Summer 2023 trip. Summary: 8 countries, 23 flights, 4800 km

The summer vacation this year was excellent. First some statistics. We visited 8 countries in 32 days, and flew approx. 4800 km. 23 flights in total, inclusive local sightseeing flights. The OY-9797 used around 600 litres of fuel, with the airborne time of 36 hours (not tacho hours). The weather was hot and sunny, on average +35C, and we only experienced rain 2-3 days, a couple of hours each.  The whole tour looked as follows:

I was quite busy in May and June at work, together with writing an exam paper on Strategic Risk Management, an evening course I took at Copenhagen Business School, so I didn’t really have the time to prepare for the summer vacation. But my busyness influenced my decision. The weather was nice and sunny during May and June in Denmark, whilst I had to stay indoors, either working late or writing my exam paper. I therefore wanted to fly south, and enjoy the summer time. Flemming was talking about flying in Sweden and over Kebnekaise again, revisit The Navvy Road as we did for 3 years ago, but he agreed, having a sunny and warm summer would be really good.

Below I’m going to give just one picture from each country, without necessarily mentioning all the places we visited or stayed in, and tell something that made an impression.

The first stopover was in Torun, which is my favourite town in Poland. It is small and cozy, UNESCO World Heritage town with beautiful historical buldings, and great food. I remember how much food we ordered on our first night!

In Czech Republic Flemming and I first stayed in Františkovy Lázně, a spa town on the border with Germany, and later visited Znojmo. We loved Znojmo, a charming medieval town, well-known for its Catacombs from the 14th century which is a vast labyrinth of the undeground corridors and rooms beneath the old town, 27 km long and on 4 levels!

A funny story from refuelling in Slovakia where we dragged our Aeroprakt to the nearest gas station from the airfield we landed at, and got help from its staff to refuel:

Austria was interesting to visit. Flemming and I stayed in the very heart of Graz, in an old building right on this street:

I remember, we were surprised by the amount of champagne drunken at all corners, from the early morning! We went to a Queen concert at the Schlossberg, and saw The Immersive Experience Vagn Gogh exhibition there. And I had my worst and most expensive hot chocolate in Graz. I otherwise liked the town very much.

From Austria the tour went to Croatia. It was so spectacular to fly over the mountains when The Adriatic sea with its turquoise waters would slowly begin to appear on the horizon together with those small and big islands:

I called that part of the country The Whitsundays of Croatia, because it reminded me so much of flying over the real Whitsundays.

We stayed on two islands – Losinj and Hvar, visited Ilovik island on a day sailing trip, went hiking and swimming, exploring the antient towns. The seafood of Croatia deserves special mentioning. Flemming would go to the fish market in the morning and buy fish, giant prawns, crayfish, whatever he liked. In the evenings he would grill it with herbs and garlic – it was so deliscious!

Slovenia’s nature and people made their way to our hearts. We cannot forget the home-made meal we had in a mountain restaurant! On one of the hikes we saw the ironworks from the 16th century, a great piece of history of the region:

Flying from Slovenia to Hungary was by a valley filled up with a sick layer of fog:

In Hungary, we lived by the Balaton Lake, before going to a place called Fertőszentmiklós close to the border with Austria, where we had a room at the Szidonia Castle hotel which was so perfect that we prolonged our stay there with two additional nights:

The hotel had a gourmet restaurant, wines from their own vineyards, a nice park around the Castle, and was managed so professionally. From there, we visited Sopron, a Hungarial town on the border with Austria. It was so charming, we enjoyed the sightseeing and its cafes.

Schwerin in Germany was a good choice to spend the last days of our tour:

Flemming and I flew after the good weather, and we succeeded – sunshine and +35C on average every single day. There were rains and thunderstorms, but we avoided those areas. The thunderstorms we got, were fairly short.

Mountain flying was something we really appreciated. It wasn’t the same as the mountain flying I practiced with Gilles in Hautes-Pyrénées last September, but it was exciting anyway:

What country did we like most? Croatia, no doubt. Second? Slovenia.
Best food? Seafood in Croatia which we prepared ourselves.
Best wine? Szidonia Castle in Hungary, from their own vineyards.
Best restaurant? Mountain restaurant on a hiking route in Slovenia.
Best stay? Szidonia Castle hotel in Hungary, it was a place you didn’t want to leave.
Best weather? Croatia.
Best place visited? Hvar island in Croatia.
Did we look forward to getting back to Denmark? Not at all. Personally, I believe I would travel forever, if I could.

Flemming and I had a wonderful vacation, with meeting interesting people, visiting new places, full of great experiences.