Sunday afternoon...
Visited the Jewish quarter with its old and dirty (if not nearly derelict) buildings and saw a few old churches. They were all a little different with lots of fancy decoration in the Rococo Baroque one and they all had nice looking pipe organs. Lots of people attending church and Also bumped into a bread festival in a small square, some stalls selling food and others tourist information. There was a stage and some traditional Polish folk dancing and singing. Some guys got up on stage and yabbered on for 10 minutes on the virtues of the twisted bagel (or at least that’s what it looked like). Lots of tough looking polish men with crew cuts wandering around as well as a smattering of security guys with ‘ochrona justice’. Not sure of their official status, but there’s a fair of bit of security and police presence around. Not sure if that makes me feel better or nervous. Found the minibus stop for the Wieliczka Salt Mine and headed 20 minutes out of town to what I’d call Poland’s Sovereign Hill. What a setup...very organised. Bought our tickets and waited for a foreign language (English) guided tour to begin.
Walked a down wooden stairway about 70 meters and travelled along some (tidy) tunnels to a series of caverns with carved (out of rock salt) statues either commemorating a myth/story or a famous person. Lots of timber bracing the tunnels and ceilings, some of it literally tree trunks! There are chapels carved out of the salt/rock (where miners pray for safety) and even a temple/cathedral (Chapel of the Blessed Kinga) that required the removal of 200,000 tonnes of rock salt! You can get married down there (they also have a ball/reception room as well) and there’s some fantastic carvings of Bible stories and a pulpit carved out of the side wall with steps leading up to it. It’s 50 meters long nearly 20 mtrs wide and the roof is 12 mtrs high, has huge chandeliers with clear salt crystal pendants and took 30 years to dig out.
As usual, lots of stories from the guide about the danger of working in the mine and just how valuable the salt was - as good as currency. It was all very busy with about twenty in our group and we kept bumping into the back of the group in front of us and the one behind (German) kept pushing us along. They have 300 guides and they do 3-5 tours a day (they take just under 2 hours). It was cooler underground (about 15˚) and we ended up over 130 mtrs below ground level but only reached level 3 of the mine, it goes down 9 levels. Caught a lift back to the surface jammed in a cage with 4 levels to it and nine people in each level - it was very tight. Fantastic experience all up and worth all the zloty we paid for it.
Had a bit of a stress waiting (was after 6 pm on a Sunday after all) for a bus to take us back (we used public transport rather than an organised tour) but in the end it all turned out Ok. Had some authentic Polish cuisine for dinner including ‘bigos’ cabbage and meat and Ash tried a (minced) blacking pudding. After that...you guessed it, crashed again!
Visited the Jewish quarter with its old and dirty (if not nearly derelict) buildings and saw a few old churches. They were all a little different with lots of fancy decoration in the Rococo Baroque one and they all had nice looking pipe organs. Lots of people attending church and Also bumped into a bread festival in a small square, some stalls selling food and others tourist information. There was a stage and some traditional Polish folk dancing and singing. Some guys got up on stage and yabbered on for 10 minutes on the virtues of the twisted bagel (or at least that’s what it looked like). Lots of tough looking polish men with crew cuts wandering around as well as a smattering of security guys with ‘ochrona justice’. Not sure of their official status, but there’s a fair of bit of security and police presence around. Not sure if that makes me feel better or nervous. Found the minibus stop for the Wieliczka Salt Mine and headed 20 minutes out of town to what I’d call Poland’s Sovereign Hill. What a setup...very organised. Bought our tickets and waited for a foreign language (English) guided tour to begin.
Walked a down wooden stairway about 70 meters and travelled along some (tidy) tunnels to a series of caverns with carved (out of rock salt) statues either commemorating a myth/story or a famous person. Lots of timber bracing the tunnels and ceilings, some of it literally tree trunks! There are chapels carved out of the salt/rock (where miners pray for safety) and even a temple/cathedral (Chapel of the Blessed Kinga) that required the removal of 200,000 tonnes of rock salt! You can get married down there (they also have a ball/reception room as well) and there’s some fantastic carvings of Bible stories and a pulpit carved out of the side wall with steps leading up to it. It’s 50 meters long nearly 20 mtrs wide and the roof is 12 mtrs high, has huge chandeliers with clear salt crystal pendants and took 30 years to dig out.
As usual, lots of stories from the guide about the danger of working in the mine and just how valuable the salt was - as good as currency. It was all very busy with about twenty in our group and we kept bumping into the back of the group in front of us and the one behind (German) kept pushing us along. They have 300 guides and they do 3-5 tours a day (they take just under 2 hours). It was cooler underground (about 15˚) and we ended up over 130 mtrs below ground level but only reached level 3 of the mine, it goes down 9 levels. Caught a lift back to the surface jammed in a cage with 4 levels to it and nine people in each level - it was very tight. Fantastic experience all up and worth all the zloty we paid for it.
Had a bit of a stress waiting (was after 6 pm on a Sunday after all) for a bus to take us back (we used public transport rather than an organised tour) but in the end it all turned out Ok. Had some authentic Polish cuisine for dinner including ‘bigos’ cabbage and meat and Ash tried a (minced) blacking pudding. After that...you guessed it, crashed again!
1 comment:
Enjoying your stories and fantastic photos very much. What wonderful experiences you're having. I'll have to tell Cath & Dan you've found a great place for them to have their wedding!
Leonie
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