Motourama Part 15: Back To The Salt Mines!
Hello family, friends and followers! In this Travel Story we make it to Krakow, where the old salt mines of Wieliczka awaits.
From Zielona Gora, we did a long stretch of road before taking a well deserved break in the beautiful, old city centre of Wroclaw. We say well deserved, partly because of the distance, but because of the extra attention you have to pay to the traffic. In Poland, the speed limits are more like guidelines, or so it felt, and everybody goes 20-40 km/h faster – even in the cities. As our preferred speed was 80-90 km/h (speed limit: 90 km/h on country roads), that meant people either tail gating us very close or overtaking on questionable stretches of road, as they would be going 110-130 km/h. As the nice people we are, and valuing our safety, we would let cars overtake us by pulling to the edge of the road to the right, so as to not slow people down or perform outright dangerous manoeuvres. The bonus of doing this was the friendly waves of the drivers as we waved them past us. We soon found a rhythm of pulling right and waving back. This lessened the strain of constant worrying about head-on collisions between cars overtaking us and oncoming cars in bends and before hills, where the line of sight was severely limited. Back to Wroclaw and our well deserved break. We enjoyed delicious, traditional Polish food: kielbasa (Polish sausage) with bread and baked potatoes with sour cream.
Delicious, traditional Polish food
The city centre was very picturesque with rows of old houses surrounding a square full of life. Before getting back on the bikes, we went into the catholic church, where the mass was about to end. A nice and tranquil atmosphere to calm us down for the rest of the road ahead.
Wroclaw city center
The famous dwarfs of Wroclaw
We made it to Krakow without any incident, where we quickly found our room for the night, and got to exploring the immediate area around it.
When we spread out in new rooms, it looks like we tidied up with a hand grenade.
We stumbled upon a fancy looking restaurant with very good prices, and had, yet again, delicious Polish food. Denise enjoyed a soup, while Esben chowed down on a pork rib the size of his forearm. A hearty meal to finish off the day.
Just look at that hunk of meet! So tender, you could pull out the ribs without resistance.
One of Esben’s big highlights was the salt mine of Wieliczka, close to Krakow. J.R.R. Tolkien went there for inspiration for the Mines of Moria, so it had to be good. We went, and it sure was. We will let the photos speak for themselves.
The way down, over 500 steps to take.
Two corridors that help make up more than 600 km of pathways under ground.
The tallest cavern in the mine, supported by tons of wood.
D’you know the game “The Floor Is Made Of Lava”? Here it’s “The Walls Are Made Of Salt – Literally”.
So much salt!
There used to be boat rides into the tunnel, until a boat capsized in the 1920’s and a couple of people drowned. So no boat rides anymore.
The largest salt water lake of the mine. Nothing can live here. The brine is 100% saturated with salt.
Steps leading down into Moria.
The broken wooden log is what happens, when the roof is not adequately supported. The figure of a man depicts how gases were eliminated. This procedure often lead to explosions and deaths.
Another corridor. Here you can see the amount of wood it takes to keep the ceiling stable.
Years of salt brine has covered this wheel, but it still turns to bring up buckets of salt.
Getting into the remote areas was often a physical challenge for the workers.
A whole church had been dug out of the salt. A show of the religiousness of the workers in the mine. With so many accidents and deaths, religion was very important to the miners.
Everything was created from salt. Different, clearer salt was used for the decorative parts.
An impressive show of craftsmanship: the Holy Mary, made of salt.
It’s even possible to throw parties down there!
After a bit of walking back and forth, we finally found a lift to take us to the surface. The experience had left Esben humbled by the sheer amount of work it had taken to mine so much of anything out of the ground. The public is only allowed to walk a fraction of the excavated tunnels and caverns, and still we felt exhausted from the 2,5 hours of walking. Not a place to go and get lost!
Until next time, don’t dig too deep.