It was a very cold morning in Stendal, but beautiful. Trees were blooming, birds singing, the weather was flyable and better in the south of Germany where we wanted to fly to.
Flemming and I biked to the Stendal airport. In the briefing room, we sat down and began calling to all airports from our list, we prepared last night. It was Flemming, who did all the calls – I don’t speak German, not even a word besides “danke”. One airport would ask us to call again in 3 hours, because they didn’t know whether they would be open or not. Another one didn’t answer any of the phone numbers that were stated as their official contact numbers. The third one promised to call back. And so on… It was a mess.
We couldn’t just sit and wait, because then we wouldn’t be able to reach one of our intended destinations for the day which was yet to be determined. Most of the airports were closing at 18:00. And we would also need to find accommodation and transport. Flemming and I decided to fly to one or another airport mid-way for refuelling, and continue our calls from there. Luckily, the Hassfurt airport was open, and we were welcome for a refuelling stop. The air traffic controller also spoke very good English. We got my OY-9797 out of the hangar, prepared it for the flight, and quickly took off.
The flight to Hassfurt was so spectacular – there were many castles on the way. Stolberg Castle in the Harz mountains – a palace from the 13th century:
In some areas in the mountains, there was still snow left:
Burg Brennhausen, a privately owned castle from the 13th century:
Landing in Hassfurt was easy:
We got a warm welcome, refuelled, and got back to work: Flemming was calling different airports, I was checking the weather and investigating accommodation. We didn’t really want to go to Koblenz, because it was going to rain there next 3 days. Two airports close to Salzburg didn’t expect to be open. On a third one there was work in progress on the runway. In Switzerland, the airspace was limited due to air display or an airport was closed on a Friday – when we expected to fly out. It wasn’t easy, and we were under time pressure.
Finally we got in touch with Konstanz. They asked us to come one hour earlier than closing time due to some private matters. I booked an apartment and sent a message regarding our expected arrival time. We took off.
It was again a very spectacular route, with lots of castles and medieval towns on the way. Schwäbisch Gmünd, a huge Medieval city from the12th century, surrounded by walls, and known for its precious metalworking since 14th century:
Road architecture was surprising at times, with tunnels, bridges and viaducts:
Zwiefalten Abbey, a monastery that was founded in 1089. Current buildings are from the 18th century with a Baroque design interior. The monastery was dissolved in 1802 and became a psyciatric hospital which it is today:
We soon were flying over the lake Constance with the views to the mountains of Switzerland:
Landing pattern in Konstanz goes over the city. Flemming and I were going to stay in the old town by the Cathedral that was easy to spot from air:
The green field far center is the Konstanz airport:
It was warm and sunny in Konstanz, +17C.
We were going to stay for 4 nights there, and looked forward to have some relaxing days. The taxi was on its way and everything was good.