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HOME AGAIN after almost 7 beautiful
months of travelling!
In the air, we finally negotiated a routing with Madrid control over the
Pyrenees direct Pamplona to Toulouse at FL160 on top. With tailwinds up
to 65 knots, we had groundspeeds up to 215 knots and made it to Annecy
in record time (IFR 4:49 hrs).
There were marginal VFR conditions at Annecy where it was drizzling. We
were ‘greeted’ by the ‘douane volante’ (literally ‘flying customs’,
although they don’t fly, just pop out of the blue when you least expect
them). They asked us why we landed in Annecy when Geneva was our
destination and we explained that we have flown from Cascais where we
had not been able to clear customs and therefore had to land first at an
airport in France before flying on to Switzerland. (For the French and
the Swiss, Geneva is a French/Swiss airport, but this is not recognized
by other EU countries.)
Rather like the anti-narcotics police in Colombia and Panama, the
‘douane volante’ officials soon softened up and were fascinated to hear
about our trip around South America.
Then it was just a 13-minute VFR flight to Geneva. Our good friend John
Miles (also an aviator) came to meet us and we went out for a
celebration dinner at our favourite local restaurant Café de Peney.
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Adeus Cascais!
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