Burning Hot

Notice that my eyes have been
A misty place since Saturday
Brings a feeling we might need
The fire engines anyway
Though tomorrow won't be long
We're gonna have to play it cool


I hadn't been following the news last few days but was aware of all the heat warnings. Not sure if any records fell yesterday but today the all-time German record was broken at 42.6°C (For Jacob Rees-Mogg 108.8°F) close to the Dutch border. Country records were also broken today in Holland, Belgium & Luxembourg.


From what I can see, the temperature in Memmingen hit 33°C at the official weather station in the city park. I didn't check the thermometer on our terrace (in the shade at about 2m height but above stone) for a maximum but heard others say a few times it was well over 42°C.


The morning simply spent in & around the pool. At 14:00 Elliot & I had to leave as a few weeks ago I had booked us on a "Kids Tour" of Memmingen's Allgäu Airport, the highest altitude commercial airfield in Germany at 629m above sea level.


What a day for it in an airport without air-conditioning and when outdoors surrounded by concrete & tarmac. There were 10 of us, 5 adults, 5 children. Was a bit difficult/simple for Elliot with it being in German & he already knows much of the workings of security, baggage checks & pickups, passport etc. A young very pleasant young lady showed us around & explained our Schengens and priority areas etc. We got stuck on the south-facing balcony for about 15 minutes waiting for a plane to move so that we could walk behind it to the most interesting part - the fire & rescue operations. We nearly fried in those 15 minutes.


We were greeted by a young fireman who talked us through the workings of the fire brigade who have a fairly broad spectrum of work including the first aid duties, one such event happening just as we left them with something happening as people had exited a Ryanair arrival from Stanstead - I suspect heat stroke!


The officer demonstrated on one of the two Ziegler Z8 1,000hp (+360hp pump engine) airport fire engines with their front & roof-mounted cannons spraying the tarmac and grass area for a  large area & flooding the area with nozzles under the engine. Didn't use foam thankfully, so we could enjoy the bit of spray that came our way. The engine is one-man operated and he explained the most interesting training they do is driving these brutes with 12,000 litres of water + 1,500 kgs of foam agent at speeds up to 135km/h and trying to turn corners while operating the cannons! They have 3 minutes time to get to the scene of a fire and start pumping. The tanks can be emptied in 2 minutes which is how long the exterior of a plane can resist fire.


He did try explaining a bit in English for Elliot & got him to try on the jacket and the CO² gear as well as use the handheld hose. When kneeling with the pistol and it went from spray to jet mode, it knocked Elliot over.


However given 11-year-old Elliot is taller than the fire officer, I suspect with a bit of practice he could get a job there. Always seeing job ads in the monthly email newsletter from the airport. Thanks to the staff at the airport & in particular the charming young lady who guided us and the super friendly fire officer who gave us the great display.


I would have liked us to have had a van tour around & on the runway which is currently being widened from 30m to 45m to take bigger machines and act as a backup airport for Munich & Stuttgart. The runway at 3,000m is long enough but the first & last 200m or so being upgraded. There are some interesting aircraft "bunkers" presumably some that survived heavy WWII American bombing in 1944 & others built when the Americans used the airfield as a nuclear bomb depot in the Cold War. The airfield is best known for a fleet of F-104 Starfighter hunter-bombers of the German Airforce. In 2003 it was finally closed as a military airfield & not until 2007 did regular commercial flights start but it wasn't until Ryanair moved in properly in 2010 did things start to go forward. Ryanair now has two planes stationed at Memmingen. The other, newish, big user is Hungary's Wizz Air.



Tour was supposed to be one hour but took nearly two. Poor Mum, Dad & sister had arranged to drop off their hire car to coincide with the one hour plan & had to sweat it out in the terminal waiting for us. We dashed home to the pool before going to Sontheim in the evening for our final dinner together at Bella Napoli.