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Thanks René for all the detailed reports! That glider looks like a Libelle?

Veleda and Maurits are enroute to La Motte-du-Caire in the French Alps for glider flying. They left on Saturday morning, but then I received a call that they would first visit St. Hubert in the Belgian Ardennes for two days. The weather in the French Alps was not good yet for glider flying. On Sunday I made a day trip to St. Hubert to visit them.

Maurits has landed

Trip to St. Hubert in the Belgian Ardennes

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Veleda and Maurits were going to La Motte-du-Caire in the French Alps for glider flying. I was going to follow them in the first week with a Piper Archer. But would the weather permit flying in April? First, get a plane.

With the plane at Hilversum

A trip report with pictures can be found here

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Last weekend we had guests from abroad. We invited them for some flying on Monday. The weather on Monday was fantastic. On the way I told a few things about what we saw.

St.Elizabeth's flood (1421)

A trip report with pictures can be found here

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Bonn is the birthplace of composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Bonn was then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of the Holy Roman Empire. At the age of 21 he moved to Vienna, where he lived until his death. On Monday we made a little trip to Bonn.

Bonn

A trip report with pictures can be found here

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The biggest natural disaster of the twentieth century in the Netherlands is without a doubt the North Sea flood of 1953. It occurred on the night of Saturday, January 31 and the morning of Sunday, February 1. The floods struck the Netherlands the hardest.

Ouwerkerk flood museum

A trip report with pictures can be found here

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I always imagined Holland as just having defences against invasion by the sea.

The New Dutch Waterline is a defence line that spans 53 miles. The line starts at Muiden and ends at the Biesbosch and is 2 to 3 miles wide. It consists of 45 forts, 6 fortified towns, 2 castles, 85 machine gun casemates, over 700 concrete troop shelters and casemates as well as more than 100 military sluices and water engineering works. The New Dutch Waterline is the largest National Monument in the Netherlands.

Fort Vuren

On Thursday we made a sight-seeing trip along the Waterline.

A trip report with pictures can be found here

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Nothing special perhaps, but we enjoyed the trip. To the Algarve coast in the south of Portugal, then to Évora, Ponte de Sor et Castelo Branco in Portugal. On the way back we visited Vitoria and Limoges. We also overflew Oradour-sur-Glane and the remains of the Remagen bridge.

Algarve coast

A trip report with pictures can be found here

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We intended to make a trip to the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) during the last week of June and the first week of July. We had not been there before, and it would be interesting to visit. As usual, the typically poor flying weather characteristic of northern Europe required adaptability.

Lublin by night

A trip report with pictures can be found here

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The Dutch King's birthday on April 27 is an official holiday in the Netherlands, and this year it fell on a Thursday. We had taken the Friday off, so we had four days from Thursday to Sunday available to make a trip.The weather forced us to adjust our plans, and instead of flying south, we flew to the north-east where we visited Rostock, Stralsund and Wismar on the German Baltic coast.

Rostock

A trip report with pictures can be found here

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What about Hamburg for a 100 dollar hamburger location? We made our first trip of 2017 to Hamburg. The weather on Friday would be cold, but CAVOK. On Thursday night we drove to Paderborn, and we flew to Hamburg on Friday morning. The weather outlook for the weekend was bad, so we had to make it a day trip. With sunset at 16:30h LT, and having a dislike for night flying, we returned at Paderborn-Lippstadt airport just after 4 o'clock.

Hamburg

A trip report with pictures can be found here

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The weather outlook for a weekend in November was good enough to consider a short trip to Heidelberg in Germany. Germany's oldest and most famous university town is renowned for its Old Town, beautiful riverside setting and the ruins of the Heidelberger Schloss. From Mannheim City airport we took the tram to Heidelberg.

Heidelberg

A trip report with pictures can be found here

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We finished our last flight of 2016 on Thursday. Although we made no far away trips in 2016, we made quite a number of small trips. Among these are trips to Vienna, to Munich to visit the Deutsches Museum, to the Czech Republic and Slovakia, to France to the Lorraine and Champagne regions, to the Rhône Alps, and to Heidelberg. There is still a lot to explore in the new year.

Happy new year, all!

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Our daughter had not yet been flying with me this year. So we made a little trip to Maastricht, where I hadn't been for ages. Also our youngest son, who is a glider pilot, joined. It was a bit cold and windy, but further the weather was perfect. With the days very short at this time of the year, we just had a coffee at the destination airport before we returned to be back again before the end of the daylight period (no Night-VFR in the Netherlands). It was still a nice trip, though.

A trip report with pictures can be found here

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Thank you for the kind replies and for the likes.

This summer we also made a trip to the Geneva area. With Geneva among Europe's priciest places, we flew to Annemasse just across the border with France, and we booked a hotel there. From Annemasse we took the city bus to Geneva to visit the city. The next day we made a flying trip: First to the Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps, and then further to Chalon via Annecy and Chambery. The next day we returned home.

Mont Blanc

A trip report with pictures can be found here

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Following the River Ruhr upstream, from its mouth in the Rhine near Duisburg, along the Metropolitan Ruhr district, to the countryside landscape east of Schwerte, further to Neheim, where the River Möhne flows in the River Ruhr, then following the River Möhne upstream to the Möhne dam.

A trip report with pictures can be found here (with a map)

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You hit the nail on the head

The Grampians must be a great area to fly. In December there is the World Sailplane Grand Prix.

René

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Wow, you do get around don't you. I think even my wife would take an interest in flying if we could visit such places. Like the photograph of the boat lift.Peter

Btw, your picture of the Grampians reminded me of a location in Spain.

Peter Anson, Grampians

Location in Spain

This location in Spain was once the setting of a movie. You may recognize it?

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Following our early return from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, we had time left for a long weekend trip after the weather improved. The good weather in France brought us to Nancy and Troyes.

We left on Friday afternoon from Hilversum. We first flew to Doucy in the north of France, where we stayed to first night. On Saturday we flew to Nancy. On Sunday we flew to Troyes, passing the Charles de Gaulle Memorial in Colombey on the way. On Monday we returned to Hilversum.

Nancy

Troyes

A trip report with pictures can be found here

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For this year's destination of our summer holiday we had set our eye to Romania. However, in Hungary we did not leave the Schengen region. We visited places in Slovakia and Czech Republic instead.

It was an interesting trip. For example, I would have never imagined that we would back-track behind landing MiG-29s. Also we saw the finished Junkers F13 in Dessau.

Junkers F13; Technikmuseum "Hugo Junkers"

A trip report with pictures can be found here

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Last weekend we flew to Munich to visit the Deutsches Museum, and the Flugwerft Schleissheim, that is part of the Deutsches Museum. Lots of interesting and rare aviation exhibits on display there, but also much more to see at the Deutsches Museum for the rest of the family :-)

A trip report with pictures can be found here

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Early June 2011, I was asked by a contact, with who I had been flying before, if I was interested to fly a TB-20 from London to Athens. I had time, and we agreed to meet at Elstree the next week.

The start of the trip was not flawless, but we managed to get the plane over with some delay.

Route from Lelystad to Athens

A trip report with pictures can be found here

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That's a nice VFR equipped Cessna 182RG. Looks like you had a great trip with good weather.

btw; the plane is IFR equipped.