An excessive amount of salt....

On Sunday morning, we left for the Wieliezka Salt Mine, which is about 30 minutes from Krakow. Salt was the source of Poland's wealth back in the day and we visited a mine that had been excavated for 900 years! That is A LOT of salt! It was essentially an underground city! Nearly one MILLION people visit the salt mines annually and our group of sixty added to that statistic on Sunday.... I got about four different things out of the experience:

1) Horses were used for horizontal and vertical movement of the mines. The last horse that was operating in the mines was only done with his duty SIX years ago! Doesn't that seem archaeic? There are totally electronic machines that work wonders these days! The guide assured us that the horses were treated kindly and emphasized their importance to the mines, which are now done being excavated.

2) The largest undergound chapel (Chapel of St. Kinga) is in the mine. It is situated 101 meters under the ground. What's that? Like three football fields right? The chapel costs 1700 PLN to rent for your wedding. That is $7,000! Yikers! That price better come with a toilet made out of solid gold as a wedding gift! Sheesh!

3) We were stuck in that thing. At the end of the tour, our guide gave us "ten minutes to do what we wanted, and then he would meet us at the elevator." WE COULDN'T LEAVE UNTIL HE DID! We had seen all the mine! What did he want us to do? Oh yeah, there were a lot of conveniently placed souvenir shops 101 meters under the ground. So, really, "doing what we wanted" translated to: BUY SOME SOUVENIRS and when you have bought a sufficient amount, I will allow you to get on the elevator. So I bought some salt and got in line for, quite possibly, the scariest, most crowded elevator ride of my life.

4) It was real salt. Remember those posts that I said I was five years old? I just HAD TO KNOW. Was this a tourist trap that was all set up? Or was this REAL SALT... Turns out, I know at least the walls were salty.... :)