Salt, Gnomes, and Accordions

Once I finally got myself out of the hotel on Sunday afternoon I wondered into old town looking for food. I'd managed to miss breakfast. Since I was running behind and Polish meals tend to drag on I popped into the McDonald's for a quick bite to eat. I know, how very provincial of me, but it was tasty and filling. I needed my strength back because I was going to be doing a lot of walking and Saturday had already been very taxing. I picked up a large bottle of water for the trip.

The tourist information desk had marked on my map where the minibuses left for Wieliczka and I arrived just in time to catch one. About 10 minutes later I was dropped off outside the Wieliczka salt mines exhibit. My luck was with me that day because as I bought a ticket the English language tour was just beginning. I would have had to wait another hour for the next one. We got started at 16:00 and we finished at 17:45.

The tour was led by a young Polish gal who spoke English with a heavy accent. She warned us about the long climb down by stairs and reassured us that there would be a fast lift at the end of the tour. There were about 20 of us in the tour group, I stayed near the back to take pictures after everyone had moved on. We descended a tall switch-back staircase, and I lost count after 200 stairs. The wooden walls were covered by visitors' names written on them. I ducked most of the way down after I clocked my forehead on one of the stairs above me.

It was dry and cool down in the mines and the air was clean and refreshing. The guide explained how the climate is actually very beneficial to the respiratory system and that a part of the caverns have been turned into a health spa. The salt mines are one of Poland's national treasures and was a source of great wealth for them in early times due to salt being an efficient preservative. The preservative effects of the salt keep all the wood in the mines very well protected. The guide explained that there are over 3000 chambers in the network of caverns and that we were only going to see about one percent. Sculptures in the rock salt were all done by the miners themselves, since they spent most of their lives underground. The themes mostly involved the miners' lives, local myths & legends, important historical figures, or religious symbology. There were large brine filled lakes as well.

Overall I was impressed, although most of the modern displays and dioramas were a bit on the cheesy side. In fact it reminded me of Enchanted Forest on more than one occasion, especially when we got to the cavern with gnomes and dwarves bathed in "magical" multi-colored lights. The guide had a few scripted events and jokes during the tour. At one point as we were crossing a brine filled lake on a wooden bridge a hidden speaker made a large splashing sound and she reassured us that there were no monsters in the lake. The final cavern had a scripted "animation" that consisted of light fading in and out illuminating various sculptures to recorded sound effects and music.

By far the most impressive part was the massive church carved from the rock salt lit by many salt crystal chandeliers. Three miners were responsible for the decoration of this magnificent space. There were many wall relieves that appeared deceptively deep and lifelike.

When the tour was over we all waiting in line for a ride back to the surface. There was a tall 4 level lift that could carry 7 passengers on each level all at once. I crowded into the metal box with some very large tourists and got cozy with them as we were jerked up and into the sunlight again. I got a thrill watching the salt rock walls rush past us on the way up. Throughout the tour I was having too much fun to be bothered by claustrophobia or acrophobia even though I was in some situations that would normally have provoked a panic response.

I took way too many pictures, and ran through one set of batteries while down in the mines. I've only put the best ones up on the flickr sight. It was hard to choose between flash and no flash, flash washed out the sculptures and you lose some of the depth, but no flash tended to be fuzzy and too dark to see.

After the mines I took another minibus home to Krakow and wandered old town once again looking for food. I stopped momentarily to listen to a trio of accordions play out Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D minor and watched a small boy spin and dance to the music in the main square. It was a very happy moment for me. I found a Polish cafeteria and ended up accidentally ordering twice as much food as I meant to, but I did my best effort to eat a little bit of everything.

After dinner I went back to the hotel, posted my pictures, and took a long nap. I got up to do some emailing and such in the evening and then went to bed early to be ready for work on Monday. Woke up very early this morning refreshed and ready for more.