After four nights in Amsterdam and another day off, it was time to head back East in the sweltering heat over Europe this week; it would have been fun to stay one more night as Holland managed to beat the World Cup favourites Brazil this afternoon 2-1. I'm sure the atmosphere in this already vibrant city was electric this evening. The news of their victory reached us just after we'd visited catering and were preparing to go onstage in Wroclaw.


The Thai meal on the day off in Amsterdam

We left the Grand hotel at 1:45 promptly, commenting on the weather across the continent. A 32 degree high today (89.6F) both in Amsterdam and Southern Poland and after negotiating heavy Friday afternoon traffic, by the time we arrived at the GA terminal to greet Simon, Nick and Daniella it had reached that temperature. On board and in the air, Daniella, using her previous experience working for JAL, sourced and served the best sushi lunch. So far on this tour, no-one has expressed any interest in visiting the cockpit so I thought it was time to change all that. I asked if I could sit in the 'observation' seat for approach and landing into Wroclaw. Pilots Simon and Nick are two British lads with all the customary enthusiasm you'd expect and they were extremely accommodating. I shot some video of Simon's near-perfect landing too. Being able to experience any aircraft landing is a real thrill and the countdown to touchdown is quite frankly, boyish fun. I'm sure that if I tried, I could figure out just how they fly this thing but it would require a level of commitment probably beyond me.



After landing, Simon commented on the lift he felt as we flew over the tarmac at just under 100ft, the hot afternoon generating some turbulence. "that's where the fight started" he said. It didn't feel much like a fight, just another Luxurious Legacy landing.

We were met air-side by team C three drivers who were just there for the day, Stephan, who had driven us on a previous tour gave us some Wroclaw history. This area of Poland used to be a part of Germany and the town, then called Breslau it is now the fourth largest town in Poland and sits on the River Oder. Wroclaw was one of the last cities to capitulate under Nazi rule during World War II. Because of this, it took a beating. The city was destroyed. In fact, 70% of the city was destroyed. And Old Town took even more of a beating with 90% being damaged. As Poland rebuilt, most of the focus was on Warsaw, leaving Wroclaw to fend for itself. And fend it did. Today the city is filled with history, culture, and a thriving university.

We were escorted to the venue by a police motorbike as the 12km journey can take 2 hours at this time of day.



Our police officer was extremely efficient and quite entertaining as he stopped and reprimanded many cyclists and motorcyclists for various law infringements.



Poland has recently benefited from some heavy EU donations, the whole city seems to be one big road works and with the 2012 Euro football championships hosted by Poland and the Ukraine looming, the whole place is enduring construction chaos. We arrived safely 30 minutes later at the Hala Stulecia, which was built and modeled on the Festhalle in Frankfurt. The similarities are immediately apparent and the hall employs a similar closeable window system to shut off the daylight. Unfortunately I missed the grandure of the hall with the vents open, they were closing them just as we were arriving.





Some of the crew boys casually mentioned to me the hourly water fountain display set to music which was in the grounds of the Hall so at five minutes to six, I set off armed with the camera to seek a few shots. The display lasted 15 minutes or so and I would imagine it would be best viewed in the darkness as all of the fountain jets are lit with multi-coloured lights. I noticed an abundant mosquito population and wondered if it would affect the gig.



It was then back to the venue and warm the larynx up for what was to be a hot show.





The seated Polish audience could not have been nicer and by the end of the show they were all up on their feet applauding for more. We finished up on stage and ran to the cars out of the building and into what seemed like a plague of mozzies! The police escort back to the airport was once more, calm and collected and we arrived and were aboard the plane within 30 minutes. Unfortunately, Simon informed us of a 'situation' which had developed. One of the motors used for the flaps on the plane had failed although the aircraft was perfectly safe to fly in this condition, it needed to be signed off by an authorized engineer and of course there wasn't one in Wroclaw. So Simon had to find one in the UK who could then approve one of the local ground crew to clear the plane for flight. This took quite a while as we sat aboard and tucked into Daniella's Persian cuisine. It was touch-and-go as to whether Simon would succeed and so Tim (tour manager) organised some local hotel rooms..not all in the same hotel. The management decided to give Simon ten more minutes before we unloaded for a night at the mosquito motel but just in the nick of time there was good news. Simon came into the cabin with a big grin on his face and I knew all was well and we would be in Budapest within the hour.
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2nd July - Wroclaw - Hala Stulecia

Get Lucky Tour 2010