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18/08/2011 Day 9. Krakow
Got up at 8 this morning to get to the minibus to take us to Wieliczka Salt Mine. We arrived around 10am and the tour was to last around 2 hours. The temperature was already breaking the 20 degree mark and the sun was beaming. Again, packing the sun cream helped so I applied a layer. After some faffing around our guide got hold of us and took us to the stairs. 360 steps took us 65 metres deep, almost twice as deep as the Czech silver mine. We were told of the miners who would stay down there in their spare time and carve sculptures and decorate caverns excavated of salt. These sculptures were greatly detailed and great to see. The floor was even sculpted to look like floor tiles. I tested to see if there was any underhanded cheating going on by licking one of the walls to check the salt. Indeed, it was very salty and could taste it for the rest of the tour. We were eventually taken down some more steps to 135 metres, three times as deep as the Czech mine. Here we were taken to a grand cavern where church ceremonies and weddings take place. The walls were covered in religious carvings, like the birth of the big JC and the last supper by leonardo davinci. From a distance the last supper looked brilliantly 3D but the closer you got to this the more the effect dropped. In fact the picture was only 16cm deep. Here there was a high ceiling, at least 20 metres and the floor sculpted like before. Some of the quality of the sculptures had been lost because of the moisture in the air dissolving the salt. The rock is 95% NaCl, sodium chloride or salt to you guys. We were taken to a nearby underground brine lake. This water was fully saturated with salt and could not dissolve anymore salt into it. It contained 5% more salt than the dead sea. This water is used to clean the statues in the chapels and on the displays. Finally to get out were were taken a bit deeper to a mine shaft elevator. This lift had 4 compartments one above another and fit 7 people in each. It was a big squeeze to fit us in with the others and it travelled around 4 meters per second, getting us to the surface in around 50 seconds. Apparantly we had walked around 2 km through the mine, this was less than 1% of the total length of the mine, and the lowest depth was 300 metres. We had a walk around a cavern which was 35 metres high where bunjee jumps had been done and the first underground balloon flight was recorded. Interesting stuff. We met the minibus again at 12. Beaming sunshine and 27 degree heat was a welcome difference to artificial lighting and 14 degree temperature within the mine.
We nipped back to camp site to shove some lunch down our necks and headed for the bus to Krakow. When the bus came to the end we then got on the tram. We didn't really understand what tickets we should have bought but just assumed it was ok. We didn't get checked so all wa good. We headed for the old town square and it was packed full of tourists and we even saw a couple just after they got married. She was pregnant, and due to the catholic heritage of Poland we assumed that was why they got married :). Another thing we noticed was the sheer number of good looking examples of the female of the species! Millions! We headed across town to the castle in the baking sunshine and ha a look around. Some good architecture but nothing much to write about. So we headed back to the square to have a couple of beers. Average price was around £2, 8PLN in the high tourist area so it was good. For food we headed out into what Aaron called "the danger zone", some suburbs around the centre and stopped at a pub. I had "dumplings with meat", which I could describe as ravioli with a difference. Instead of pasta there was dumplings, instead of the rubbish meat there was some nice beef. Really nice with a bowl of chips and beer. We went to an off-licence, we noticed all these were called the same, "Alkohole". I loved it. I bought what I think was a high brand polish vodka, 500mls for 21PLN which equates to about a fiver so it was good and the money needed spending anyway. I stopped drinking at that point because I am driving tomorrow morning. We went to a bar again in the square. Now the sun had gone down it was a very different atmosphere, different acts where there, fire-on-rope-fling-around-ers and some break dancers. We headed to the tram again and bought some tickets. I used the ticket I bought earlier which I ddnt validate so I simply validated it on this journey so got two for the price of one! On the bus back we were speaking to a German bloke who was staying at the same camp site as us, camp smok. He had been to Newcastle before, the lake districts and Edinburgh with his wife. Nice chap. We also saw that at 10pm it was still 23 degrees. Lovely. Bed at half 11. I start the drive tomorrow at 8 heading to Slovakia into the hogh Tatra mountains.
P.S the pint pots were plastic. Aaron and Sam are stupid and think they were glass. Day long argument between us...ongoing. I'll keep you updated if we make any advancements on the point
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