Vagn and I left Konstanz on a misty Monday morning:
And were happy to be airborne again:
Salem Abbey close to Konstanz, from the 12th century:
Our final destination for the day was Piestany, a city in Slovakia. On our way we were going to have two stops – in Germany, and in Czech Republic. We needed to land in Tannheim first (EDMT), for refuelling. Verena, one of the family owners, welcomed us in the tower:
Tannheim had for 12 years hosted Tannkosh – famous fly-in event in Europe. This is the photo that decorates a wall in the airport, taken at one of the former fly-ins: A380 on low pass. You can see how many aircraft are parked there – just to give you an idea of the significance of this place in the European general aviation history:
We refuelled Vagn’s aircraft:
And waved goodbye to Tannheim:
Danube river west of Wiesent, in the south-east part of Germany:
The Großer Arber mountain (4.777 ft), highest peak of the Bavarian/Bohemian forest range:
And soon we were approaching Strakonice (LKST) in Czech Republic, our next stop:
We were supposed to arrive a day earlier, and to stay over, but were delayed due to the bad weather in Konstanz. So we only going to refuel, and have a short break.
Taxiing to the apron:
The pilots from the flying club in Strakonice prepared some fuel for us, and we were grateful for that. There was a 10-15 kts headwind on our way to Czech Republic, and we were 45 minutes delayed. Those pilots waited for us. While Vagn was handling this, I had a tour to the hangars. They had many nice aircraft. Antonov behind the Eurostar:
Zlin Z-37 Čmelák (Czech: “Bumblebee”), Ka-4 Fiddler, and a Piper Cub:
We had to hurry up, as we had around 3 hours of flight in front of us. The runway in Strakonice looks very narrow, but it isn’t. The narrow part is just enough for an ultralight aircraft, otherwise the grass part can also be used:
Beautiful hills of Czech Republic, and a castle on top of one of them – what a marvellous place to have a home on!
The water stream on the photo below is the border between Czech republic and Austria:
Mikulov Castle, known from the 13th century, in South Moravia:
And soon we crossed the border with Slovakia. There wasn’t much to see there, and I complained to Vagn that it was boring to fly (which was a joke because flying is never boring!). We both were quite tired after so many hours of flying, but when we noticed something interesting on a top of a hill, we changed our course. It showed up to be the ruins of the Branč Castle that was built in 13th century. Branč Castle is subject to many legends. According to one of them a local lord lost his patience and cursed his daughter after she refused to marry every suitor he presented to her, and to this day she roams the castle ruins in search of a husband.
We landed in Krakovany where I had made an agreement with the owner prior our trip. Krakovany is a private grass strip near the city of Piestany where we were going to stay for 3 days. Krakovany town photographed on left base on landing:
The owner’s wife was our marshal and showed the way to the hangar:
And the owner himself, with some gorgeous flying machines in his hangar where we also got place:
He called us a taxi, and soon we were in our very large 2-store 3-bedroom apartment in the heart of Piestany. We had dinner in a cosy and authentic local restaurant “Leierov dvor“. Both Vagn and I were quite tired, but happy reaching Piestany, and looked forward to exploring the city.
