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Conveniently located less than an hour away from Krakow, and actually available on the same public transit system that gets you around the rest of the city, is the Wieliczka Salt Mine. l first learned about the salt mine while staying with Doris in Stockholm. When she learned that I was planning on going to Krakow she got her friend Teresa, who lived in Krakow for a number of years, to come over and tell me all about it and things to do and all that good stuff. Wieliczka was one of the places Teresa recommended and I paid attention. Friends are good to have.

After the fairly long babble the other day about Tallinn you'll be relieved to hear that I am not going to say to much about the mine. I mean, it's a salt mine, what is there to say? Actually there is a fair amount as the guide was talking most of the time, and I also watched a couple of short films along the way that did not feature Charlie Chaplin, so yes, there is plenty that could be said, I'm just not going to do it. Not much anyway. So this will be another one of those short babble followed by pictures with few interuption entries. Raise your hand if you prefer it this way.

Okay, some basics on Wieliczka.

The mine is over 700 years old, is over 300 meters deep,  and has over 300km worth of tunnels. We were there close to week having made a wrong turn in Albuquerque and ending up in Goderich. Actually the tour lasted about three hours and only goes to a depth of about 130 metres, and they ask you to stick together and not wander off down some random tunnel, no matter how well lit.

Spoil sports.

There was another Canadian in my tour group; a geologist, ON VACATION. Yes, a geologist on vacation decided to hang out in a mine. Now, in her defence (not that one is required, but here one is anyway) she doesn't spend any time in mines, she works with oil and gas and stuff and negotiating agreements of various sorts for land rights. A geologist is a good person to have with you in a mine if you're looking for extra info, even one who doesn't spend time in mines.

Anyway, you're allowed to lick the walls if you want, just not the statues, or areas of wall that have been carved ever so nicely. Actually, you should run your hand along the wall and lick it instead. But whatever.

So this number is going to be wrong, and I apologize for that, but there are somewhere around 60 or 70 chapels or something like that, all carved by miners in their spare time. There are also a number of sculptures, both secular and sacred, again, almost all of which were carved by the miners.

The mine opened as a tourist attraction somewhere in the 18th century, and continued to operate and produce table salt until about seven years ago.

All I can really say is that it was super cool and these pictures do not do it any justice. But here they are anyway.

So that's Copernicus.

He got a spare.

A very, very, smooth wall.

While not in the same abundance as in coal mines, methane is still and issue, so there were people sniffing it out with little fires on the end of long poles.

That's cauliflower.

Alas no Cheez Whiz.

This is a horse driven winch system that ran on every level of the mine, and essentially powered a lift.

This and the next few are of the Cathedral, which incidently does hold mass, and can be used for weddings.

This is the floor of the Cathedral, and is one solid piece of salt.

There are other floors that are tiled in salt tiles as well, though those are individual tiles. Again, one piece.

Yes, it's the last supper.

If you look really carefully, on the right you can see Peter reaching for the salt.

HA! Get it! Peter's reaching for the salt! And we're in a salt mine!

I slay me.

Okay, out of the Cathedral and on to one of the lakes.

They're all artificial, and given the level of salt you're gonna do nothing but float.
Incidently, while not directly related to floating in the lakes, there is also a clinic in the mine for respiratory ailments - asthma and the like. Apparently breathing salt air is really good for you. Salt miners do not have the same issues that say, coal miners do. So, if you've lung issues, here's the place to go.

This is sometimes referred to as the wooden cathedral, likely because it is very big, and made of wood. By really big I mean about 50 metres. I think. my numbers are getting messed up a little with this one.

Another lovely lake.

And a lovely little river, that you used to be able to take a boat across until, a long time ago, too many soldiers got on the barge and capsized it, getting trapped underneath. Unable to swim down due to the viscosity of the water, they couldn't get away from said boat, and drowned. So yes, it actually is possible to drown in this water, you just need something really heavy on top of you.

And this is just looking up in one of the final chambers. I posted it to FB when I checked in from here but figured it was worth sharing again.

So that was my time at Wieliczka.

It wasn't my first day in Poland, and it wasn't my last. It was somewhere in the middle. I'll tell you about the other ones later. Right now I want to go eat breakfast and then head out to Prague Castle.

Oh, and I'm sorry about the Peter reaching for the salt thing.