The day FLEW by….like fast, super fast, FAST. I wanted it to go slow, but alas, no. We had a late breakfast (which was wonderful), at a place called Café Camelot which was absolutely darling with pink walls and these cool wooden statutes everywhere. The menu included porridge with fruit (and a sprig of mint), and buckwheat and spelt crepes. Pretty yummy and wonderful. Then we RACED to get our car and drive to Wielczka to visit the salt mines (a short 20 minutes away.) I had bought us tickets for an English tour at 12:30, and we literally were there seconds to spare before they were ushering our tour group down the 300+ stairs into the mine.
It’s a pretty incredible place to see actually….it’s 325 meters down, so compared to other mines it’s quite shallow, but it’s almost 7 km’s long (it’s basically shallow, but very long). It’s been a mine since the 13thcentury which is incredible. There are hundreds of rooms, and things like mini lakes, and a cathedral inside (but also small worshipping rooms that were “traveling” churches that kept pace with the physical progress of the miners. Since it was such a dangerous job, and they estimate 10% of the workers were either seriously injured or killed, they prayed regularly, and before each day of work—hence small chapels moved with the miners.
Everything is made of salt, and if you are brave enough to lick the walls (which just seemed unsanitary, but of course Ava did it), then you get a first hand taste. The tour was about 3 hours, and even though Lucia wasn’t convinced she even wanted to grace us with her company this morning, I think everyone really enjoyed it.
By the time we finished and drove toward home it was nearly 4:30, and so we stopped in the Jewish quarter for an early dinner (or as Europeans would call it, a late lunch) and we had fantastic Italian food at a restaurant called Nolio. I had the best grilled peach salad EVER and John said the pizza he had was one of the top pizzas of his LIFE (which says a lot because he considers himself an authentic Italian pizza expert.)
It was a day that we didn’t really do a ton really, but it flew by and was all around super nice. John and I have both decided that Kraków is officially our favorite city of the trip so far. I was most excited to see Budapest and Kraków when we started out, so I’m not completely surprised that these have been my two favorite cities so far. Vienna is awfully far up there too though, but still, I have to agree with John, I think Kraków takes first place.
Tomorrow we head to Prague. Five hours….if we are lucky.
Signed, ME {lv}
Comments