Story: The Princess of Hungary was to marry the Prince of Poland and as her wedding present from her father he gave her a salt mine in Hungary. To claim the mine in Hungary as her own she threw her engagement ring down the mines shaft, but upon her wedding day her ring was miraculously retrieved by miners in Wieliczka salt mine in Poland. Her ring magically traveled the distance back to her.
(you can see Charles Bridge)
St Vitus Cathedral above river Vltava)
Last night before bed we had book a tour for the krakow salt mine which was to start around eleven so we got up to tour the city on our own before then (day seven). We awoke to more rain which made taking pictures very difficult but didn't take away from the beauty of the old town. There was an amazing market right in the center of town sheltered in an old building so we ventured through and found many great purchases, including something very special for my lovely Nana who gave me my roots in Poland. Luckily our tour picked us upright at our hostel because the mine was out of town and it would have been very difficult to find on our own ( time saver). We learnt that the mine has not been active (excavating salt) since 1992 after an accident occurred allowing water into the mine on the fifth level which also led to worry that the town may be at risk of caving into the hole. There are however still parts of the mine that they obviously still use as a tourist attraction and that is what we toured. Although the mine had been. Made up of eight levels they are currently trying to fill the lowest levels with sand while the top three levels remain for tourists and a health spa. We first descended 380 steps (a depth of 60 meters) into the first level of the mine, it was incredible! The walls and floors, everything, is made of salt but it resembled polished marble! The second level was a depth of 90 meters under the earth, the crazy thing is that it also houses many lakes made from brine which is 30% salt so as not to cause harm to the mine by the absorption of water making the salt dissolve. The third and final level we visited was 135 meters below the surface with huge high ceilinged roofs and cathedrals. The tour was very informative and to make it even better our guide had a wonderful sense of humor, and kindly answered all our questions and boy did we ask plenty. After the tour an educated mind deserves a belly full of traditional polish food, we indulged in soup, beef strogonauf, boiled potatoes, and cabbage rolls. We said our final goodbyes to Poland and boarded our overnight train to Prague. The only thing more fun then sleeping in my dorm with my parents was being in a tiny train compartment with my parents for ten hours, luckily they are good sports about the whole thing. Day eight we arrived in Prague at eight the next morning and have a whopping five hours to explore! What to do with all that time... We walked through old town to the Staromestska mostecka vez (a famous bridge). Then almost gave my dad a heart attack climbing the mountain to get to the look out point at the top which held more stairs for him to climb. We then got to have a quick visit at the Prazsky hrad, their aw inspiring palace that makes modern yet authentic look easy. We were running low on time so we bolted back through town to make it in time for our bus to Munich where we will then transfer to a train and continue on to the land of the Swiss.
No comments:
Post a Comment