Poznan celebrated Poland’s 5 years of flying F-16s today. We left our apartment near Lake Malta a little before noon and headed to the Stary Rynek (old square) on foot; we thought it would give us plenty of time to walk the two miles before the six ship fly-by scheduled for 1:15. It was 49 degrees when we headed out and we joked about how we were dressed – me with a heavy sweater, Ed wearing a sweatshirt. After all, it was supposed to get up to 54 today!
The Polish Air Force knew something about the weather that we didn’t. The morning fog never burned off and the bad weather scheduled to arrive Friday got here this afternoon. The fly-by was moved up an hour because of an expected decrease in visibility. We saw and heard them zoom by as we were walking into town. We arrived in the rynek during the speech by the American Ambassador. He mentioned that Poland is flying the newest F-16s in Europe and something nice about our countries being allies.
 |
|||
| There were weapons on display |
 |
| The F-16 cake is what caught my eye – look out Cake Boss |
 |
| Ed and Richard (a former student) |
To wrap up the festivities, we joined the crowd at AM University. We heard a fantastic Polish Air Force band with very talented vocalists from the Grand Theater of Poznan. As we sat there taking in everything from Star Wars, to Dixieland, to opera, I was impressed once again with Poland’s love of music. One of my Polish friends takes her daughters to the opera; they love it. The music at the Pilot of the Year Ball last year included opera for entertainment and European techno for dancing. I didn’t see an opera until our daughter was playing in the pit at the University of Arizona. BUT, we did swing by the Opera House to get tickets for the Fairy Queen after the concert.
I pulled my sweater tighter as we boarded a tram for home, the temperature had dropped to 39 degrees by 4 pm. This was supposed to be our low tonight. I think it’s going to get much colder!
An accountant by trade and a food blogger since 2009, Lois Britton fell in love with Polish cuisine during the years she lived in Poznań, Poland. As the creator of PolishHousewife.com, she loves connecting readers with traditional Polish recipes. Lois has a graduate certificate in Food Writing and Photography from the University of South Florida. She is the author of The Polish Housewife Cookbook, available on Amazon and on her website.
Kasia
I saw an article about the f16 anniversary yesterday in the Poznan edition of Gazeta Wyborcza and I thought about you and your husband:)
I like your husband's sweatshirt:)
My father said in an email to me today: "the weather is still beautiful". I see 28F for low in the forecast for the next several days. I would not call that beautiful after living in TX for 16 years.
Lois B
Kasia – Haha, guess beautiful means no snow yet. They're still fishing along the river.
Ola
I love the cake:)))
Chris
That cake is amazing. The whole event looked like a lot of fun.
Lois B
Ola and Chris – the cake was a work of art, but there appeared to be a small crisis going on. Young men in chef hats were dashing across the square. I'm not sure what was forgotten – a knife, paper plates, matches to light an afterburner?