Wieliczka Salt Mines

If Auschwitz Birkenau is the most visited place near Krakow, the Wieliczka Salt Mines is second on the list. It is also on the list of UNESCO Heritage Sites. The history of these mines date back to the later part of the middle ages when salt springs began to disappear and Europeans started searching for salt.

After discovering the salt mine, the Polish became rich and prosperous establishing a Golden Age in Poland. The first visitor to the salt mine was Nicolaus Copernicus in about 1492. The salt mine continued to be operational until 1996 and became solely a tourist destination. It is the most visited underground attraction in the world.

Getting to the salt mine was going to be difficult because I didn't set up transportation and we would have to catch the bus. After doing some basic research, bus 304 would take us directly to the salt mines. As we waited at the bus stop, there was no bus ticket machine, so I didn't know what to do. Jared told us that bus 304 was coming, so we got on and a ticket machine was on the bus. Some Polish people helped us with the machine and we were on our way. Total price for the 4 of us was $4. Shit I was going to pay for the Krakow City Pass which would be $130. Lucky I didn't do that, we would have wasted money.

Michelle, Malia & Jared seemed interested in the salt mine. I was only interested in the salt. The salt mine still produces salt till this day, but operations ceased in 1994. Our tour guide was Polish, but like many Polish people they can also speak good English. Even the people in our English Tour Group were Polish. I think we were the only Americans in the group. Our tour guide mentioned that we would visit Levels 1-3, 30 chambers and go down about 500 feet. However, we would only get to see 1% of the salt mine. There are opportunities to see other parts of the salt mine via different shafts, but you would have to be experienced. The salt mine goes down 1073 feet and covers 178 miles.

The start of the tour was down 67 flights of stairs to Level I. This level introduces you to the inner workings of the mine. For example after miners extracted salt blocks, they would put it in a wooden container and lift it up to the surfaces via a rope. On an interesting note, they even had horses working in the salt mine and a horse stable. Miners lowered horses down via a rope. The last horse to leave the salt mines was in 2010.

After level I, we progressed further down to levels II & III. This was the best part of the tour because these chambers would feature chapels, one of the chapels (St. Kinga's) was so huge, it blew my mind. They would have concerts in this chapel. That was a sight to behold. We also saw 2 man made lakes.

The tour lasted about 1 1/2 hours and we walked about 2.5 miles mostly down steps and through chambers. Of course I bought salt and can't wait to try it on a burger or steak when we get back home.

Going back to Krakow was simple. We had to catch bus 304 which would take us near our hotel. When we got onto bus 304 we couldn't pay because the machine only accepted cash and we didn't have any, so we rode the bus for free and felt guilty doing so.