two nights, I used the day between cycling only 20km to the Walchensee (a lake used as a hydroelectric power plant in combination with the Kochelsee) and ride the cableway up the Herzogstand mountain. After getting off the cableway, I walked up to the summit pavillon and spent nearly four hours there, taking pictures, watching the clouds move, and listening to the other visitors (a child from England actually asked, "Daddy, is that Portugal over there?" - "No, Austria." - "Australia?"). This is a view from the pavillon to the Martinskopf, a smaller summit belonging to the Herzogstand. Wallgau can be seen in the background.	Oly 4, 1024x576	Visible-light (RGB) version of the image to the left.
Oly 4, 1024x576	A zoomed view of the Wallgau valley. The cloudy (and eventually rainy) weather required exposures up to 10 seconds, but these low threatening clouds give a unique impression.	Oly 4, 1024x576	Visible-light (RGB) version of the image to the left.
Oly 4, 1024x576	This is the Walchensee, seen from the summit pavillon. The distant valley to the left which appears white in infrared is the Jachenau.	Oly 4, 1024x576	Visible-light (RGB) version of the image to the left.
Oly 4, 1024x576	The next day I carefully maneuvered my bicycle down the Eschenlaine, a very steep and rocky valley west of the Walchensee, and then cycled up the Loisach valley to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. On the way I caught this view of the Zugspitze massif from a distance.	Oly 4, 1024x576	Visible-light (RGB) version of the image to the left.
Oly 4, 1024x576	After sleeping in Grainau (near Garmisch), I cycled back down to Eschenlohe and then to the west again. Departing from Wildsteig the next morning, I had to say goodbye to the mountains with this view:	Oly 4, 1024x576	Visible-light (RGB) version of the image to the left.
Oly 4, 1024x576	In the afternoon of the same day, after changing a damaged tyre in a bicycle shop in Peiting, I was back in the familiar flat land and on my way down the Lech river to Augsburg, and the next day, to Donauwoerth.	Oly 4, 1024x576	Visible-light (RGB) version of the image to the left.
Oly 4, 1024x576	The last overnight stay of my tour was in Bertoldsheim, and from there I sped down the danube heading home, where I got rather early because I didn't even stop for lunch in a restaurant.... so the last infrared images I took are from Neuburg an der Donau:	Oly 4, 1024x576	Visible-light (RGB) version of the image to the left.

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