Wieliczka Salt Mines

After the tour of Auschwitz which was about 2/3 of the day we finished the day out at the Wieliczka Salt Mines. When I Googled things to do in Krakow this kept popping up as a very popular day trip. I decided we should definitely do it when I realized that we could do Auschwitz and the salt mines in the same day. Since we were only there for 3 days it was important to have the other two days in Krakow. The good things about visiting the salt mines in the evening is that it is already dark outside but it doesn't matter. The sun was setting at about 5pm in Poland when we were visiting and it seemed to always cut our day so short. But since we were hundreds of meters down inside the earth sunlight did not matter.

At first you have to walk down something like 500 steps to get to the first level. The tour guide took us around showing up salt carvings that the miners actually did and there are even exhibits in the mine of how it used to be when it was mined. It hasn't been mined for salt since the early 2000s. We then went to floor two and three. We ended up going down something like 800+ steps lucky we got to take the elevator back up. We saw multiple chapels and a couple of man-made lakes. Our tour guide told us stories about how they used to light fireworks off inside the mine, play football games, they even have concerts there sometimes still in the big rooms. She even said that there used to be boat tours of the mine through a little canal but 7 people flipped the boat and drowned in a meter of water so they no longer do those.

We did the tourist route with our guide but there is also a miners route which is not as glamours. We were told that the children enjoy the miners route. There was also a train that took you through different rooms of the mine if you paid extra. My favorite room was the giant chapel with the white chandeliers which were also made out of rock salt! SAY WHAT! Our group had the whole room to ourselves and it was breathtaking.

This was my last post from my Krakow, Poland trip and I am so glad that I got it up before January ended. I have a fun trip planned for my birthday week in February to a new location so that should be fun.
love, Carlee

Leggings & Shoes: Nike

Coat: H&M

Scarf: gift

Sweater & Purse: JCPennys