Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Poland: Krakow- Wieliczka Salt Mine & Schindler's Factory

I never knew that I wanted to tour a salt mine until we went to Poland.
I wasn't even sure that it would be that interesting when we were in Poland.
But the tour was rated really highly and we were intrigued.

To the Wieliczka Salt Mine we went!
NOTE: It is required by the mine that you be part of a tour for this experience.
Our tour guide, who was employed by the mine, was FANTASTIC.

Of interest and warning, the mine descends underground to almost 500 feet BELOW the surface. It is large and spacious, but perhaps those with claustrophobia should skip this!
Wieliczka Salt Mine

Wieliczka Salt Mine

Wieliczka Salt Mine: Sometimes the miners get a bit bored and carve life-sized figures out of salt

Wieliczka Salt Mine: Salt is winning the slow war over the wood


Wieliczka Salt Mine: And DOWN WE GO!

Wieliczka Salt Mine: And further DOWN


Wieliczka Salt Mine: A museum and chapel in the middle of a mine, it is ALL carved salt, stairs and all!

Wieliczka Salt Mine: The carved walls

Wieliczka Salt Mine: ALL salt carved chapel

Wieliczka Salt Mine


Wieliczka Salt Mine: The wooden structure keeping the mine stable

Wieliczka Salt Mine: Following our awesome guide

Wieliczka Salt Mine
After a long tour, we headed back to town for a late-lunch of....your guessed it....PIEROGIES! And some traditional Polish goulash.

Traditional goulash

Traditional pierogies: Potato and onion

A late-dinner found us enjoying pierogies yet again. I saved you the picture of my salad that I was dying for at this point. You're welcome.

A very happy husband. I only ate two from this entire platter...

We also did the tour of the Oskar Schindler Factory Museum. While it was REALLY interesting, and I REALLY enjoyed it. I did not enjoy how extremely busy it was, and was very disappointed that we did not get to see the actual factory. It is worth doing, for sure, but just understand that you will see nothing of the factory. Also, absolutely no picture taking is allowed. So you can see our pretty tickets, as our memories are the only other things that we took away from it.