Off To The Salt Mines

Sept. 21/18

Today, Mary and Wendy went out for any early morning stroll and I stayed back for a slower start.  Today we were heading out for the Wieliczka Salt Mines just outside of Kraków.  These mines were started in the 13th century and reach to a depth of 327 metres (we only got as deep as 183m).  We headed out to the Kraków Glowny train station but we could not find a train for Wieliczka and we were later told that there was no train on this day.  We went back to the info centre to get some bus information and were able to run upstairs and manage to get on the bus just before it pulled out.  Forty minutes later, we were at the mines.  

Our tour started with some 400 steps down to the first level.  There are over 100 km of tunnels and shafts and we seemed to have covered most of them by the end of our tour.  This was all about the salt.  Floors, walls and statues were all made of salt.

When we finished the tour we were guided to an elevator that was about a km away and were lifted back to the top.  When we got out we were in a totally different part of the town.  So we stumbled our way around looking for the bus stop when we came upon a train!  We checked it out and were able to buy tickets back to Krakow in well air-conditioned car.  Back in Krakow we took a different walking route back and ended up near the Barbican

Krakow Calling

Mary and I woke up early and walked down to the square to have a look around before the crowds showed up.  It was a beautiful morning with the city just waking up.  There are food places everywhere, especially bakeries, so on our way back we picked up some tasty breakfast pastries.

We went back to our place to get ready for the day and then the three of us headed out to find the National Museum and Da Vinci’s “Lady with the Ermine”.  We found an info booth, bought some tickets for a concert later in our stay, and headed out for the museum armed with the map and directions and pretty much got lost right away.  After many turns and diversions we actually ended up outside Wawel Castle.  So, change of plans and off we went to the castle.  We wandered around the grounds for awhile and then Mary found the office to buy the tickets to view the state rooms, which we did.  Lots of ornate furnishings, enormous tapestries interesting ceilings and beautiful floors.  

Our next stop was Wawel Cathedral, all in the same complex. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wawel_Cathedral

We toured the cathedral and then went down into the tombs.

From there we trekked to and around the Old Jewish Quarter. We stopped for an early dinner at Restaurant Ester then toured the old Jewish Cemetery.

Krakow

We landed at the Kraków airport around noon on September 19.  We had left Vancouver the day before at 2:00 in the afternoon.  We had met John and Kevin and gone through security together and were waiting for Wendy as her flight out of Victoria had been delayed.  Boarding was about to be announced and we were discussing what Wendy would do if she missed the flight when she appeared having just run through the airport to make the flight.  All was good.

We landed in Frankfurt around 8:00 am and left John and Kevin as they went off to their flight for Budapest.  We went off through security, where I was given a very thorough going over, and then we took off for our short flight to Kraków, already feeling early stages of jet lag.

Mary had arranged a pick up at the airport with a service called Kraków Direct and our driver, Peter, was waiting to take us into the city.  He was a fount of information as he drove us to our apartment, Crystal Suites.  We met the manager, Anna, who took us up to our apartment where we changed and headed out, hoping to stay awake until at least 9:00 so we could go to bed and wake up to the new day rested and ready to go with no signs of jet lag.

We walked down and through the Old Town square which is beautiful.  We ended at at a small cafe for some snacks and drinks and headed back to our place where we crashed.