{"id":3733,"date":"2015-09-10T16:05:12","date_gmt":"2015-09-10T21:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=3733"},"modified":"2015-09-11T14:59:18","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T19:59:18","slug":"european-vacation-day-14-day-underground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=3733","title":{"rendered":"European Vacation: Day 14 Day Underground"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first of our tours begins today.\u00a0 I had made arrangements with a car service for transportation to the different locations I expected to go while in the Cracow area.\u00a0 One of these was to join an English speaking tour of the Wieliczka Salt Mines just outside of Cracow.<\/p>\n

This is one of those tourist things that everyone tells you is a must for any vacation.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been in a salt mine before so the idea wasn\u2019t new to me.\u00a0 This is supposed to be one of the largest mines.\u00a0 It is one the UNESCO Heritage list.\u00a0 Busia told us we had to do this tour and we almost always listen to Busia.<\/p>\n

Martin, the driver, picked us up at 10:00 in the morning outside of the hotel.\u00a0 This time it was a larger van with a handful of people already on board.\u00a0 There would be 12 of us going out to the mine this morning with the company.\u00a0 We found seats and enjoyed the ride out of town.<\/p>\n

Driving is Cracow is very fast-paced.\u00a0 There does seem to be order to it, but you have to react very quickly.\u00a0 It reminds me of a road race and everyone running to the finish at the same time.\u00a0 So far, we haven\u2019t seen any accidents.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if they don\u2019t stop and just keep going or it happens less here than in the states.<\/p>\n

We picked up all the people going on the tour and made it to the mines.\u00a0 Martin led us to the entrance and gave us over to the safekeeping of Sebastian, our tour guide for the trip.\u00a0 Apparently, the only way to really get into the mine is to have a tour already set up.\u00a0 Individuals can wait almost all day for a tour in their requested language.\u00a0 Sebastian spoke wonderful English.<\/p>\n

With 30 people on the tour, I figured Sebastian was going to have his hands full today.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t have that many incidents, so it was a good day for a tour.<\/p>\n

We received headset devices so we could hear Sebastian in the mines.\u00a0 Once we were all on the same frequency, the devices worked well.\u00a0 No one had to have a new device or headset, yet.\u00a0 Sebastian began the tour by telling us what to expect and how we would work our way through the mine.\u00a0 First order of business was the descent into the mines.\u00a0 This was using approximately 300 wooden steps down.<\/p>\n

I admired the craftsmanship of the stairs.\u00a0 They were beautiful and using a design I hadn\u2019t seen before.\u00a0 I did notice the dark spots all over the stairs.\u00a0 Sebastian says this is chewing gum over the many years.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure it was all gum, but I bet they were stains of all kinds.\u00a0 Most are probably from peoples\u2019 shoes.\u00a0 People can do some disgusting things from time to time though.<\/p>\n

We made it to the bottom without incident and started the tour in the Nicholas Copernicus chamber.\u00a0 This is a good example of a chamber that was hollowed out and then a salt sculpture created for the room.\u00a0 Most of the chambers are dedicated to people who visited them or to royalty or deities.\u00a0 It was amazing to get the details of the sculptures and hear about the different kinds of salts in the mine.\u00a0 Even the floors had been carved into tiles in most of the chambers.<\/p>\n

The mines are no longer actively worked.\u00a0 The last of the large salt deposit had been removed.\u00a0 Now it is too expensive and dangerous to continue for what deposits are left.\u00a0 For one, there is a town directly overhead of the mines and blasting is out of the question.\u00a0 Mining by hand is too expensive.\u00a0 There are open pit mines in other locations that can produce more salt.<\/p>\n

The mining here is just to preserve the current structures.\u00a0 The mines are accumulating ground water that has to be pumped out.\u00a0 That water is salty and has to be desalinated before they can get rid of the water.\u00a0 This produces some salt, but not a large quantity.\u00a0 There are structural engineers and miners who work in the mines to do this preservation, so it is still an active mine in that sense.<\/p>\n

Displays through the mines show how the miners worked.\u00a0 Even horses were brought down to do some of the heavy lifting.\u00a0 Most of the horses were brought down as colts and lived their entire lives down there.\u00a0 They apparently were well cared for by the miners.\u00a0 One of the last horses had been lifted out of the mine and was living a retired life in the fields these days at 29 years of age.<\/p>\n

We made it to the main chapel that was carved out of the very large rooms.\u00a0 There are reliefs on the wall of biblical scenes.\u00a0 There are large salt statues around the room.\u00a0 It is amazing to see the work that had been done here by the miners themselves.\u00a0 It is very impressive.\u00a0 We had time to look around and get up close with a lot of the sculptures.<\/p>\n

Before going into the chapel, Sebastian pointed out the bathrooms and told us they were largest underground pit toilets.\u00a0 I had to go and check it out, of course.\u00a0 Very nice.\u00a0 By the way, the Polish word for toilet is toalety.\u00a0 That word was very easy to learn and very quick to find around town.<\/p>\n

We were making our way around on the tour when the first incident occurred.\u00a0 A British lady had trouble coming down one of the sets of stairs.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see it, but I understand that she tripped and caught herself.\u00a0 She did need a new headset as she mangled the one she had on.\u00a0 We found a seat for her to rest as we looked at one of the exhibits showing how the salt was transported underground using a Hungarian dog.\u00a0 This is a cart developed in the Hungarian mines.\u00a0 They were called dogs because they sounded like dogs whimpering when they moved.<\/p>\n

We continued to move further down in the mines.\u00a0 I think at one point I had a sign that said 1300 meters down.\u00a0 We finally reached the lowest point that we would go in one of the ballrooms and then we began to start the journey back up.<\/p>\n

The last stage of the journey to the surface was in a miners’ cage that held 8 people.\u00a0 Rich had to duck to stand inside.\u00a0 We were cramped in really good.\u00a0 The system consisted of 2 cages with one on top of another.\u00a0 We were loaded into the bottom cage.<\/p>\n

A pair of Swedish ladies from Canada was on the tour with us.\u00a0 I noticed that one of them got away and was somehow with another tour.\u00a0 I explained this to Sebastian and he went out to wrangle her back in.\u00a0 He said he had never lost anyone before.\u00a0 This might have been the first time.<\/p>\n

Back on the surface, you had to wind your way through three or four different gift shops before you could make a break for the door.\u00a0 I believe they were trying to tell me I had to buy something.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I didn\u2019t feel the need to have a souvenir from the mines.<\/p>\n

I do have to tell you about the four young British kids on the tour.\u00a0 They looked to be early 20s at most.\u00a0 I believe we joined them with Sebastian\u2019s group when Martin dropped us off.\u00a0 I noticed that they were carrying bags of chips, drinks, and candy with them.\u00a0 All along the tour, they were eating constantly.\u00a0 It was amazing to watch them as they walked the tunnels and even climbing the stairs.\u00a0 So that was two and a half hours of eating!<\/p>\n

One thing to note is that you could see the salt crystals in the air around us when I took a picture.\u00a0 At first, I thought my camera lens was dirty.\u00a0 Then I realized that the crystals in the air were reflecting the flash.\u00a0 It gave a strange quality to the pictures.\u00a0 Also, I then began to think about breathing in those crystals.\u00a0 That probably why my sinuses started running a bit.\u00a0 It was like drinking in saltwater!<\/p>\n

Back up top, we were instructed to go back to the bus and meet Martin there.\u00a0 Rich and I headed back to the parking lot and found Martin with the bus.\u00a0 I noticed the pair of Swedish ladies had followed us.\u00a0 It took a while for the others to come along.\u00a0 I assume the gift shops snagged them until they ran out of money.<\/p>\n

Back on the road again, Martin went by Schindler\u2019s Factory to drop off a few people who had paid for that tour also.\u00a0 The Swedish ladies got off and asked to do that tour, even though they hadn\u2019t paid for it.\u00a0 Martin was patient and took them to the window to see if he could get them included.\u00a0 He came back on his own, so I assume he was successful.<\/p>\n

Martin dropped the remainder of us close to the main square.\u00a0 Since we were in the square, we decided to get coffee and cake before looking at the underground displays for St Adalbert\u2019s and the main square.\u00a0 Rich wanted nalesniki, but we couldn\u2019t find the sweet version.\u00a0 As we walked by one of the outdoor caf\u00e9s, a waitress enticed us with cheesecake.\u00a0 We went into the area and sat down.\u00a0 The coffee was good and the cake would tide us over until the evening meal since we missed lunch.<\/p>\n

At St. Adalbert\u2019s Church, we walked down the stairs to the lower level.\u00a0 The steps into the exhibit were wide and very uneven.\u00a0 Once inside, the exhibit had a display for a 10th<\/sup> century wooden church on the lowest level.\u00a0 Above that level, a 12th<\/sup> century Roman church had been built.\u00a0 The church above us had been built later in the 14th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 A cut away section showed all of the different levels that they found starting in the 900s through the current day.<\/p>\n

We walked over to the Cloth Hall to find the office where you purchase tickets for the Rynek Underground.\u00a0 The Rynek Glowny is the Polish name for the main square.\u00a0 With tickets in hand, we went into the entrance and proceeded to make our way day the ramp to the start of the exhibits. \u00a0The entire set of exhibits was provided in a number of languages.\u00a0 We always selected the English version to see the details.<\/p>\n

The exhibit takes you from the early roads and square that began in this area in about 980 AD.\u00a0 You can see the road they have preserved and how it was built.\u00a0 The exhibit then continues through time to the 1200s when the last layer in the exhibit is explained.<\/p>\n

The original stalls for the Cloth Hall, or Rich Stalls it was called, are still here under the city.\u00a0 They use the stalls to show you how the wares were displayed by the merchants.\u00a0 There are even storage areas for inventory.\u00a0 Once you see upstairs on the surface and then see the elaborate stalls and massive size of the original hall, it is impressive.<\/p>\n

There is one hallway that has portraits of some of the kings and queens from this time period.\u00a0 Once the kings, Casimir III, looks just like Rich!\u00a0 It was a little spooky and I had to show him.\u00a0 They have the same features and even the moustache is the same.\u00a0 The cool thing is that the portraits are electronic and move.\u00a0 Some nod to you, wink, or even brush away a bee.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like the portraits in the Harry Potter movies.<\/p>\n

So we finished up the exhibit and I was exhausted.\u00a0 I convinced Rich to go back to the hotel for a bit.\u00a0 Once we rested and determined we were on our own, we were trying to decide where to go and eat.\u00a0 We stopped at the front desk to ask for a recommendation.\u00a0 The receptionist gave a card for a restaurant just down the street from the hotel.<\/p>\n

Restauracja Galicyjska was in the wine vault of one of the large homes at the end of the street.\u00a0 We walked down a few flights of stones steps and out into a lovely vaulted area.\u00a0 We were seated in the corner of one vault.\u00a0 It was a fancier restaurant than we had expected, but it was vacation.\u00a0 We ordered wine and Rich got a beer.\u00a0 With the card we got from the hotel, we received a complimentary cider, which was excellent.<\/p>\n

Rich ordered filet of boar and I ordered the fish in lemon sauce.\u00a0 It was all to die for.\u00a0 We even ordered Zurek soup to start.\u00a0 It might have been the best so far.\u00a0 Rich has lots of ideas for improving on his Zurek soup.\u00a0 We ended with coffee (cawa cznerzia) and raspberry sorbet with cheesecake.\u00a0 At the very end, the waiter brought complimentary honey liquor as the after dinner.\u00a0 Rich never turns that down.<\/p>\n

We wandered back down the street to our hotel.\u00a0 It was time to relax and enough the food coma.\u00a0 I\u2019ve eaten so much food and I think I\u2019ve still lost weight.\u00a0 My jeans are loose!\u00a0 Well, time to write a blog and post a few pictures.<\/p>\n

ADDENDUM: \u00a0 Rich reminded me that he had kawa krakowkau at the Galcian restaurant. \u00a0This coffee with Polish vodka. \u00a0I don’t really like vodka, but this was good stuff.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Rich<\/a>
Rich heading into the mine to go down the over 300 steps.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Spots<\/a>
Spots on the stairs are supposed chewing gum over the years.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Copernicus<\/a>
Copernicus status in the first chamber we saw.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sign<\/a>
Sign for the Nicholas Copernicus Chamber since Rich has been looking for everything that pertains to him.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Holy<\/a>
Holy Cross Chapel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The sign says we are 130 meters underground at this point.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sebastian,<\/a>
Sebastian, our guide, talking about the Hungarian princess who came to Poland for a marriage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Salt<\/a>
Salt growing on the ceiling by seepage through the walls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Floor<\/a>
Floor is carved out of salt to look like tiles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Main<\/a>
Main chapel in the salt mine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Salt<\/a>
Salt crystal chandelier in the main chapel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Stairs<\/a>
Stairs going down to another level and the support system around the walls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Cake<\/a>
Cake and coffee break in the main square before we do the Rynek Underground.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Model<\/a>
Model of old Cracow with the Barbican on the end. This is close to our hotel location.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first of our tours begins today.\u00a0 I had made arrangements with a car service for transportation to the different locations I expected to go while in the Cracow area.\u00a0 One of these was to join an English speaking tour of the Wieliczka Salt Mines just outside of Cracow. This is one of those tourist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3733"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3790,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3733\/revisions\/3790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}