3rd July 2024 – Wieliczka
After resting for a day, I went to Wieliczka which is about 30 mins from where I was staying to go to the salt mines there. They have been used for more than 700 years, since the Middle Ages and only about 2% of the mines can be visited now due to parts of it being neglected over the years.
Now some differences between salt mines, compared to coal mines is that you don’t get loads of flammable coal dust everywhere, which is an explosion waiting to happen, but unlike coal mines where you can use metal to strengthen mine shafts/drifts, you can’t in a salt mine, due to the salt corroding anything metal. This meant that they had to use wooden logs but interconnected in such a way that they didn’t require metal nails.
There are currently two paths available in the mine, the tourist route, where you can admire loads of different salt related structures, or the miners’ route, where we got to discover some of the activities that the miners would have undertaken in as part of their daily activities. I decided on the miners’ route as it looked more appealing to me.
We also visited the chapel, which was quite good to see, especially after we all turned out headlamps off and turn off the main lights. Sat there in complete darkness, with the sounds of water dripping in the distance and the odd piece of wood creaking, was quite unnerving, but immense as we don’t really stop to listen anymore in the noise polluted world.
We each got a souvenir salt crystal from there, that we had to forage for in piles of salt, which was a good reminder of what we did.
Afterwards, I went to get some lunch and got some Zurek, which is a Polish sour Rye soup with egg and sausage in it and some pork perogies.
Next time, I will be heading to Energylandia!!!!
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