Time for non football fans to take a holiday

Euro2012 fever is upon us. I am writing this from Krakow, where a large and enthusiastic crowd is watching the England team’s open training session at the Hutnik stadium in Nowa Huta.

They are great Ambassadors for their country. It is a far cry from my first visit here in 1983 during John Paul II’s second Papal visit to Poland, when this was a gritty and polluted steelworking town and riot police with water cannon were much in evidence. At the welcome reception in Krakow last night, the Mayor presented the England team with a picture of Nowa Huta main street with a disappearing hologram of the Lenin statue that used to dominate the skyline here.

After all the controversies that surround any major international sporting event, the focus is now firmly on football. Polish fans have high hopes for their team in the opening match against Greece in Warsaw tonight. They are looking to Robert Lewandowski to maintain his goal scoring form. Polish flags are everywhere. There is rightly a lot of pride in what Poland has achieved in preparing for the tournament, including four gleaming new stadia.

For those reading this who live in or are visiting Poland, please remember to take the usual precautions outlined in our FCO travel advice during this exceptionally busy period in many of Poland’s main cities.

But have fun too. It is not often that an international football tournament comes to town! I hope to welcome England to Warsaw for a semi final, ideally against Poland.