Wielickza Salt Mine
From Krakow we visited the Wieliczka Salt Mine, another World Heritage SIte which operated from C14 until 1996. You can only go on organised tours and fortunately the only foreign language available in June is English so our group of assorted French and Japanese must have been mystified by the guide's explanations. It was a bit pricey - 138ZL for two of us (including 10ZL for the camera) plus 14ZL for the parking. That was more than £30 (expensive for this trip) and while there were some good bits - the medieval machinery and the rock-salt chandeliers for example - there were too many statues (gnomes, queens and Pope John Paul), chapels, man-made lakes and folk lore, and not enough hard information about porduction methods, quantities, value etc. The Big Pit in Wales did this sort of thing much better and it was free as well.
The tour starts by a taking many many flights of wooden stairs down to the visitors area, fortunately there were lifts to bring you back. These lifts were the original style lifts used by the miners - let's just say sardines had more space than we did.
The picture above does not do the rock salt chandelier justice, but just imagine each of these "crystals" has been carved out of salt.
The tour starts by a taking many many flights of wooden stairs down to the visitors area, fortunately there were lifts to bring you back. These lifts were the original style lifts used by the miners - let's just say sardines had more space than we did.
The picture above does not do the rock salt chandelier justice, but just imagine each of these "crystals" has been carved out of salt.
