Krakow: The Salt Mines

Ok, enough depression for one trip!  On to the Wieliczka Salt Mines!!  We stopped by here after our disturbing trip to Auschwitz and enjoyed ourselves.  So...these super old sat mines (built in the 13th century), located in the small town of Wieliczka outside of Krakow, produced table salt continuously until 2007 - one of the oldest salt mines still operating!  You get to see a ton of the cavernous rooms and tunnels, how the miners would mine the salt, AND dozens of statues a couple of chapels, and a huge cathedral that have been carved out of the rock salt by the bored miners.  The tour is close to 2.5 hours, with an additional hour of waiting in lines to get back up to the surface, so be prepared if you come here.  Here are some highlights!

This was taken when I bent over the stair rail and saw how far down we had to go.  It looks infinite.

Same pic, different lighting.  Yowza!  Something like 53 flights of stairs to climb down.  Not recommended for those with vertigo.

This is a huge block of rock salt, which is gray and actually resembles unpolished granite.  

Humongous wooden beams to hold the walls and "ceilings" up.

A beautiful wooden door carved into the side of a wall of salt.  I kept thinking about the mines of Moria from Lord of the Rings throughout this whole thing and
"It's not a mine...it's a TOMB!"

This was a carving that depicted an old Polish folktale about a princess throwing her engagement ring deep into the mine when another miner found it.  Those are soldiers in the background.

More salt - looks different than the gray graphite salt though.  Hmm.

Tunnels!

King Kazimierz - big time Polish king from the 1300s.  They freakin love this guy.  

A salt gnome!  Or something.

The huge cathedral carved out of salt!  Even the chandeliers are made of salt crystals.

Religious carvings and a Longhorn.

They also have a 3D salt carving of da Vinci's The Last Supper.  It's only 6 inches deep but it's pretty amazing.

Underwater lake!  It spooked me out thinking about the Inferi in Harry Potter. but I luckily didn't see any.
So many literary references in these mines!

Look!  A dragon!  Ahhhhhhhh

Ridiculously tall white wooden beams that go up farther than the eye can even see.

A salt mustache.  A saltstache.

They said you could lick the wall and taste the salt.  So I did.

After the 54 flights of stairs and after you wind your way through the tunnels for 2.5 hours, you have to get on a teeny tiny little elevator/wire cage that whisks you all the way back up to civilization.  They cram as many people as they can in it and my face was pressed to the metal wiring - and it was all a little too close for comfort after just being at Auschwitz.  If you have issues with claustrophobia then just close your eyes and breathe deeply and tell yourself it'll all be over soon!

It was a llloooonnnngggg ass day and we came back, changed, and headed to a fun restaurant recommended by our cutie driver, Kogel-Mogel.  It's a romantic little joint with classic Polish dishes and we loaded up on pierogi and duck!  Yum yum.

Pierogi!

Tourist.

My half a duck!

The Polish are also known for their vodka (or love of) so we stopped by the Rick Steves' recommended  Wodka Cafe Bar, a tiny, intimate little vodka bar that has a few seats downstairs and then a staircase directly on/over the bar with more tiny seats and benches upstairs. We made some friends and ordered a hazelnut vodka and a caramel vodka for dessert.  Strong but pretty darn good!

A couple vodkas later we crashed and burned back at our hotel, happy to sleep and forget the first part of the day ever happened!  Goodnight!