Summer 2023 trip. Day 1: The Dragon of Torun

Finally summer vacation! The early moning of departure was so calm… Flemming and I got to my flying club by the sunrise:

We prepared my OY-9797, and took off.

The first stop was going to be Anklam, a nice and very friendly airfield in Germany:

We refuelled, and parked on the apron. The staff was welcoming and very helpful.

After having a meal, we took rest under the wings og a beautiful An-2, exhibited in the open-air museum:

The second flight was to Torun in Poland, our destination for the next couple of days:

Flying over Poland, we compared that part of it with Sweden, which is also endless forests and deep lakes:

After approx. 2 hours and 30 minutes we reached Torun. Last time I visited that place was in 2018, together with my Swedish friends. We were on a Värnamö flying club tour to Krakow, and on our way back, together with Joakim and Jan, visited Torun. Read more here.

I looked so much forward to visit medieval Torun again!

Flemming and I landed, with the help in radio communication from a Polish pilot, who translated for us and for the tower. There were glider activities on the airfield, and it was very helpful. Otherwise nobody cared about our arrival. So we went around ourselves, said hello to the local pilots, found a place where we could park my Aeroprakt. There was UL91 fuel, but we couldn’t get it, because the people responsible were not at the airfield. I had called them from Denmark, several days and times before our arrival, but nobody answered the phone.

We had two rubber fuel tanks with us. Flemming called a taxi, and drove to the nearest gas station, where he bought 20 litres of MoGas for the OY-9797. While he was away, I washed my Aeroprakt of all those insekts we encountered in the air, and did some sightseeing:

There were three Aerogryf PZL-Mielec M-18 B Dromader parked – impressive aircraft!

Our taxi brought us to the center of Torun, where we stayed:

The apartment we rented was spacious and light, with bedroom facing inner yard (which I was so happy about):

Flemming and I quickly arranged our things, and went down to the town.

There was a queue to be photographed by that golden donkey:

A lazy stroll around the town was exactly what we needed.

Did you know, that a flying dragon was once spotted over Torun? On 13th August 1746, foreman of carpentry Johann Georg Hieronimi and Kataharina Storchin, a soldiers wife, testified in the municipality of Torun, that in the spring of 1746 they saw a dragon. The monster was able to fly and swim, was 2 metres in length,its head and the whole body was dark grey, the tail was pale brown and shiny. The dragon flew away to the Teutonic castle ruins. An artist commeratoted the story in a ceramic dragon, taking a rest on a street of Torun, getting ready for its new adventure:

The weather was so nice! It was +30C, no wind. We started from drinks. Mine was the Raspberry Cloud, and tasted great. Flemming ordered something alternative, with cider, vodka, whipped cream, and other things. He said, it was terrible! He had to order beer afterwards, to make it better.

I love Polish food, and we ordered too much. But it was so tasty!

We did a walk in the town after dinner – it was difficult to go to bed…