Summer vacation time has finally come! My OY-9797 was already prepared, I only needed to do the normal pre-flight check:

In the morning, Flemming and I took a decision about our flight direction – it looked like it was better to fly south, though we both would rather flew north. We left in the evening, as the day after it was going to rain.

Our first stop was Lüneburg, a charming old town in Germany:

The views during our flight were stunning:

I had activated SafeSky, a new software I recently purchased. It worked fine when I tested it in Denmark, I got alerts when other airplanes were nearby. It integrates seamlessly with SkyDemon:

Flemming and I looked forward to our summer vacation. We didn’t have any specific plan, just wanted to enjoy the summer on wings.

Travemünde in Northern Germany, a seaside resort, former submarine harbour, and nowadays an important ferry port.

Travemünde was visited by many well-known writers, who also described the town in their novels and poems. Dostoyevsky, Gogol and Turgenev came from Russia; it is said, they liked gambling in Travemünde. Franz Kafka and Thomas Mann have also been there, among others.

The Elbe Lateral Canal, a 115 km long canal, an important transport connection between northern and southern Germany:

The difference in elevation between Elbe and the canal is 61 metres which is overcome by a 23-metre lock  at Uelzen and a 38-metre twin ship lift in Scharnebeck northeast of Lüneburg:

The Scharnebeck twin ship lift was built in 1974 and was at that time the largest ship lift in the world. Today, the world’s largest is The Three Gorges Damp ship lift on the Yangtze river in China.

We landed in Lüneburg. The sunset was beautiful, and we were happy.

Flemming refuelled:

We took our bikes and headed for the town. The St. Michaelis church, the landmark of Lüneburg, welcomed us in:

The hotel where we stayed gave us a nice upgrade, a bigger room with a terrace:

It was a building from 15th century, carefully restored and decorated. Just look at those carvings on the wooden parts:

The terrace was small, but the view was good. Despite being in the heart of the old town, it was vety quiet:

It was a warm evening, +25C. Only 200-300 km from home, but such a big difference in climate. Many people were out,  watching the EM in football. Huge screens were set up everywhere.

Flemming and I found a table where we could be free of football 🙂 We were lucky to end up in a very nice restaurant that had excellent food and wines:

After dinner, we had a walk and appreciated the so charming old town:

The thunderstorms were on the way, and we soon went to our hotel, to get some good well-deserved sleep.