Flemming and I left Znojmo on an early morning. We had ordered a taxi in the same way, as we did when we arrived – by sending a text message. The same driver drove us to the Znojmo airport.
There were local pilots at the flying club, and again – nobody wanted to come up and say hello. It was strange… We left, and were soon flying by the Morava river, close to the Slovakian border:
The shores of Morava have been inhabited for a very long time – the oldest known settlement of 30,000 years ago!
Flemming and I were going to Austria that day, with a short stop for refuelling in Slovakia, in a small town called Dunajska Streda:
Beautiful Slovakian mountains on our way:
Dunajska Streda didn’t look like a big place, but it had 2 grass runways:
Since 10th century this region was a part of Hungary. In 1919, after the WWI, the town became part of Czechoslovakia. It was ceded to Hungary once again in 1938, but returned to Czechoslovakia in 1945 after the WWII. Today, 72% of the population are Hungarians. Lots of ethnic tentions took place in Dunajska Streda. In the end of 19th century, the synagogue and 64 Jewish buildings were set on fire, leaving people homeless. In 2008, a football match between FC Dunajska Streda and Slovan Bratislava was disrupted by Slovac police riot, heavily injuring more than 60 people – like concussions and broken bones. The town otherwise looked very peaceful…
We had been in contact with someone from Dunaiska Streda, but the information we received about refuelling was quite limited. Nobody was at the airfield when Flemming and I landed. We found an old out of order fuel station, and some hangars. About 100 metres away we saw something that looked like an ordinary gas station. We walked down there, and found out, we could refuel there. The road wasn’t very good, nor was it wide, and I didn’t dare to taxi my Aeroprakt there. One of the track drivers was very kind and helped us to drag the OY-9797 to the gas station:
People working at the gas station were very kind and helpful, and the refuelling went easy:
Flemming and I dragged my Aeroprakt back. We had brought a couple of sandwiches with us, and had a short brake in the shadow – it was +38C.
Our next flight that day was from Slovakia to Austria, over Hungary:
Picturesque crossing the border between Slovakia and Hungary:
Danube is the second largest river in Europe, after Volga in Russia, with the length of almost 3,000 km. There are many beautiful protected nature areas, like the Šulianske Lake on the photo above. They are popular holiday destinations, especially during the hot summer days.
Flemming and I looked forward to spend some days in Austria, and enjoyed the view of the Austrian mountains on the horizon:
We landed in Weiz, where we had an agreement with the flying club:
Local pilots welcomed us in, and offered coffee. They were flying gliders, so we did the hangar tour ourselves:
Train to Graz, the medieval town of Styria province. We were going to stay in the very heart of Graz, in a pedestrian area of the downtown, the UNESCO World Heritage site. It looked wonderful, with lots of restaurants and cafes, small shops, and nice weather!
Our street was quiet narrow, with very old but mostly renovated buildings. The entrance to our apartment, located on the 3rd floor, was right in front of a tiny Italian restaurant:
That door was never locked, there were some spooky stare cases, leading you up, but it was always very clean. That could never work in Copenhagen in such area – people would be peeing there all day long, if not more! Drag addicts would be living on the stairs… But in Graz it was always open and always clean. We were very pleased with the location.