On our last day in Krakow, we decided to be brave and take the bus to the Wieliczka Salt Mines located a bit out of town. It was an adventure figuring out what bus to take, where the bus stop is, bus schedule and most importantly what sort of bus ticket to buy and where. But we managed, despite the fact that the bus driver only spoke Polish and waved us in to figure out the ticket machine on our own. The bus ride was super easy after all--25 minutes and we were right next to the entrance to the salt mines.
These salt mines are very famous in the area. You only can get down there with the tour, of course. Salt was discovered here in the 13th century and ever since it's been a working salt mine. The depth of the mine is 327 meters (over 1000 feet) and the length is 287 km (178 miles)--so it is HUGE! But the touring route is just over 2 miles long.
To start our tour, we had to go down the stairs...deep, deep underground. I almost got dizzy going around and around the stairwell, it seemed like 50 stories down.
Finally we got to the first level where the tour began. I was still feeling dizzy:)
Robert took most of the pictures as he likes to stay at the back of the group. This time our group consisted of maybe just 10 people, so didn't really make a huge difference, but anyway--he was taking pictures.
So what made this salt mine different from, let's say, the one near Salzburg was all the many intricate statues underground carved out of salt. Here was the first statue dedicated to Nicolaus Copernicus.
More statues depicting a historic event of one of the queens finding her wedding ring in the salt mine (or so does the legend goes).
And statues of miners working hard.
We walked, and walked...
Some exhibits showed us how mining was done through out the centuries.
King Kazimierz--Polish beloved king.
Salt looks gray actually. And the walls probably taste salty, but we decided not to lick them.
The tour guide put the kids to work to get one of the salt buckets up to our level.
And here we could have a taste of the water, incredibly salty.
Towards the end of the tour, we came to this amazing open hallway. Lots of beautiful sculptures and wall carvings here. The chandeliers are made of salt crystals as well.
The story of Jesus is a common theme.
Everything made of salt.
The Last Supper.
Yay, one proper family picture from Poland...inside a salt mine.
A few more halls--this one with a clean lake in it.
Almost to the end of the tour.
If you get lost...it's almost not possible to find your way back on your own--there are so many passages and very few signs.
Robert wanted to follow the wooden stairs and go somewhere adventurous but he wasn't allowed:)
Meet our youngest tour guide. He doesn't look very happy to be doing his job, does he?
Finally, we figured out we had to wait in line to get the elevator back up to surface. Our elevator waiting area was 135 meters deep underground.
We got separated right when we got into the three elevators, so Mark and I were in one crammed elevator, and Robert with the kids (they almost sent the kids on their own, but Robert cried out "My Children!" to the Polish lady:)))). This is me, getting off the elevator.
Oh, it was a breath of fresh air to be back on top! And it was snowing!!
We had to let the kids play with the snow for a bit before heading back to Krakow
We got back to Krakow without any further adventures, ate more food and various places, grabbed our stored luggage and made our way to the train that took us to the airport. We had a very late night flight out of Poland (21:50) but at least it was on time and we landed at Stansted around 23:20. We know the drill--hurry as fast you can to the customs control as we have to stand in line always with ALL PASSPORTS people; and it takes forever. We were a bit concerned because Robert accidentally left his military ID in his computer the day when we left for Krakow, and he needs his ID to proof that we are here living legally, since he doesn't have a government passport like the rest of us do. So we had to ask one of the people at the clinic to scan his ID and email it to us, and then it was up to the border control security person whether or not they would accept that. On top of that, Robert didn't have his military orders printed. Yes, we were a bit worried it might take awhile before they let him back into the country, although he had his tourist passport with him.
Anyway, we got extremely lucky--as we were the first people to arrive at the passport control for ALL PASSPORTS (somehow), we could pick which officer to come up to. Robert quickly calculated who'd be most merciful--a woman in her 50-60s:) He is so charming with older women:)). Anyway, everything worked out great. The officer accepted all our documents digitally and having my military ID with Robert's name on it helped. We were through passport control within five minutes.
We had a meet and greet service for parking, so the car was delivered to us almost immediately and we were home by 1 am.
The end of another whirlwind trip.
Lyana.
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