The Wieliczka Salt Mine. Descending over a thousand feet and over a hundred miles in length, this wonder is just one of the attractions in the Krakow, Poland area.
Stanislaw and Zbigniew were out hunting one day back in 1044. Stan was eying up a nice buck while Z-Big took his turn as the ‘Spotter’. Stan let his arrow fly, but due to the amount of slivovitz consumed the night before (and as a warmer-upper just a few hours prior), his arrow missed his mark and instead buried itself in a small hilly outcropping. Stan grunted to Z-Big to go and do his job as ‘spotter’ and find his arrow. Stan then promptly passed out. Z-Big dutifully found the arrow and when he went to pull it out of the hillside, he noticed that it was a rather wet area with a good amount of crusty white stuff around it. And just like good ol’ Jedd Clampett when he was hunting and missed his mark, and “out from the ground come a’ bubblin’ crude, oil that is…. Texas Tea…. Z-Big had discovered a rather lucrative find, not oil, but salt, which back then was probably way more valuable than a black, greasy liquid that needed several hundred more years to become even useful!
Z-Big let his friend sleep and went to the King (Casimir I) and was granted a ‘Privilege’ which he shared with the local monastery, they in turn, began collecting the brine from the area, drying it, and produced some of the first Sodium Chloride (table salt) from what would become one of the world’s oldest and most prolific salt mines….. the Wieliczka Salt Mine just outside of Krakow, Poland.
Well, that’s the story and I’m stickin’ to it!
Yesterday we spent the better part of the day at the Salt Mine which had become a central figure in the past commerce of the area to today when it is one of the top tourist attractions, amassing over 1.91 million visitors alone last year. Yesterday was a Wednesday in April and then place was packed! The Guides said the “You should see it in the High Season, July and August!” No Thank you! It was crowded enough yesterday! But it is well worth the visit!
Just part of the descent, the main shaft going down has 40 levels and about 400 plus steps and then an additional 800+ steps down after that! No worries, you get to take a lift when your ‘tour’ is over!
This place is about as cool (Fifty-four degrees Fahrenheit all year-round) as it gets! And it is massive! We spent almost two and a half hours down there walking in the endless tunnels and chambers, learning about how they mined this stuff from the old days to the recent past. They really didn’t start digging down until the 1300’s and the process ceased in the late 1990’s because of mine flooding and the price of salt on the market. But not until the mine reached a depth of 1076’ and a total tunnel length of 178 miles!
Who would think that underneath this unassuming building (and the surrounding little towns) lies a gigantic, ancient salt deposit!
This is how the salt is mined. It is carved out in these slug-like barrel shapes and then transported to the surface. It is NOT white until it is refined.
Lots and Lots of wood was/is used to shore up the walls and tunnels in the mine. Here you can see some salt that has found its way out and crystallized.
Here too
The miners and some artists, over the years have made figures by carving out the salt. Here we see some Dwarves (I think there are Seven, with some other characters mixed in.)
Here is a rendition of one of the stories attached to the mines of the King’s daughter who threw her engagement ring down one of the pits and then had the folks dig way down until they found a rock and when it was split open the ring was inside. I’m sure that there’s more to this story, as it stands it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but they did live happily ever after!
This scene shows how horses were used way down inside to help turn machinery to pull and hoist those salt barrels up and out of the mine.
This is a more recent carving that symbolizes the heroics of the men who needed to venture into a new chamber first to try and light any methane gas that had accumulated in it. No thanks!
Yes, this is almost a thousand feet down! It is a church and it is used every Sunday for mass, and it also holds concerts and weddings! The Stations of the Cross and other various depictions are carved in relief on its walls.
This is another little chapel. The miners would carve out a new one when the older one would get too far to visit. There are several chapels on several levels all together.
Easy to recognize, Pope John Paul II was from Poland and some of his relics are down here. This staue is on the other side of that large room, across from the altar.
Another feather in its salty cap is that it was one of the first twelve sites from around the world that began the UNESCO World Heritage collection back in 1978. That original list includes such places as Yellowstone National Park and the Galapagos Islands! Now if that’s not a recommendation for a visit I don’t know what is!
Our afternoon concluded with a search for the otherwise ubiquitous Pretzel! Try as we might, finding a place that sells these masterpieces proved harder than it should have. Search we did, walked we did, and finally ate we did, some ‘traditional style’ (but stuffed!) pretzels! Ours was one stuffed with Mozzarella and then sprinkled with sesame seeds. Just enough to hold us over until a nice dinner was had a ‘locals only’ restaurant.
Another recommendation for you to visit Poland…. the food!
I went out this morning at 4:45 to walk around and do some night photography. This is the Bazylika Bozego Ciata w Krakowie aka The Corpus Christi Basilica. It is the view from the front door of our hotel. (More pics sprinkled throughout this Post!)
Well…. to be honest with you, everything (so far) has turned out just fine. If you remember from yesterday, we had our times/flights/airlines/cities/ and psyches all misenjumbled and strewn through the stratosphere, which did not exactly give us any sort of peace of mind, especially when travelling overseas. And…. if you’ve been following or even noticing the stories coming out of this industry of late, even the favs of the peeps have come under fire as of late! Southwest Airlines is a good example.
Enter our situation, with no notice that the change was looming and scary situations such as, “I’m sorry, we can’t seem to locate that reservation. Please check that your numbers are correct and try again. Or try back later. Thank you for contacting Austrian Air and have a nice day!”
“What do you mean you can’t find my reservation! You’re the one that gave me the numbers in the first place!” (I screamed at my laptop)
No reply.
I’d have to say that feeling like an enigma is not a good way to start a relationship! (Miss Austrian Airlines!)
Ok, I’ll try another way. I found my Ticket Number, so in it went. The screen did that swirly deal like a dog chasing its tail…… “I’m sorry we can’t seem to find that reservation. Please check the numbers and try again later. Thank you for contacting Austrian Air and have a nice day!”
Now I’m really feeling like an orphan. I called Austrian Airlines, got through and even they could not get us checked in!
“Mr. Hall, I can see your reservation here, but the system won’t allow me to acknowledge you. You’ll need to just check in at the airport.”
Not acceptable and that’s all well and good until we get to the airport….. I can hear the nice person at the counter,
“I’ve never seen anything like this Mr. Hall. I can see your reservation here on my screen, but the system won’t let me proceed any further, and the days of handwritten Boarding Passes are long gone. I’d get my supervisor, but she just left for her lunch hour and is unreachable, we’ll just have to wait until she returns.”
“But my flight leaves in an hour! Check in starts in ten minutes!”
“Maybe you should have gotten here a little earlier?”
“I arrived on time, but I failed to account for the 15 million people who apparently need to get to Vienna today! The line was way too long! What is it? Mozart’s birthday or something?”
She just smiled and said with a laugh, “No Mr. Hall, Mozart’s birthday is January 27th and besides he lived in Salsburg not Vienna” …… as she indicated with a wave of her hand to a few chairs off to the side apparently reserved expressly for these ‘meetings’… you know, like the ones right outside the Vice-Principal’s office.
“I’m sorry Mr. Hall, I guess, we’ll just have to wait for Miss Sophie to get back from her lunch, now if you don’t mind …….. Next please!”
And with that I was shuffled off to the Enigma Bench to await our fate as the clock ticked ever closer to that Witching Minute when they close the cabin door that a sound that eerily brings up reminisces like those doors on creaky hinges down in the dungeon.
The Newark Airport Dungeon.
That was the scenario that was bouncing around in my head with the speed of a pickleball, and I was bound and determined not to let that happen to us!
Over here the mantra at 3AM is: “Gotta make the pretzels”
Question for you…..
Are you one of the folks that are comfortable getting to the airport in enough time to grab a bottled water and hop on board? Or…. do you get panicky if you’re not already on your way to the Airport at 9 AM for a 5PM flight?
To be honest, I am definitely a card-carrying member of the latter group and in fact, I’d feel much better if we left at 9AM the day before the day we needed to be there. Suffering from this Aeroleftbehindagain Phobia is only compounded by the fact that I also contract a dose of Doomisonthewayitis with every trip. This scenario flies in face of the Conventional Wisdom on this subject, but I can’t help it, so I am not endeared by anyone who possesses a more normal state of mind.
All of this is brought about by having an over-active sense of imagining doom descending upon us like the Veils of Armageddon when it comes to having aspects of control issues being pilfered away from us (me!) And in my mind having a need for an abundance of extra time to counteract the Gremlins of Travel who spend all their time conniving against and thwarting the plans of innocent goers-away is the only way to counteract these evil nogoodniks!
Guess what these guys do!
Hence the need to arrive three days before travel should commence. In this case we had no idea if any of the changed details was, in fact, going to be able to be implemented forthwith. For all I knew, that scenario just painted with the Supervisor out and the lines too long, and the plane whisking away without us was a possibility. Now, mind you, not a probability but for me the only downside was that we’d arrive too early and the counter would not be open yet because all of these flights are in the evening.
Oops! Did I say that?
Yup, but it did not stop me from calling our ‘Uber’ Driver Matt (Paula’s son) not once, but twice, upping our arrival time by an additional two hours. This, I believed would take into account any “lunch breaks” etc. that anyone may be on. Well, that’s exactly what happened and when we arrived there wasn’t even a wisp of evidence that an Austrian Airlines even existed! Their only means of identification were these advert poles that get placed in front of the velvet ropes that designate the entrances to their counters and these poles were safely hidden from view by several well-placed vending machines, But first the Air India sahibs needed to finish their check-in process and then vacate that Zone (B) so that the overhead LED signs can be clicked to Lufthansa, Austrian, and Swiss Air.
And I’ll bet that you’ve always had a hankerin’ to visit the Pinball Museum! (Just go down the courtyard, it’s on the left) It’s Europe….. everyone’s got a courtyard!
But wait! There’s more! The other downside of arriving too early is that we’d be first in line (which we were) to get our ‘situation’ looked into and thereby getting into the First-Class lounge that much earlier! Not bad, right? Our plan was not to say anything to the guards of the Boarding Passes and see what they would come up with. We approached His Highness with a veiled feeling of trepidation and waited for the verdict. I watched his eyes as they glanced furtively back and forth across his screen and I could not tell if he had a nervous condition or was first checking his stock portfolio before he worked on our issues. Minutes went by, he’d glance up at us, study our faces, then quickly avert his eyes and continue examining his stock portfolio or whatever it was, until he just blurted out, “Here ya go! Just go through those doors and show them that little green dot I put on there, it’ll get you into the Fast Lane for Security. Have a good flight!”
Ta-Daaa! Not a word was needed from us except the ‘please’ and thank-you’s offered in sincerity. We walked away quickly with our coveted Boarding Passes tucked into one of Paula’s carry-on pockets, AKA, The Pack of Many Zippers.
Now we could start the trip! Early we were, by choice it was not, but the silver lining was that w could spend some more time in the Lufthansa/Austrian Air/Swiss Air First Class Lounge! We’ve been able to do this one only once before (on United) and it was by a Decided Chance that it occurred. In reality, we don’t come even close to be able to afford a First/Business seat, it’s only by that Decided Chance that it can even happen and then the Factors need to be weighted and then weighed, throwing all of the other variables into it. We’d been lucky once before and unfortunately, once you experience that kind of service and amenities, your appetite gets whetted for more when the next opportunity arises. Like this one.
We were already in what is termed as ‘Premium Economy’ and this category is only available on International/Long Haul flights and in my opinion, is the best ‘value’ on the aircraft. These seats are closer to First Class on a domestic flight than they are to an Economy configuration and with all of the freakin’ issues I have with my legs and brain, getting that kind of room is crucial to my well being and saying crucial is not an exaggeration. I can slip into a Panic Attack in a heartbeat thinking about my legs spasming out and me not having any control over it and then the Air Marshall shows up and I find myself strapped to the wing for the duration of the flight which is actually better because it gets me out of my seat and into a different position!
Anyway, we did weigh the weights, input the variables, then slid those calculations through the calculator, and then took that number and brought it to the Ultimate Authority of what gets decided on in the Motorhome…… Frank. Frank is our little Sea Otter mascot who sits up front and watches out for us. He has since been joined by Bucc-ee of the Bucc-ee’s Fuel Heaven Stores that we like to frequent. But Frank has the most experience, so we usually defer to him. When the problem was announced, and the situation discussed, Frank promptly fell over (he’s becoming rather ‘not firm’ as most little stuffed animals end up suffering from). We took this as a sign of astonishment and then promptly upped ourselves from Premium Economy to Polaris on United. But we were now on Austrian Air! What kind of seats do they have? How’s the food? What else is different?
Great! We get into this level of service just once and all of a sudden, we ‘ve become “First Class Snobs” (I know that can be taken two ways, but I don’t know how to fix it!) In reality all is good the in First Cabin, albeit different. The seats were not as good for sleeping according to Paula who was really looking forward to just snoozing her way across the Atlantic, but the food was extraordinary. The Chef came out of the Forward Galley and went to each passenger and discussed what everyone wanted to be served from the available menu. Now let’s not go crazy here, it is a Commercial Flight and is subject to the Rules and Reg’s of Flight Safety and I’m fairly sure that I would not have found a full-blown commercial kitchen up there. But what is able to happen is that instead of having meals assembled elsewhere, chilled, then wrapped for eventual heating and then being served, they have the ingredients ready to go. They do get heated, but then the “chef” gets to plate them individually which assures that everything is equally prepared and presented on a plate that defies the description of something just coming out of a heater apparatus. Plus, he comes out into the Cabin and helps serve the meals. The impression is quite effective, if not downright impressive!
Chef au d’ Aire
This is just the Appetizer course of my Dinner at 39,000′ Just north of that Buffalo Fresh Mozzarella are some caramelized fig slices which could be one of the best things I’ve evert had!
For me, this was the Highlight of the flight on many levels as I did not attempt to do that lay-flat deal with my seat. I pretty much stayed in a dozing seated position watching that little airplane icon work its way across the Atlantic on the seatback monitor in front of me.
After landing in Vienna all went well, Immigration was easy, waiting the five hours between flights was easy, getting snacks was easy, and getting on our next flight to Krakow was easy, but sitting there for the thirty-five-minute flight was torture. Don’t ask me any questions cuz I don’t got no answers. Lots of theories, however. So as soon as the Fasten Seat Belt sign was jettisoned, I sprang up and went aft to hang around the lavatory/galley/crew area, just to stand and not be constrained in my seat. The Flight Attendants were understanding and when I complimented them on the quality of the little chocolates that they were handing out one of them promptly gave me five more! 😊
That made my day better!
We met Sherry and Harold at the hotel and promptly walked out to find a good pierogie place to celebrate our successful arrival in Poland.
The place is actually several hundred years old; this was once an old courtyard. We needed to wind our way back through the old building in order to arrive here. They had a cool rathskeller deal going on in the basement as well. Same family running it and the pierogies (the reason why it was chosen) were the real deal and everything else was great too!
Off to sleep (?) and a few hours later, our first full day is awaiting us tomorrow! Good night!
Zzzzzz !
The rest of the early morning Photo Shoot!
Did someone say ‘Cukiernia’? (Patisserie) Of course they did! It’s Europe!!!
Not really sure here, but it’s a cool looking window at night!
Now this is what I like to see…. This guy is so dedicated to keeping the street clean in front of his store that even after Gene Kelly waltzed by singing in the rain he came out to make sure that Mother Nature (and Gene) had done the job correctly!
After Gene went by Marlon Brando showed up with his Polish version of ‘A Tramwaj named Pragnienie’
More ‘Night Windows”
Ditto
And last but certainly not least… can you imagine walking home from grammar school under the glares of that row of ecclesiastical beings on the left? It’s enough to make one want to cross over and walk on the other side!
See???!!! Yikes! I’m gittin’ home!
It’s now getting light out and breakfast and our first full day awaits…..
Well, there it is! As you can see, we were 92.1 miles into the trip to New Jersey when she rolled over (NO! Not the rig!) the odometer to the ecclesiastical level of 100,000 miles. Also, please note that I was not traveling in the left lane at 68 MPH, I was safely pulled over on the shoulder for this photo op!
We leave the sunny, warm, (?) environs of northern New Jersey for the still (more) chilly regions of the Baltic tomorrow at 5:20 PM. It was supposed to be at 7:05 PM but when Paula opened an email request from United asking her to pre-choose her meal (which had already been accomplished) curiosities took control and as it turns out, we are now NOT on United, but on Austrian Airlines, NOT into Frankfurt, but into Vienna, NOT arriving at 10:15 Am, but at 7:50 AM, NOT flying to Krakow via Lufthansa, but continuing on with Austrian Airlines and NOT arriving in Krakow at 11:15 Am, but now 2:05 PM.
In the Grand Scheme of Things, this is really a non-issue. But the way that we found out was just a tad disconcerting…… choosing a meal for a flight that had been already changed. One hour and twenty-two minutes of On Hold with United gave us the probable reason why we were jostled around the tarmac and ushered on to a totally new airline. Apparently, the pilots of Lufthansa are having employment issues with their parent company, and it is disrupting flights emanating from Munich, Berlin, and Frankfurt! So, the mavens at Overseas Adventure Travel jumped to the rescue (or so it seems as we’ve not as yet had any meaningful communications with OAT) and re-booked us on flights that could actually get us to our destination in a timely manner. This will be ascertained at exactly at 9:00:000001 AM today as I plan on being the first caller when they open their lines.
Luckily Austrian Airlines had two seats still available in their First Class/Business Cabin because that’s where we were on United. We’ve learned that if we start looking at changing seats just a few days before departure and snag that Mysterious Algorithm that the airlines use to determine seat availability/pricing, and catch it just right, we can score an upgrade for a fraction of its original cost. Remember we accomplished this on the past Houston to Tokyo leg of the Vietnam trip. Austrian Airlines still has the lay-flat seats, but they are not in those cool pod-like enclosures like United has. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers and we’re still on schedule, so kudos to OAT for monitoring this still-evolving situation and getting us to our destination on time!
My next Post will probably emanate from Krakow, Poland as that’s where we’ll be for a few days. We are scheduled to visit some cool-looking Salt Mines that have been around for (yup, here it comes!) about a thousand years or so and way far underground these constructors’ extraordinaire have built at least one Cathedral-like room down there. It looks like our Tour will hold true to the moniker attached to most of these outings, that of the ABC Tour or translated, a Another Beautiful (or Boring!) Cathedral and it starts underground!
(Good thing I don’t have to rhyme with Appomattox!)
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One more day on the Road
And at Yetter’s we’ll park,
But only for a week,
And then we’re off like a Lark!
(I didn’t know Larks were known for just flitting away! But apparently they like to soar off singing their little hearts out, so I’m gonna go with it plus it rhymes so nicely!)
___
Soon, we’ll be Rollin’ into Poland,
And a few others ta boot,
Lithuania, Lativia, Estonia, and Finland
Rhyme they don’t and I don’t give a hoot!
___
For three weeks we’ll be gone
And I’m already tired,
Cuz sleep I don’t
Cuz I’m way too wired!
___
While we’re vamoosed,
Miss Biggie goes in
Some work she needs
Like a shampoo n’ trim!
___
Way up top,
The ‘roof’ so to speak,
Gets a new waterproofing
So we don’t spring a leak!
I wash the roof at least once a year and inspect it at the same time. It’s time to have something professionally done, so off to Custom Classic we go!
Her sides will be glowing
The result of a waxing
But it’s a ceramic being applied,
Which is really quite taxing!
No, that’s not us…. it’s our colors though! The guys spend days detailing everything before they apply the Ceramic Coating and buff ‘er up!
So watch out for that ‘Light’
Put your sunglasses on,
It’s really just us
Driving Miss ‘Bright’!
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Yup! We hit the road tomorrow with a projected ETA at YTR (Yetters’ International) sometime Easter Monday evening. We’ll be there for a week before we wing our way over the Atlantic for another O.A.T. trip, this one is called The Baltic Capitals (with a Pre-Trip to Poland). One of your fellow readers, Karen (my sister-in-law) took this exact same OAT trip a few months ago and the reports were everything that we had hoped for and then some. Can’t wait!
So that you can plan the rest of your summer and know how many days that you’ll be gone (so you can request off in enough time!) I will outline the Projected Schedule of Travels here for you.
13 April – 4 May Baltic Capitals
16 July – 1 August Iceland, Svalbard, & Norway
7 August – 15 August Alaska Cruise
We fly into Anchorage and head South!
We will probably exit New Jersey for points North and West about a week later. Travels to include:
the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
Minneapolis
Seely Lake, Montana
(A town in Idaho) which I know but escapes me right now!
Vancouver, Washington
Pacific City, Oregon
Newport, Oregon
Maybe a stop in California
Durango, Colorado
Brenham, Texas
We should be rolling into Brenham sometime in the year 2525 (Zager & Evans 1969) or October, whichever comes first and just in time for the temps to decrease to about 97 degrees!
So get those “armchairs” warmed up because it looks like a busy season!
