30th Bristol Balloon Fiesta

Early August 2008, Matthias and Bastian left for their furthermost journey with their model balloons (up until now at least), to follow their invitation to the 30th Bristol Balloon Fiesta in England.
The first leg of our journey led us to Schweich (near Trier), where we visited the German hot air balloon manufacturer SCHROEDER fire balloons. Special thanks to Leo for the guided tour and the gimmicks and to Anne for the photographs :-)

In the evening, we reached Belgium and the "Hotel De Wulf", where a cool swimming pool and a nice barbecue were already waiting for us. Thanks to Sabine, Luc, Stijn and Bram for the hospitality =)

Early the next morning, we took the channel tunnel to England.

And after the first little shock (Basti: "They're all driving on the wrong side of the road!!!") we finally reached Bristol in a light drizzle rain.

Our accomodation for the following days: Hotel "Pinguin" :-)

In the afternoon, the model balloons had their first entrance - and the moderators and spectators loved the Penguins from the very first moment on!

Multitasking: Holding Pingu and being interviewed at a time - Basti mastered it all.

At the night glow in the evening, the model balloons were right at the center of the action. About 25 model balloon teams had come to the event.

On Friday morning, the model balloons almost stole the show of their big brothers, as they could not launch due to the weather.

On that day, one highlight came right after the other: As soon as the model balloons were packed again, we left to the town of Bristol to visit worlds biggest balloon manufacturer, Cameron Balloons.

Well, now as we know the actual sales figures of SCHROEDER and Cameron, maybe that title has to be revised... ;-)

Thanks to Ray and Andy for the tour!

From Cameron we left directly to the country house of Muir Moffat - the owner of the scottish piper special shape balloon - who had invited the model balloonists to a barbecue in the afternoon. Of course, we brought along our balloons as well!

And so, Muir and his familiy had their own little mini balloon fiesta after the barbecue.

Especially Muir's three Granddaughters showed a big interest in the little balloons, a fact that not only Stijn De Wulf (on the left) did enjoy...

... our Pingu was also taken a great fancy to by the girls who especially climbed the roof of the house to have a deep look in his eyes.

Finally he yet blushed a bit, getting kissed on his pecker... ;-)

In the evening, the big balloons could take off from the launch field for the first time.

After them, it was the model balloons again. Basti went for a walk with his sheep (or rather: the sheep went for a walk with him...)

... while others preferred to stay in the safe lee of the trees.

On Friday evening, Bastian and Matthias received support to their team by Basti's sister Jessica, who came from her current workplace in London to Bristol to visit them.

And it was her who was standing around on the launch field on Saturday morning so perfectly that a balloon team invited her to join their flight. Well, we guess it was her magnificent morning charisma... at least we now got some pics from up above! ;-)

Flying over the beautiful English countryside... guess we'll have to work a bit harder to realize that dream ;-)

Unfortunately, that marked the end of the nice weather - for the rest of Saturday, no more balloons could be seen in the sky above Bristol. Time for us to get some sleep, have a chat with the other balloonists or to try out the English beer, until the weather was fine again on Sunday morning and we could unpack the balloons for the very last time.

Bastian's sister Jessica, who is holding the pilot's license for some years already, proved that she's not only able to control big, but also small balloons.

Ears in the air: Frank Schnelle's Fire Bunny seemed quite happy with the nice weather.

And also the fiesta organisation was very pleased with the show the model balloonists delivered, as the big balloons again couldn't launch due to the weather.

All's well that ends well: The model balloonists were all highly satisfied with the weekend. Repetition not impossible... ;-)

A great thank you to Ann, David, Ray, Andy, Susan and Louise and all the others for making this model balloon fiesta possible!

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