IVF Czech
April 21st
We drove from Szczawnica in the early
afternoon to Wieliczka which is just outside of Krakow. John did all of the research for this trip so
I had no idea what the salt mine was or what to expect. When we arrived and got our tickets there
were people everywhere. They had tours
in at least six to eight languages running every hour or more. After buying tickets we only had a few
minutes until our tour when an announcement stated that this would be a three
hour tour. I looked at John and said
three hours!! At this point I have
started to get a little tired and with my ovaries producing a lot more eggs my
back was starting to hurt too. My sweet
husband said we can go if you think that it is too much. I’m not a quitter so I of course said no, and
boy am I glad I did. My photos do not do justice to how neat this site really is. I apologize for the poor photos - not a professional and haven't mastered taking them in the dim light. Not to mention that at some point there was water spots on my lens??
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| One of the chambers in the salt mine - sorry I can't recall the name |
The mine tour took us 135 meters (443 ft)
underground where we got a peak at three different layers and multiple
chambers. The mine dates back to the
twelfth century and even though it was officially closed in 1996, it is still
worked in order to keep it up for safety.
When you first go in you have to descend about 378 steps all at once,
but throughout the tour you end up going down over 800! We saw everything from how they transport the
salt, to sculptures and beautiful chapels completely made of salt. There are
also underground lakes and canals. It
truly was amazing and I am so glad that I decided to go.
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| The grotto used to transport the salt |
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| One of the underground lakes |
The environment down in the salt mines is
incredibly clean and healthy. Bacteria
and germs don’t thrive in the salty environment so the people and animals that
lived and worked down there were very healthy.
Up until 2002 there were horses that worked in the mine. The horses had stables and were well taken
care of, living a normal life of over twenty years. If you are wondering about the excrement
created by the horse they sent it back to the surface and the locals would wait
for it as it came up the shafts to compost and use in their gardens. The last horse, Baska, left in 2002 was
because of protestors outside of the mine.
Apparently after she was removed she lived a normal life, but wasn’t
very happy being on the surface. Who
knows?
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| Horses were used to transport the heavy salt blocks |
The mine goes down 327 meters (1073 ft) and
is 287 km (178 miles) long. This
beautiful historical site has been visited for centuries by royalty, political
leaders, the Pope, scientists, and artists.
The St. Kinga Cathedral still has a service on Sundays and meetings and cultural
events still take place in some of the chambers. During WWII the Germans took over the mine to store military items for various war related industries.
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| St. Kinga Chapel |
When it was time to go we went past a
restaurant and had to descend down the 135 m to get to the elevator. I read that technically each elevator car
holds only 9 people, but when there are 50-100 people waiting they tend to over stuff. John is claustrophobic and
was not happy about being treated like a sardine. I’m not sure how they got the last lady, who
was very reluctant, in our car, but they shoved her in. Luckily the ride up to the top only takes
about thirty seconds.
Overall this was definitely a highlight on
this wonderful trip. John and I loved
all of it and would do it again. After
leaving the salt mine in the evening we drove to the ApartHotel Vanilla in
Krakow which was very nice. It wasn’t near
the old town, but it did have laundry facilities, a nice restaurant, and most
importantly to John good pizza and great beer!
The laundry was the most important to me, although I had to look up the
model number in English just to use it.
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