With a little bit of delay, here’s the account of my this years “long flying weekend with friends” that I do every summer. Last year was Palanga, which was superb.
(By the way, as a short aftermath to the Palanga trip, I got charged some 100 or so Euros of airway fees by Russia a few weeks after coming home. A total ripoff, for what is less than 100 miles in their airspace. Makes going via Sweden look more attractive.
Also, as you might know, Lithuania has in the meantime introduced the Euro. A colleague of mine from over there tells me that prices have exploded in places like Palanga. The exchange rate between the Euro and the Lita used to be about 3.5. Now – he says – many places have kept the same price lists…, they just changed the currency sign! If that were only half true, then the times of cheap drink and eat are definitely over. Well…).
But coming back to this year. We were again looking for somewhere less than 2.5 flying hours away from Luebeck, as well as some good party scene, beaches and of course good weather. A few days before the day of departure, it was clear that there was again some good high pressure and very warm temperatures in the Baltic region. That came as a plus, since our pre-planned choice number one for that weekend had been Gdansk (Poland). So the final choice of destination was a quick one, as the weather nicely played ball.
From Luebeck, Gdansk is only about one and a half hours flying by SR22. As a result, I had the idea adding a second destination and showing my friends the place called Wolfsschanze (“Wolf’s Lair”), which is about 45 minutes further to the east of Gdansk – more or less “on the route” so to speak.
For who doesn’t know, the Wolffschanze was Adolf Hilter’s Eastern Front military headquarters in WWII, where Hitler stayed for a couple hundred days altogether. It’s located in East Prussia, the northeast of today’s Poland, near a town called Ketrzyn (“Rastenburg” in German). You can find out all the details here: Wolfsschanze
Fortunately, there is a nice GA airfield very close by. In fact, it’s on the same perimeter as the “old” Rastenburg airfield which was used during WWII.
So, we decided to fly to Ketrzyn (EPKE) on the first morning, fly over to Gdansk (EPGD) the same afternoon, and then spend one and a half days there before heading back home the third day.
In the end, despite the heavy focus on “party” and “beach”, the trip ended up featuring quite a few very important locations of historical (World War) significance (not only the Wolfsschanze). I will share some details on all these locations as we go along. Just a short disclaimer: even though places like the Wolfsschanze are obviously a dark chapter of German history. Still, please understand that I won’t pontificate every time about how terrible all that was (goes without saying). I am 35 years old, so these things happened well before my time and I merely look at these things with a vivid interest in history. Period.
But now let’s come to the flying. Here’s the (IFR) flightplanned route for the first leg. This was also the first time I seriously used autorouter for filing my flightplan. The route was very straight. Also, as you can see, EPKE is quite close to (Russian) Kaliningrad and also to Lithuania.
I have no weather picture map or sat image to show – it simply wasn’t a factor on this trip!
Here’s me and my buddies, ready to go at 8:00 in the morning.
At the hold for runway 07 at Luebeck. The skies were mostly clear, but there was a bit of haze, and an early morning eastbound departure is always bad for photos.
We climbed to FL100 (lowest level for CAS IFR in Poland) and were quickly cleared way down our route into Poland, which was reached after a little less than one hour of flight. We were rather in “go-fast” mode, doing 172KTAS at 13.5GPH. A little bit of tailwind gave us speeds in the 180-knot range.
The northeast of Poland is an area of extreme natural beauty. This is due the fact that it is still mostly untouched by humans and also because it has literally thousands of lakes. Hence it’s called the Masurian Lakes region. Here’s a sat image to give you an impression:
As you can see here, Rastenburg is not close to one of those major lakes, but you can see the airfield symbol and also the position of the Wolfsschanze (where the camera icon is). The most important towns of the region, both on seashores, are Lötzen (which has an airfield, been there in 2012) and Mikolajki (which doesn’t have an airfield).
Also, on the very left of the image, you can see yet another airfield symbol, just east of a somewhat smaller lake. That place’s name is Kikity, and I have been there as well. Here’s as we flew overhead (the airfield is slightly above and to the right of the centre of the image).
The special thing about this airfield, aside from being surrounded by nature alone, is that it has a nice new country hotel on site, much like the aeroresorts of Italy.
Here’s Rastenburg / Ketrzyn (pronounce: “Ketshin’”)
And here’s the airfield, approaching it from the west.
A closer look reveals the the “old” WWII concrete runway (lower right of the photo), which seems pretty much intact, but grown over by weeds. The “new” grass runway is a whopping 1100 metres long.
The airfield has been re-opened as a civil airfield in 1999. I was there for the first time in 2002, when it was still quite a bit more basic.
The “airfield operator”, a sturdy and resolute, but friendly women, called us a taxi and took the 5 Euro landing fee.
Always something interesting to see at Polish airfields…
The drive to the Wolfsschanze takes just under 10 minutes, through a charming, natural countryside and woods. The place itself has obviously been commercialized to the max over the years. There is a parking lot, an entrance fee, a restaurant, shops and guides. That’s the way it is. On the other hand, it’s a good thing. In particular, it makes sense to take a guided tour (English and German speaking guides there), so they will tell you all the background stories whilst touring the place. It’s a matter of luck what kind of guide you get. Some are great, others less so. Let’s say we were at bit less lucky this time.
Before we start, here’s an aerial picture of the place. Consider that the parking lot wasn’t there back then, obviously. It was totally hidden in the woods, in the middle of nowhere.
I will show you some photos, without a lot of comment.
The Germans tried to destroy the place when they left in 1944, using hundreds of tons of TNT ,but big parts of the structure remained mostly intact.
In summary, I can only recommend a visit to this place for whoever is interested in World War history. Do it in summer, obviously. Being so remote, it’s also a perfect destination for GA, with the airfield so close-by. That said, it is also very worthwhile to explore the Masurian region with a car. I would guess that this place is about 3 hours in a car from Gdansk airport, and a little over an hour from Szczytno-Szymany (now: "Masury) airport (EPSY), which will re-open some time in 2016.
Back at EPKE in the early afternoon, we also peaked in to the huge WWII hangar there. What we found were two immaculate AN-2s…
…and a Cessna 172.
Our flight to Gdansk was planned VFR, as it was just a 45 minute flight, and the scenery is worth looking at from low altitudes.
Instead of going straight, we made a slight detour to the south first, in order to check out another airfield, Mragowo (EPMR), which must be one of the most scenic airfields I know. Here’s the routing, split into two Skydemon screens, in order to give you some more detail.
As you can see, at the end of the flight, we made another detour to the north, to see Hel Penisula (more on that in a minute) and the seaside resort of Sopot.
Lakes and woods abound on the first part of the flight. Being it such a hot summer day, it was also a bit bumpy.
Before we come to the Danzig area, here’s a little map for orientation.
As you can see, Gdansk Bay is characterized by two landmarks: in the east, the Frische Nehrung (Vistula Spit), and to the north, Hel Penisula.
Here we are, flying over the western part of Vistula Lagoon (“Frisches Haff”).
And here is the view down Vistula Spit.
As you can see on the map shown above, the eastern half of the spit is part of Kaliningrad Exclave, belonging to Russia. During World War II, this place became the last holdout of the remaining German soldiers in East Prussia. For who is interested, you can find more details here: Vistula Spit and Kaliningrad
The Spit has great beaches and a few nice holiday resorts. I toured the place with a car years ago and walked on the beach up to a few metres from the Russian border (where a fence is drawn straight across the beach and far enough into the water), until a Russian guard told me to go away.
We then crossed over, northwestbound, towards the tip of the Hel Peninsula. On this photo, you can see the wonderful beaches of this peninsula, as well the the local airstrip, Jastarnia (EPJA).
It’s quite a tricky airstrip, because the ground is always a bit soft and there are obstacles on both ends. Landed there in 2012.
We then turned south towards Gdansk, which took us past the military airport of Gdynia (EPOK)…
… and then past the famous seaside resort of Sopot.
Here is another close-up of the beach at Sopot and the famous Sopot Pier. First opened in 1827, at 511.5m, the pier is the longest wooden pier in Europe.
Calling the TWR of Gdansk, we were instructed to fly a left circuit for runway 11, following a liner on the straight-in.
Gdansk is a very good airport. No PPR whatsoever, and very acceptable fees, for what is a very busy airport. Shortly after landing, we sat in the taxi which took us to our hotel in about 15 minutes. We left our bags, had a quick shower and headed for the old town for some first sightseeing, a nice Polish dinner, drinks, and dance. For who is interested, we found the party scene in Gdansk a little less exciting than expected (people later told us most people go to Sopot for that) but we ended up finding a very nice club in the middle of the old town. The name is “Parlament”…
To be continued shortly…
Thanks for the write up and in particular the trip photos… I’ve never been to that area, but have studied the map. Kaliningrad and the history there is remarkable.
I think every airport in the world now has a Mig in Polish markings on site!
The next morning was spent sightseeing in the old town of Gdansk (despite it being 30 degrees again by 10 o’cloc already…). It is obviously crowded by tourists in the summer, but we didn’t care much. It was vibrant. Also, the old town is just beautiful. Consider that much of it has been destroyed during WWII. It has all been rebuilt, and not just a couple of main streets, but most of it!
Here’s another view to the north, towards the harbour (and the Baltic Sea, which is 7 kilometres away from the old town, but unvisible due to the summer haze).
In that direction is another important historical place that I will mention briefly, the so called Westerplatte. That is a peninsula forming the entrance towards the harbour of Gdansk, which supposedly is the place where WWII started. In 1939 it was the location of a Polish Military Transit Depot (WST), sanctioned within the territory of the Free City of Danzig and the object of first clash between Polish and German forces during the Invasion of Poland and thus the first battle of of World War II. You can find more details here: Battle of Westerplatte
Today, there is a monument there but little else, so we decided to skip a visit “in locu”.
Some more pics of Gdansk:
We then decided to spend the afternoon on the beach in Sopot. First though, we unfortunately had to change accomodation. Our first night’s hotel, which was superb, only had a room for that night for us, so we were forced to look for a different place for the second night, and all of Gdansk and Sopot were fully booked, including B&Bs, private rooms, etc. Well, we found a place, but it looked like this, a totally overpriced private appartment in an old Soviet block 
:
This way, at least, we got a bit of “local feel” to our little trip…
Anyway… Sopot can be reached very conveniently with locals train running every fifteeen minutes to and from Gdansk, which is great.
This is Sopot’s main street, leading up to the Pier. It reminded me of the main street in Palanga, which is a bit less built up though.
Right next to the Pier, is the famous Sopot Grand Hotel:
This hotel was built in 1926 and since hosted many celebrities, such as Fidel Castro, the Shah of Persia and Ohmar Sharif. Hitler stayed here during the war against Poland in September/October of 1939. Allegedly, he had a room on the highest floor in order to oversee (using binoculars) air bombings of a small Polish artillery battery on Hel Peninsula.
Anyway, Sopot has been, in the first third of the 20th century, very much en vogue in Europe’s high society as a summer holiday destination, with people spending the days on the beach and the nights in the casino. During that time, people referred to Sopot as the “Riviera of the North”. Still today, Sopot is considered as Poland’s summer capital. Supposedly, the Hel Peninsula “protects” the bay from cold water flowing in at high depths, causing the Baltic Sea in Sopot to be a bit warmer than elsewhere.
Here’s a first look at the fantastic beach:
Anyway, we first had a (very late) lunch…
It was a very good restaurant (which we didn’t really expect to find in a place like Sopot). For future reference: the name is “Bulaj”.
We spent the rest of the day on the beach, which was wonderful. The sand is very fine and bright, the water is quite clean. We stayed on the beach until the sun went down, just as it should be on a nice, hot summer day.
Needless to say, we spent our “night out” in Sopot. Guys, you can not immagine how many thousands of young people were crowding the main street and the plaza at midnight! Thousands! Accordingly, Sopot has at least three handfuls of dance clubs for the night. Anyway, I cut it short a bit, in order to be “fit-to-fly” for the next day.
Anyway, as a short summary: Gdansk turned out to be a great choice that I can only recommend to you all. The great thing is indeed that what you get is actually two places in one: Gdansk, the historic vibrant city and capital of the north of Poland, and Sopot, which is a fantastic seaside resort both in terms of beach activities and nightlife. All that with very good and quick public transport connections between the two!
The next morning (Sunday), we left Gdansk straight away. It was only a 1.5 hour flight, but from Lübeck, we all still had to get back home to where we live on the same day. So I filed he (VFR) flightplan for 10 o’clock and we took the taxi at 9. Just a short technical info regarding EPGD: When you arrive, you will be left out at Terminal 1, whereas when you depart, you need to go to Terminal 2.
Security was very quick, as was paying the bill, with a very friendly (and cute) girl behind the GA desk. The fees were 45 Euros, really reasonable for what is (at least in summer) a very busy airline airport.
Here is our VFR routing back to Luebeck, which was chosen to be as scenic as possible for my passengers:
And, again, split into two pieces for more detail:
Here we are at the hold for runway 29. It was a bit cloudly here in Gdansk (some very light showers and thunderstorms had moved through during the night), but the rest of the route was CAVOK again.
Departure.
The first waypoint was ARPEL, which is directly overhead the city of Koszalin…
… and then we proceded towards the coast, to Kolobrzeg.
And here is the airport, a few miles east of Kolobrzeg.
The airport was built by the Germans in the 1930s. After the war, it was taken over by the Red Army, who also built a new runway (on the photo, the “old” German runway and taxiway can still be seen). During the Cold War, they based MIG 21s and 23s there and also nuclear warheads of the type SS-20. The Russians left in 1991. Officially, the airfield was re-opened for civil aviation in 2012 and it now has the ICAO code EPKG. I landed there in 2006, when it was still “unlicensed”. Nice for a short beach stop.
Here’s the town of Kolobrzeg:
And now to the history part of this: The German name of Kolobrzeg is Kolberg. This town used to be,after the end of WWI, the headquarters of the Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL) under Paul von Hindenburg, i.e. of the German Supreme Army Command of WWI, and as such, assumed dictatorial powers and was de facto in control of German government policies. It ceased to exist in summer 1919, after being disbanded by the order of the Treaty of Versailles.
Kolberg also has a lot of WWII history: the name “Kolberg” is nowadays most known in Germany for the hononymous film. Whilst the film deals with the war against Napoleon in the beginning of the 19th century, it was actually made in 1944 and used by the German goverment to shore up the will of the German population to resist the Allies. Kolberg was given up by the Germany on March 18th 1945.
There is a lot more history about the place and if you are interested, you can find more here: Kolobrzeg
Back to 2015: hundreds of kilometres of beaches between Kolberg and the German-Polish border.
We could actually see lots of people even on these lonely beaches, as it seemed like half of Poland was at the beach on that warm early August Sunday.
We then left the coastline briefly to cut the corner, direct to Usedom.
Usedom.
The northerly tip of Usedom, with Peenemünde (EDCP) in the distance (and even a bit of Rügen).
We then flew inland as planned, more or less direct to Lübeck, which brought us past the city of Rostock, a few miles to the south of it,…
…which then brought us just over the old hanseatic city of Wismar. First, the airfield, EDCW:
And here’s the city, which is worth visiting. It’s a unique representative of the Hanseatic League city type, with its Brick Gothic constructions and many patrician gable houses (just like Luebeck ). Wismar has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 2002.
Also, Wismar is well known for it’s dockyard, which is one of the biggest dry docks in Germany, at 72 metres of height and 395 metres of length.
Almost home: the Ratzeburger See as seen from downwind for runway 07:
EDHL (which just went into insolvency yet another time):
After landing, one of my buddies, busy with refuelling duties. We have made the entire trip (5 flight hours, almost all the way to Lithuania, and back) without refuelling, and landed back at Lübeck with 13 gallons remaining. Fuel in Poland used to be noticeably cheaper than in Germany, but that’s unfortunately over, so it’s a wash now.
A great trip again and a lot of places packed into just two and a half days. And great weather. We have been really lucky. Again.
As always, very nice to read, many thanks for sharing! Some side-thoughts:
-) you don’t mention exact dates, but myself was touring the same region by car in early August – you were lucky not to bump into me!
-) you seem to have prepared your trip better than I did, I had heard about the Wolfsschanze and was slightly curious about it but never got there
-) I’m afraid I can’t agree with you about prices in Lithuania: even if things never get better than they were, and frequenting less flashy places than you just as I fly a less flashy plane, I still had a quite nice dinner at a quite touristic terrace (“Forto Dvaras” in Klaipeda, with a nice view on the famous statue of Änniken van Tharaw or whatever she must be spelled today) for a whopping 7,65 €
-) you are very correct about the past being the past – my parents (who were direct victims of WW2, though not physically) taught me to live and think today, and did their best to keep up good relations with German people; one generation later, we shouldn’t even think about it.
-) Wismar had entirely escaped my notion, has now been added to my wish list. But that region is almost littered with nice cities full of nice Hanseatic Baroque brick buildings.
-) your pictures of Gdansk are especially nice, I really have to visit that city one day
Boscomantico, great trip report and pictures! Enjoyed reading. Keep them coming
Very nice report, indeed!
Peenemunde is on my bucket list for some years … I’ll now add the Wolfschanze.
