The Royal Royal Green Association The GreenJackets Jackets Association
Are Polo Mints really made in Poland? The last day of 2018 started for me at 3.30am when the bleeding alarm clock goes off. I hate it to bits because it’s still so early but without it I would never be able to ‘fire up’ the old Viano again and today it needs to be on the ball because I have a lot to cram in. After a quick run through the 3 S’s I fire the old girl up and we are off to take a family to Heathrow Airport. Roads are empty which is nice so back home in deepest Hampshire by 8am – a blessing. Is my day over? Not a snowballs chance because surprise surprise my wife and I had decided we would take a short New Year’s break starting that day, so once we are ready, me with a toilet bag sized suitcase and her with a ‘steamer trunk’ I get one of my chauffeurs to take us back to Terminal 5 at Heathrow for our flight to Krakow Poland - and no it’s not pronounced KRAKOFF – that’s something completely different! A few hours later it’s touchdown in Krakow and we take a short taxi ride to the Sheraton Hotel in the city centre. Bags dumped we then start to plan what we were going to do and see the following day. This didn’t last too long because were so cream-crackered and fell asleep. Some New Year’s Eve for us – we missed it all! The following morning, New Year’s Day, we grab a swanky breakfast and then walk outside to get our bearings. A brief recce around the neighbourhood is followed by a Krakow Costa which as you know does weird things to the digestion so it was a quick dive back into the hotel again for a short ‘comfort break’. Feeling better we venture outside again where we find an old battered taxi with an equally old battered driver (he must have been at least 75). Anyway he seemed to know his way about and even better than that he was cheap! A bonus made even better when he agreed to stay with us while we did ‘our thing’ throughout the day. Our first stop was the Krakow Rakowiki Cemetery where there are 482 Commonwealth War Graves from the 2nd WW of which 26 were those who had served in our former regiments of the OBLI, KRRC and RB. The war grave map must have been commissioned by an officer because it took us everywhere but to the war 52
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Swift & Bold Journal 2018
Swift & Bold Journal 2018
