To the Center of the Earth and Halfway to Heaven

It was really foggy Wednesday morning.  We could barely see the Wisla (Vistula) River.  But that didn’t matter, because we were going to visit the Wieliczka Salt Mines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wieliczka_Salt_Mine), just outside of Krakow.  They have been pulling salt from the earth in Wieliczka since before recorded history.  The mining for salt started in the mid-14^th century.  Wieliczka is most famous for the magnificent salt carvings.  We started down what turned out to be 54 flights of stairs that took us down 130 meters.  You could get dizzy going around each landing if you went too fast.  And that was just a start!  We walked for the next two meters further down into the salt caves.  The most impressive sight is an entire church carved into the salt, including the floor, altars, chandeliers, friezes and statues.  By the time we got to the bottom we were 327 meters below the surface.  We were more than happy to squeeze into the rickety elevator for a ride back to the top rather than trying to climb up those stairs! 

When we returned from Wieliczka, we returned to Wawel Hill.  By now, the fog had cleared.  We had a guided tour of Wawel the prior day, but I felt the tour went through the cathedral too quickly and missed some real highlights.  Entrance to the cathedral, as with any Catholic church, is free.  But a ticket was needed to see the museum and go up the tower to see  Zygmunt’s Bell.  We took a pass on the audio tour and just used the map of important points that’s provided free of charge.  We went through the cathedral more slowly, which gave us a chance to look at the magnificent side altars and artword, go down to the crypt that hold Chopin (his heart may be in Warsaw but the rest of him is in Krakow), Miczkiewicz, and other notable Polish artists.  Accessible from the outside of the cathedral is the crypt that hold Pilsudski, and the late president Lech Kaczynski and his wife who died in the tragic plane crash in Smolensk.  The highlight was climbing the stairs of the tower to get to Zygmunt's Bell, the largest bell in Europe.  Again up wooden stairs, climbing through narrow passages between the 2 foot thick wooden framing of the 14th century construction was really challenging!  It's luck to touch the clapper, and I think the luck is being so high over Krakow - the panoramic view was awesome!  

We wandered back to Old Town to look for dinner.  We decided on Chlopski Jadlo, which looked like it might have some decent Polish food.  It had wooden benches, jars of pickles, and kielbasa hanging from the ceiling.  Many of the restaurants in Old Town specialize in “food from the middle ages.”  We’re not interested in wild boar (really, you can get wild boar), but everyday Polish food prepared well.  The food at Chlopski Jadlo was o.k., but I think that I could actually do it better, and it was a little overpriced.  So this was the first and last time we’ll see the inside of Chlopski Jadlo.