Easter weather didn’t look good, but in the very last moment it changed to the better. I was so happy!
I wanted to fly to Switzerland, but the weather was quite unsettled there. Flemming wanted to fly to Austria, and the weather was good there. After some considerations we decided to leave on a Friday evening, stay over in Stendal, Germany, and see the day after where we could fly further.
We were so glad we finally could go on a longer trip. We would normally fly abroad during winter time, but this winter was exceptionally bad – wet and cloudy. I had a look into my logbook, and could see that the last time I flew abroad was in October last year!
Flying over Germany, we noticed it was also still very wet there. Many arear were under the water. Elbe river, one of the major ones in Western Europe:
The city of Schwerin, where we stayed last summer, returning from our 5 weeks flying vacation:
And the magnificent Schwerin Castle:
We landed in Stendal just before they were about to close, and quickly refuelled:
On the fuel tank, there was a funny sign in Russian “Remove before flight”:
My OY-9797 was put in a hangar; we got the bikes and headed for the town. The Tangermünde Gate welcomed us in:
I have stayed in Stendal before, and knew where to go. It was quickly getting dark. Sometimes we would stop and appreciate the beauty of that Hanseatic city:
I showed Flemming the statue of Roland, almost 8 metres tall, the third biggest in Germany, but Flemming wasn’t very impressed – he was hungry 🙂
We found the place where we were going to stay – it was a charming old house, two floors, in the heart of Stendal:
Completely renovated, stylishly furnished, and with a small garden – I regretted we had to move the morning after. We had stopped by a supermarket on our way and bought some food for dinner, inclusive ready-made German meat balls. Flemming looked so much forward to eat them – but they were terrible 🙂 They tasted ok, but were so heavy…
We spent the rest of the evening preparing for the flights the day after – looked at suitable destinations (fuel, opening hours, prior permissions for landing (PPR), close to an interesting city or place, accommodations, transport, things to do, you name it). A we needed a refuelling stop somewhere on the way. After some hours of work, Flemming and I agreed on three possible routes in preferred order: towards Salzburg, Bern, or Koblenz. We prepared a list of phone numbers for all those many airports (most of them required PPR), with additional info. It was Easter, so some of them would probably not be open, or not have the fuel, or whatever else…
The airport in Stendal was going to open at 09:00. We agreed to come there earlier and start calling. Finally we could go to bed and get rest.