KATE CRAZY!
Climbing up lamp posts and waving Union Jacks, Poles go wild for royals’ Brexit charm offensive
KATE-MANIA swept Poland yesterday as the Duchess of Cambridge was mobbed by thousands of adoring fans during a walkabout.
Cheering crowds crammed more than ten deep into the medieval centre of Gdansk to give her and William a rapturous reception.
Scores more scaled lamp posts and packed balconies to get a glimpse of Kate, who looked radiant in a white floral two-piece from Erdem.
The astonishing scenes came after hordes flocked to see the duchess during a walkabout outside the presidential palace in Warsaw following their arrival in Poland on Monday.
The royal fever is a boost to the Foreign Office, which requested the tour as a post-Brexit charm offensive.
The crowd in Gdansk, some waving Union Jacks bearing Kate and William’s faces, whooped as the couple downed a potent local brew.
‘It is very good, very sweet,’ William said after he knocked back a glass of Goldwasser, a strong root and herbal liqueur which has been produced since at least 1598.
‘And very strong...’ a beaming Kate added as she recovered from downing the 40 per cent proof liqueur.
Damian Robakowski, of Pod Lososiem restaurant, said: ‘They both seemed to love it. It is very powerful.’
The couple further endeared themselves to the crowd when they tried some Polish dumplings, Kate choosing the salmon and crayfish and William picking a mushroom one.
The couple had earlier emerged from a meeting in Gdansk town hall to the strains of Handel’s Zadok The Priest – played at every British monarch’s coronation since George II in 1727 – to enthusiastic cheers.
William looked a little sheepish, perhaps realising the significance of the music by the town’s Capella Gedanesis orchestra, but Kate waved and smiled.
The crowds were held back behind steel barriers and the royal couple flanked by maximum security as they wandered through the Long Market with the Fountain of Neptune, a symbol of Gdansk.
The crowds were far larger than Polish authorities had expected and caused delays in for the royal party attending later events.
Later hundreds more turned out to watch them meet the founding members of the Solidarity movement before walking through the iconic gates of the Gdansk shipyard, the centre of the political opposition to communist rule during the 1980s.
The couple are due to travel to Germany today, where they will hold a private meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin before they visit the Brandenburg Gate, a symbol of German reunification.
‘Crowds far larger than expected’