Day Twenty

DAY TWENTY

It was another relaxed seven am start to the day with a great cooked breakfast. Outside temperatures started out at -9.8 degrees but fortunately warmed up to around 1 degree over the course of the day. We planned to take in the UNESCO protected Salt Mine outside of Krakow, a major tourist site 14km from our camp.

Naturally occurring salt deposits were discovered in the area 700 years ago and became a major export for Poland, making up a third of their economy during the Medieval period. Mining at the site continued up to 1996 by which time the shafts ran 9 levels deep to 350m below ground level with over 2000 chambers having been carved out.

Apparently profits from the mine were responsible for funding both Wawel castle and the university which is the third oldest in Europe. Interestingly Copernicus the famous astronomer was a Pole and an alumni of the university.

The mine is now a very slick tourist operation seeing a million tourists a year pass through its gates. We took the first English tour at 10am with a small group including an Australian Father and daughter and a Canadian couple whom we got to know a bit on the three hour tour.

The tour starts with a decent to 68m after walking down 380 steps, where the tunnels for the 1st level begin. Obviously the place has been done up really well with wooden staircases and reinforcing. As we walked along chambers of various sizes would open up with human mannequins reconstructing aspects of mining life and equipment. There were some ingenious systems of pulleys and ropes operated by men or by horses brought down as foals which could raise and lower large loads on counterbalances. Throughout men had carved little chapels out of the rock salt with the one exception being a massive chamber which three men spend 63 years carving into a church. It includes incredibly artistic rock salt carvings of the life of Christ and statues of various saints. Wooden chandeliers decorated with salt crystals finish the room off and the effect is really breathtaking. Apparently church services are still held there on Sundays and it’s obviously still used for weddings.

The tour ends at the only restaurant in the world 125m underground. Given that we were deep in conversation with our English speaking companions we missed our opportunity for an underground cappuccino.

Driving back to camp we passed the now rebuilt Jewish Ghetto area of Kazimierz which the Germans totally destroyed after the fierce resistance put up there by the Jews towards the end of the war. 65000 Jews were taken to Auschwitz from here and murdered during Nazi rule. We are heading out tomorrow to see the remains of the death camp.

Editors Note – Glenn forgot to mention the unbelievable Bacon Ravioli with Mince, Tomatoes and Onions that I cooked for a sumptuous lunch – washed down with a Becks Beer. He says there is no longer any need to mention the food since I always cook such good food but I say that since I love cooking so much and therefore feel all you faithful followers need to realize how much fun I am having in Betsy’s kitchen…..