Salt Mines

Thursday, 22nd September

This morning we discovered that Krakow had disappeared overnight - nothing to see but thick fog! We are staying at the Sheraton Hotel again and just as nice, and similar, at the Sheraton in Warsaw.

Today our first port of call was at the 600 year old salt mines, where we joined the 2 million tourists from yesterday, were crammed into small cages (9 people per cage) for the descent into the mine - we ended up over 140 metres underground. The mine chambers are now filled with sculptures carved from the rock salt, even the chandeliers and the floor tiles. We only visited the first three levels and learnt that there is a sanitorium on the fifth level - one can stay for two weeks and have the asthma cured! This unique experience concluded with us being crammed back into the cages for the trip to the surface, after passing through THREE souvenir shops on the way out!

Back to the hotel to collect our local guide for a walking tour of old Krakow, starting with the local fire breathing dragon who protects the city. Up the hill to visit the Wawell Castle and join the same 2 million people who were now crammed into the cathedral. I think we were all extremely glad to get out into fresh air again. We walked back down the hill to the Old Town, past the Jagiollonian University and the medieval Cloth Hall and arrived in the town square to see and hear the trumpeter in St Mary's Church at 1.00 pm. The trumpeter appeared somewhere very high up on the tower and as he commenced to blow, a police car with an extremely loud siren passed through the square. By the time the police car had gone, so had the trumpeter! Most of the group continued into the church, with a few of us feeling completely "churched out" by this time.

The afternoon has been free, mainly a time to have a bit of a rest before the Polish dinner tonight.