Schiffshebewerk Niederfinow (amazing boat lift) from the air

As promised here is a picture of an amazing boat lift!  It was finished in 1934 making it the oldest in Germany and lifts boats 36m.  It was built as the staircase lock system previously in use was holding up the traffic.

MIG bunker madness

My former colleague and friend Irene and I try to open the massive concrete doors of a MIG bunker.  With no success.  Electricity is used to close the doors and the track is angled so that if the electricity should be cut, the doors roll open.

And the blog continues after a short hiatus....

Well my blog is still in the Czech Republic at the start of July 2011.  We are now long back in Australia.

The last few weeks were taken up with some intense photo sorting and I have cut down to our very best photos (only 1500, slide night anyone???).  From now on I will cover the rest of our trip in a more photographic form with a photo a day.

Our next stop was Berlin, but we took no new photos on that visit.  However since my blog is lacking some fantastic photos from our visit earlier in the year I'll put them in instead.

MIG bunkers at Ebberswalde, note the MIG in the front right with in front of it a net (MIG-faenger) to catch planes and stop them from running off the runway in case of problems.

In 1967 Israel won the 6 Day War by surprising its neighbours with a series of bombing raids on their air force planes, which were parked in the then standard fashion on the tarmac.  The rest of the world gulped and set about building protective buildings for their forces to protect their planes from similar attack.  Airforce bases in the DDR (like this one) were made from massive concrete, with further massive concrete plane bunkers.  Each bunker cost approximately what 200 DDR houses did at the time.  Now one can be yours for just $30 000 Euro and the biggest challenge people are facing is removing them.

Eggersdorf: GDR military 'replacement' runway

We went for a little afternoon flight with Clare and Guntram to the next airfield to Strausberg, Eggersdorf. Dirk on the tower took us for a tour. It's a ridiculously long runway: 2340m of grass with rubble buried underneath so thay heavy transpprters could land there.  The reason for this is that the GDR built it as a replavement runway for the nearby military airfield in case that runway was damaged in times of war. Off the asphalt taxiway, which runs along the edge of a forest there are several little bays wherr migs would have been hidden, to launch from the taxiway.

Day flight from Berlin to Eberswalde Finow

68ha of solar cells, awesome MIG shelters, how cool is this place?

This isn't a really long trip from Berlin, but as usual the people are what made it great.  We landed on a 2540m asphalt runway thoughtfully provided by the Russians and weren't quite sure what to do.

Luckily after a short chat at the cafe next to our plane's parking spot, Matthias from the tower offered to give us a tour of thee airfield, with its three different types of MIG shelter, one of which now includes an apartment where the exhaust gas ducts once were.

We also scrambled on top of a shelter to assess the roof terrace potential. Fabulous. Each shelter cost the same as 10 DDR homes did, back in the day, and is now yours for only €30K. Bargain. The runway looks like soon being shortened  to 1000m as the 68ha solar array (we thought it was a lake when we were approaching it) is extended. We shall see.


Still to come, a photo of the famous boat lift in Finow.....

Onwards to Berlin - Strausberg review

We were quite sad to leave Bonn as we met so many fantastic people, but it was time.
The fueller gave us the tip that Strausberg  has the best public transport connection to Berlin, so off we went.
It felt like a fairly long trip so we were pleased to hit the ground and meet the friendly handler.
Strausberg is a great airport: a long tarmac runway only 700m from a Berlin train station, so very convenient if you don't have bikes. However it is a good 1.5h journey into town on trains that go twice an hour.
We ended up staying a night in their pilots rooms (€30 for a double), wjich were new and nice and with kitchen corner in the hall we could heat our frozen pizza from Aldi and chill our breakfast yoghurt overnight.
Landing and parking all were quite reasonable and the €5 we paid for hamdling was fantastic for their services in bringing our plane contents from our plane up into our first story room.



For the smaller pilots



Airfield review of Berlin Bienenfarm near Nauen EDOI

We were going to see Julian's sister Clare who lives near Jungfernheide station, so decided to drop in to Bienenfarm.  Bienenfarm is a very friendly airfield, quite close to the station Paulinenaue and they kept offering to drive us to the station so even without bikes getting into town would not have been a problem.

the airstrip is the long green strip across the centre of the photo

Trains go once an hour, take 35mins to get to Berlin's western main station, Jungfernheide and cost €5 if a ticket sales person comes past to sell you a ticket (the station does not have a machine).

The onsite restaurant is very good and prices are very reasonable (schnitzel €7.40, bratwurst with potato salad €6) and the bratkartoffel (fried potatos) that came with the schnitzel are really the best I've had in Germany.

There is a wide range of activities available from the airfield, from all the usual air based recreations through to canoeing, cycling and beach volleyball, so it could be a good destination even if you didn't want to go into Berlin.

The only downside that I can see is that fuel is really very expensive, so it is worthwhile fuelling elsewhere.

Costs for a 700kg aircraft €7 per landing, €3.50 overnight.  Airstrip 850m grass.

Berlin, du bist so wunderbar

The new palace in Potsdam from the air

Berlin city of my youth.  Dirty, noisy, but surprisingly green.  To celebrate seeing the friends I hadn't seen for 6 years I came down with a nasty cold.  Typical.  I also forgot to take my camera with me when seeing them, so most of the Berlin trip will only be remembered.

Except of course for the shoes.  We did find time to do a little sightseeing / shopping when I wasn't hacking up my lungs on the sofa.  Julian had to see Hackische Hoefe and Tacheles (before it closes down), but otherwise I didn't manage to take him to the area where I used to live (Lichterfelder West), which is a really attractive area of town and really did surprisingly little in the 9 days we were there.

Tacheles in the rain.

These are a few cold cuts available at the market at Hackische Hofe, my question is, would you be inclined to eat the teddy bear wurst?????

I was really happy to see Irene, Yvonne and Rainer.  Maybe they will come and visit me in Australia sometime soon?  Irene is to be relied upon for the top tips when it comes to good food.  My life would not have been complete without tasting Rosa Canina's organic chocolate and spice icecream or raspberry and basil.  Mmmmm.

Clare's two new 4 month old cats kept us amused for hours with their antics.

Yes the fatter cat does have his entire head inside the kitty biscuits box...

Having a beer and a Wiener schnitzel at the airfield (Bienenfarm) on the way out.