Tuesday, September 18, 2007
To The Salt Mines
Our second day in Krakow, jewel of Poland, we rose at a civilized hour and rode half an hour to the famed Wieliczka Salt Mine, which operated for 900 years and boasts 200 kilometers of passages, over 2,000 caverns and depths of several kilometers. It medieval times salt was as valuable as petroleum is now. I was expected an operating mine and instead I found a vast UNESCO-protected ruin decorated by salt artwork and salt dioramas demonstrating how it all used to work.
Salt statue of an early Polish king...
Tunnels of salt reinforced by wooden beams. It was chilly down there, by the way, a crisp 50F.
In the Salt Cathedral, the Last Supper carved in salt...
Salt particles crystallize on the roof of the caverns..
Diorama figurines of medieval salt workers toiling away...
In the Salt Cathedral...
Down more tunnels of salt....
I forget if this is a salt Virgin Mary or, more suitably, Lot's Wife...
An underground salt lake sits in eerie calm..
In the Salt Cathedral, photographs of salt workers around the world and through history. These salt workers sweat in Indonesia, I think..
... salt dunes in Chile's scorching Atacama desert...
As we left, we passed through the Salt Mine Gift Shop, of course...
The pneumatic, rickety elevator that carried us up, a kilometer or two, back to life and civilization...
Is Lotto a universal language?
Florid Wieliczka street corner, with a phone booth that will likely become as anachronistic as the Salt Mines themselves...
Engrish: Car What?
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