Get your Rock Salt Baby!

Rain, thunder and lightning were forecast for Saturday afternoon so we decided to visit the hugely popular Salt Mines near Krakow. So many people have told me that they are a must see, but I didn’t feel all that enthused about them. But it was hot and sunny in the morning so first we walked into the old town and up to the castle courtyard to the café there. It was absolutely roasting so we had cool drinks and I tried out my new cooling “neck fan” which you put around your neck and switch on to produce cool air. It’s quite effective and I saw a few people looking at it. I hope it was envy but I suspect that it was amusement! Despite my neck fan I was still so hot that for two pins I would have headed back to the hotel to cool down, but I thought to myself that we should make the most of our time in Krakow, so instead, James consulted Google Maps, and expertly steered us onto a bus which took us straight to the little town of Wieliczka, the location of the salt mine. To be honest, I’m not sure that we would have bothered visiting the salt mines if rain had not been forecast, because it would have been a shame to miss any of the delightful July weather. But in the end, I was rather glad that we went there. These ancient salt mines were in operation from the end of the 13th century right up until 2007. They are now a national museum. You start off by going down many many stairs and then walk along different areas of the mine, continuing to get deeper all the time. The tour took more than two hours but we still only saw about 1% of the vast mine. There are many passageways and caverns, some of which have been hollowed out to create chapels and meeting places. In one large chapel there were lots of salt sculptures which were really impressive. There are salt pools deep inside the mines and nowadays, there are also a couple of tourist shops and even a café. Our guide was well-informed and enthusiastic. At the end we got into a tiny lift and rattled up to the surface at alarming speed. 

I reckon that our timing was pretty good because it had just started raining with rumbles of thunder when we went in, but by the time we came out the rain had stopped although the ground was still all wet. The whole atmosphere felt a bit fresher too. We took a train back in to Krakow and just had time to get changed before going back to Starka restaurant for dinner. We enjoyed it so much with Heather and Ewan on Wednesday evening that we thought we would return, and indeed the meal was absolutely delicious, although we did miss our erstwhile dining companions. We had pierogi again of course! And James tried a new vodka. Later we strolled back to the hotel in the gorgeous warm evening, stopping for a drink in the Jozefa 12 courtyard, one of the filming locations from the film Schindler’s List.