A short 30 minutes from Krakow were the heavily visited Weilicka Salt Mines. This mine has been operating for centuries, but is now just a museum of the creativity of mankind.
After almost an hour wait in the line just to buy tickets - it's the Polish way - we took a guided tour through the mine. It was with a Polish guide, which made things more interesting.
The mine shafts we visited were up to 135m (350 ft) deep. There were many large caverns that we entered, that had been mined of all the rock salt. Most of the caverns had some type of sculpture in them, all made of rock salt. This picture is of a more recent addition to the museum, and is fitting with our garden gnome theme. Pretty cheesy stuff, as they had gnome type music playing as they turned on the coloured lights!!
There were some amazing sights though. There is a large chapel, some 52m X 15m X 14m (125ft X 37 ft X 34 ft), that has some extravagant sculptures throughout (picture on Flickr webpage). Also, a couple of large caverns filled with a greenish water or brine which made for great reflections.
Overall, a good visit of underground Poland!!! *Stub
PS sorry about the date in the corner of the photo, we just bought a new camera as Michelle's finally died, and we had the wrong setting on!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment