Poland Day 7 - Don't pass the salt

It was a 6am wakeup today for an early breakfast and an early appointment with the Wieliczka Salt mine, a Unesco World Heritage Site. It's about a 30 minute drive from Krakow and well worth the early start to the day.

I've seen photos of this place online, but that doesn't compare to seeing it up close and personal.
Commercial mining here ceased in 1996 after over 700 years of operation. The mine was also used during the war by the Germans as a hidden manufacturing facility. But the legacy of a few very artistic miners lives on, 400 feet or more underground.

The mine now serves as a tourist attraction (over 1.5 million people visited last year), as well as a health spa (apparently breathing salt air is good for asthmatic or otherwise damaged lungs), and a banquet and conference facility.

But the main attraction is the carvings including a stunning cathedral area, all carved in rock salt.
Even the crystals in the chandeliers are salt.

Some incredible carving!

Obviously the salt carving tradition has carried on. No, not me...  it's Pope John Paul II behind me.

Just a couple of the many carvings as you traverse the mine.

Apparently back in the day, once horses or mules were sent down the mine, they spent the rest of their lives there. Partly because their eyes would adapt to the darkness of the mine and they wouldn't be able to take returning into the sunlight.

If I recall properly, there are over 150 miles of shafts in this mine.

A banquet centre, carved in salt 400+ feet underground.

 Back in Krakow, we toured the Cathedral where Bishop Karol Wojtyla presided (aka John Paul II) and the kings castle which during WWII was occupied by the German leader Hans Frank. See the gold dome in the shot below. We were told it's capped with over 40 kilograms of gold. What's gold trading at per ounce right now???

For anyone who saw the movie Schindler's List, this is Oscar Schindler's factory in the photo below. It's obviously been updated since the war and now stands as a museum focused on life in Krakow, including the atrocities during the war.

A symbol of evil.

Oscar Schindler's office.

The stone structure in the shot below is the memorial to the Plaszow concentration camp which stood on this site. We are told this large parcel of land on the outskirts of Krakow will never be used again.

Another early morning tomorrow, as we head to the resort town of Zakopane at the base of the Tatras mountains.