Our tour started with a long descent underground down a seemingly never ending stairwell. It felt like a Jules Verne Journey to the Centre of the Earth type of adventure. We were descending where thousands of miners had been before us, the mines having been worked since the thirteenth century. This makes them really old. As well as their age, the mines have another major claim to fame. This is the sheer scale of the underground excavations. There are 9 levels (tourist only visit the top 3 for which our legs were grateful), underground lakes and over 2,000 chambers.
Although visitors only get to see 30 of the chambers there is still a lot of walking involved so you need to be fit.
Being small pawed bears, this was a bit daunting and we got quite excited when we found a railway engine and we leapt in thinking this would be a good way to travel between the chambers. However, good mechanics as we are, we just couldn't get it started. Somehow we don't think it had been anywhere for quite a few years.
So what did we see at each of the chambers? We got to see the most amazing sculptures all carved out of salt by former miners. The most impressive is the chapel of Saint Kinga which is a large and very beautiful subterranean church completely carved out of salt. Even the chandeliers are salt carvings.
And guess who we saw at the entrance to this church?
It was Pope John Paul II, who quite literally gets everywhere in Krakow. Having come across him so often on our trip, he felt like an old friend so we joined him for a photo.
Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx
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