We had booked two nights in Hurghada, as the stop was sandwiched in between two very long flights. Little did we know that route changes down the line would conspire to make these “long” flights look like warm-up acts! We spent the day doing precisely nothing, other than catching up on some flight planning, and lounging on the beach reading. As I lay on my lounger, a man would occasionally lead a camel up and down the beach; one couldn’t…
Dad left early, and I slept on, eventually rising at about 0845 and taking care of a little planning. Gavin and his father were soon up and about, and we set out for a leisurely day of tourist activity. Our first stop was the ruins of Ephesus, initially an ancient Greek city built in the 10th century BC. The nearby Temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the world. The city declined in importance as the river…
Alex wasn’t available in the morning, so after a light breakfast we took an Uber to the airport and spent a while asking around before we managed to find someone from the handling agent to guide us back to the aircraft. Fees were extremely reasonable for a 2 night stay, at less than 60 Euros total. The Bombardier private jet parked next to us taxied out at about the same time; clearly it was rush hour! We were flying this…
Storms were forecast over the Carpathian Mountains in central Romania and Alex, our host in Iasi, had recently sent me some photographs of a German Cessna 182 which had been destroyed by an encounter with a storm and violent hail. With this at the front of my mind, I decided we’d make a relatively early start and fly during the morning, hopefully beating any storms! A short taxi ride to the airport, and the very efficient handling agents had us…
We met Christian at the hotel the next morning, and started the day with breakfast in the Cafe Landtmann. This is something of a Viennese institution; it was founded in 1873 and has been the preferred coffeehouse of many renowned Austrians including Sigmund Freud. We ate next to a large, relaxed dog that was asleep on the floor, clearly enjoying the relaxed coffeehouse atmosphere. Breakfast complete, we continued our tour of the city, ably guided by Christian who had very…
It was a long time since I’d visited Prague, so it was good fun to re-explore the familiar tourist attractions around the Old Town, and also check out some new locations. After a relaxed brunch on an outside terrace at the Cafe Louvre we crossed the Vltava river and slowly ascended the many steps to the Prague Castle complex, built on a hill overlooking the city. It was packed with tour groups, all following guides who displayed various emblems on…
We had a day to spend in Stuttgart, and started off with a walk in to town and breakfast at a cafe along the way. We wandered north through the old town, enjoying the mix of old and new architecture. The city itself has a population of just over 600,000, and the central district is very compact. Given that it was a Monday, many of the buildings and other attractions were closed, and we ended up on a mostly-empty open-top…
After 28 days in the Iraqi sun, it was time to get back to the Netherlands and Planey McPlaneface. An upgrade to an Emirates First Class Suite on the flight back from Dubai made an auspicious start, and I landed in the Netherlands well rested on the Friday morning. My first stop was to check on Planey, parked up in Rotterdam; the main reason for this visit was that I had failed to plan ahead, and had left my overnight…
Laddingford, England to Rotterdam, Netherlands The time for returning to work was drawing painfully near. Before parking up the airplane for a month, it was important to take care of some routine maintenance. I organised, through the very helpful Liz of the Flyer Forum, to take the aircraft the 8 miles over to Headcorn and meet “Big Jon”, who had very kindly volunteered to give up a few hours of his holiday weekend to help me out. I had all…
Caernarfon, Wales to Laddingford, England Our first appointment of our day in Snowdonia was at “King Arthur’s Labyrinth”. This underground attraction is based in an old mine, the Braichgoch slate mine, and features a boat ride in to the mine followed by a walk around some of the mine tunnels, visiting animatronic displays that tell various stories about King Arthur. It was remarkably tacky and told us nothing at all about the old mine itself, which is what I had…