Day 4: Krakow Poland; Salt Mines

Monday morning we got ourselves to the train station and found our train to Krakow. Things got a little crazy because we assumed we’d left in plenty of time thinking that our train was leaving at 9:45am so we were going to grab some breakfast and then get on the train. I suggested we find the train first before getting food. Good thing we looked because it turns out our train was actually at 9:15 in the morning and not 9:44am and it was 9:10am already! (The 9:44am train was in fact our second train that was from Krakow to Prague.) So we very quickly found out train and ended up having a great train ride, very comfortable, quiet in the train car and nice and air conditioning. Thank goodness for my snack bag (or as Joe likes to call it my feed bag) though because we didn’t have any breakfast so it was very helpful to have some snacks! :)

So we arrived at the train station and went over to the mall for some lunch before starting our Krakow adventures. This time we picked KFC for lunch and ate quick then worked on finding out how to get to the Salt Mine which was the plan for the day. Here’s where I didn’t do so well in the planning. I knew we needed to take a bus but that was as far as I got. So we walked around the bus stations and train station in search of some information. At this point I got kind of frustrated with myself for not planning so well but we finally found someone to give us information and learned that we needed to take the 304 bus right to the mine. We locked up our luggage and found the bus. The ride took about 45 minutes but we finally arrived at the Salt Mine and were just in time for the next English tour.


So the Salt Mines of Wieliczka have been in operation since the 13th century. Currently the mine isn't producing but it's one of the oldest mines in the world and one that operated for the longest time. It's not as efficient to mine here anymore so it's not done. The total mine goes 327 meters underground and is 3000 kilometers long, the tour only shows you about 1% of the total mine and takes you down about 140 meters underground. Since the mine is so old there’s only so many places that can be visited because some parts just aren’t safe anymore. The total amount of steps we took were over 800 stairs, almost 400 to get down into the mine! Thank god for a lift to take us back up! It was pretty crazy to be so far down underground! So everything in the mine is made out of salt, which makes complete sense considering it’s in the salt mine so we got to see all kinds of cool sculptures that were made by some of the miners.

The most amazing part of the mine was the huge chapel of the Blessed Kinga. It was so beautiful in the chapel. There were these amazing chandeliers made out of salt as well. They had many religious sculptures in there including the Last Supper and Nativity. It was really beautiful. You can actually get married in the chapel and they have a big room at the end of the tour that they use for receptions and other parties!



Apparently the air quality in the mine is excellent for people who have asthma and helps people breath better. It was so cool to be so far underground and see some of the places the miners worker. There were many famous people who came and visited the mine, including some Popes and Chopin himself. It was really great to think about such famous people walking the areas of the mine. Since some of my ancestors also lived in the Krakow area it was fun for me to think that maybe some of my relatives worked in the mine. We learned that many of the people who worked in the mines in the early years were paid in salt and that salary and soldier come from the word for salt because these people were paid with salt. I really enjoyed being in the mines and learning how things worked down there. During the tour we even got to pull some salt off the wall and eat it and taste some salt water. It was really cool! :)


After the Salt Mine we went back to the bus station, got our luggage and headed to our hotel in the old Jewish district. We checked in to a pretty comfortable room and asked the receptionist where we should have dinner in the area. She suggested a place call Avocado so we walked down to the restaurant, sat outside and had some polish food. I ordered a breaded chicken breast with potatoes and Joe got some Perogies and a pork chop. The food was delicious and it was fun to sit outside. After dinner we walked over to the Wawel castle. We weren’t able to go into the castle grounds because it was closed at that point so I don’t know much about the castle but from the outside it was beautiful. We stopped at a little market and got some snack and headed back to the hotel to relax. Our first day in Krakow was a lot of fun and the Salt Mine was really amazing! Special thanks to my friend Anna who suggested it!!! :)