After we left Auschwitz we went to book into our hotel, all I can say is thank goodness for Satnav as we wouldn't have found it without it. It was in the middle of an housing estate tucked away up a side street. The receptionist there was very helpful and after sorting out our booking we asked her how we would get into Krakow city centre the next day. Now, the reason we booked this hotel was because on booking.com it said that the city centre was just a short bus ride away. As it turned out you needed to catch a bus and then catch a train to get there, so with that in mind and the fact that we are a bit "old citied out" we decided to do something else.
We had been given a city map by the receptionist, the type that advertise key points and areas of interest, on this we saw that we could visit Schindler's Factory or a salt mine which was very close by. As we had done a lot of war things we decided to go for the salt mine, and we are so glad we did, it was a fantastic attraction, very interesting and so different from other things we had done during the year.
A feature of the attractions that we visited in Poland was that there was a bit of confusion where to park. This is because leading up to an attraction there are loads of car parks which often have attendants waving you in with signs advertising where you are planning to go, so you presume that that is the car park for it. As it turns out, they are not and the chances are you could have a bit of a walk to get there and have the privilege of giving them the parking fee to do so. These car parks are alright if the main or official car park is full but try and get as close as possible to the place. However, if you are not sure exactly where the place is this can be tricky, we ended up doing a couple of drive bys of the mine before we decided where to park. We probably looked like we were casing the joint.
We were lucky as we timed it just right, at the mine there are guided tours in different languages at different times during the day. As we bought our tickets the lady told us our tour was just starting so if we got a move on, we would catch them up. I didn't manage to get many good photos as the lighting was not great for taking photos with an iPad.
The white stuff above is called cauliflower salt, as it looks like lots of little cauliflowers, surprisingly enough!
During the tour we had to climb about 850 steps down, this was not all done at the beginning but was staggered in stages throughout the tour. We learnt lots as we progressed through the tunnels, such as the history of the mines, how the tunnels were developed, living conditions of the men and horses who worked there, how technology developed and about the dangers of working underground. there are hundreds of kilometres of tunnels that are right underneath the town in several layers.
There are still miners working there but just maintaining the mines and clearing more for tourists to see. You can do a tour where you actually work a part of the mine with the miners.
Our tour guide had obviously been doing the job for a very long time or was having a very bad day as
he was clearly cheesed off with the whole routine of it all. He reminded me a bit of Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, at times he was really quite rude but we actually found him quite funny. Every person
in the group had an audio set so they could hear their tour guide talking, this was switched on at all
times, so you could hear him muttering to himself and sighing as we went from area to area.
He would say things like, " We go in this area, you see ghost, you get scared we leave" then he would lead us in. No, we were not scared by the ghost because basically it was a flashing light and he had spoilt the element of surprise. At one part of the mine there is an amazing chapel, it covers a huge area and has the most intricate detailed carvings in it, all made out of the salt walls. In there, the guide after a short tour of the area said, " I give you five minutes to look around." Then thirty seconds later said " Let's go" and marched us off.
These are salt crystals growing on wooden beams.
This is a carving made out of rock salt of one of the Kings.
The rock salt is cut into cylinders making it easier to transport by rolling it along.
A lot of the technology down there still works. Everything has to be made of wood as metal rusts too quickly.
There are many chapels down there. The miners are very religious and after an accident , religious carvings would often be hung at the site. The chapels would be moved periodically as the miners worked further and further into the mine. We went into one and it had pews, a small altar and even stained glass windows which were coloured glass with a light behind them. There is also a tour where you just visit the chapels .
As the mines are now geared up for tourists they have developed certain areas such as putting in an underground lake where they play classic music to you. Tourism has been going on there for years and they used to have boat rides along one bit. Apparently during the war German soldiers over crowded the boat causing it to tip over, some of them died and that was the end of that.
At the end of the tour you can go to an interactive educational type of area where they have a 5D movie on the mines.That had started when we got there but it gave us a chance to play with the interactive games set up for the children.
The movie was good it had the normal 3D type of things but the seating also vibrated at certain points and you got a wind blowing past too . So, I think that was the five aspects but I could have just been sitting in a draught.
As you make your way out there are three different lanes to queue up in, one for groups leaving, one for individuals leaving and the last one for people wanting to visit the museum. We decided to visit the museum as it didn't cost anymore so went into that lane. We were the first ones in it and we stood for ages, what they do is wait for enough people then take you around.
After a while it was still just us, others did join us momentarily getting our hopes up but then they realised they were in the wrong queue, so it was back to just the two of us. In the end it worked out well as we ended up having a tour with just me and David, the tour guide and a trainee tour guide. The tour guide we got this time was very enthusiastic and keen to share her knowledge, we had a great time with her as she explained more about the mines. It really was fascinating. At the end you go up in one of the original miner lifts, which travelled really fast and had lots of us in it all squashed up.
It really was good, so if you are in the area try and get there.
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