Wieliczka, Poland

Jordan and I had never been to a Salt Mine before, so with one so close, we figured we gotta check it out.  When visiting Kraków we took a half day trip to Wieliczka to explore "Koplania Soli"-or-The Wieliczka Salt Mine.

I should tell you, that Pope John Paul III is from this area, so there are some tributes to him around the city.

Get your hard-hats ready, we are about to go into the mine down the Danilowicz Shaft! When I look back at photos, in my head I can hear the tour guide saying, "Only 298 steps left till we've reached the first level".  Ummm what?!First Level?! How far below ground is this mine? Only 64 meters to the first level and then it's down, down, down you go from there...Luckily there's an elevator up! 

 During out tour we walked 3 of the 178 miles through caverns and tunnels

Did you know that not all salt is white like table salt?  In the mine, the raw rock salt looks like a mottled gray color, but when you put a light up to it, you can almost see through the hard compressed rock.  If you don't believe that the gray walls are salt, all it takes is a lick of your tongue for some re-assurance.

When water seeps through cracks and the crystals dissolve they reappear as brilliant, tangled, fragile formations...Look at the "cauliflower" course salt!

When the mine was active they used to lower down baby horses to help run the mechanics of the mine. These horses would never see the light of day again, because they would grow up to be too big to fit up the shafts they would spend their entire lives down below ground.

How the salt got to Wieliczka is a good fairytale, because there's a Princess involved.  According to legend, when Princess Kinga of Hungary got engaged to the King of Boleslaw she threw her engagement ring into Hungary's salt mines. Somehow this was supposed to guide her to the salt supplies in her new adopted country of Poland, and when miners started drilling in Wieliczka, they not only found salt, but the engagement ring itself.  Miners in their free time would carve out of salt, and they made a scene of the Princess being proposed to:

The miners carved so many different statues...even the 7 dwarfs, all made of salt.

Out of the empty caverns from their salt harvest they made a beautiful church, and the decor is made entirely of salt; chandeliers and everything!

It's hard to believe this is salt!

Gotta get the selfie in

Crazy cool huh!?!

The museum had a great display of different color salts like I was explaining earlier.

Before heading into Kraków we grabbed some traditional Polish food at Karczma Halit, and it was de-lish. We started off with some of the best borscht I have ever had, and they put little beef perogies inside. Yumm Yumm!

...and for our main course we had a mixture of perogies (some with meat, mushrooms, cabbage, and all the good stuff).

Now off to Kraków we go!