Day 7 - Zakopane to Wieliczka Salt Mine

Leaving New Friends for the Wieliczka Salt Mine

We had a truly marvelous time at the Goodbye Lenin Hostel in Zakopane and met some very interesting and entertaining young people. Being the oldest two at the hostel, they were amazed that we prefer the hostel and began with "ladies" and ended up with grandmas. We held our own in conversations of the off-color nature and had a great time! THAT'S what hostels are all about...meeting great people from around the world. A large group of Americans came in the day after us and took over the outdoor area so the Europeans and us gathered in the living room.  What fun!  They didn't care for the loud Americans outside.  What's that about being "ugly"?

We blogged after breakfast downstairs with the boys. Pieter didn't even get back from downtown partying until 4am and was up and ready to hike at 8:30a! Must be nice to be 29 again.

We said our goodbyes and they were disappointed we were leaving and tried to talk us into staying another night or two but our calendar and many places on our tour were beckoning us to continue on.

We left at noon and headed for Wielitczka Salt Mine very near our exchange in Krakow. We didn't use the GPS and found our way just fine with the paper map...thanks, Melodie!  We didn't get lost again until we left the salt mine.

The mine tour was wonderful! They give you a receiver to hang around your next and an earpiece to be able to hear the guide no matter where you are in the group. We walked 385 steps down to level one of the mine. During the rest of the tour, we added another 320 steps down even deeper.  The mine is cool but all that walking keeps you warm so we really didn't need our jackets that we brought with us. It is beautiful! Each room or chapel was unique and honored various important people in Polish history.

Copernicus

Kinga is the patron of salt miners

King Kazimiez (kah-ZHEE-mehts)

St. Kinga's Chapel dating back to 1862. Weddings can be held here for 3 000 zloty

Salt encrusted wooden poles. The salt actually preserves the wood which is why they used it in the mine.

The altar in St. Kinga's Chapel

Pulpit

The miners worked their regular shift and then would volunteer, one-at-a-time, to work on the carvings of the various statues, murals, chandeliers, and altars in the mine. Goethe, Copernicus, John Paul II, and Chopin have visited the mine.  Over 1 million visitors to the mine, marvel at the carvings of these miners.

Horses worked down here for close to 20 years of their lives until electricity was introduced in the 19th century. They were hoisted down in a wooden cage and remained here for most of their lives.

Although the guide said we could like the ceilings, floors, and walls, I wasn't sure about following after who knows how many people who had already done the same. So I dipped my finger into one of the flowing water troughs and I think I had my ration of salt for the entire day!  Ugh!

Original stairs in the mine

The handcart in the center of the photo was called the Hungarian Dog because it originated in Hungarian and sounded like a dog as it rolled across the tracks.

Children's playroom at the end of the tour.

Even the chandeliers are carved from salt crystals and hang in St. Kinga's Chapel.

First, the tour was wonderful and billed at 3.5 hours but we stayed at the end of the tour and had Zurek soup (with potatoes and kielbasa), bigos (sauerkraut stew), cole slaw, obrazy (Polish meatballs), and carrot salad.  That way we can say that we ate at the highest restaurant in Poland (Kasprowy Wiech) and the lowest restaurant in Poland down 210 meters. This will probably be my last zurek soup since it must have a great deal of salt in it. I can't guzzle enough water before bed after eating it.  But all that cabbage is a great "motivator", if you get my drift!

Top: cole slaw; left: zurek soup; main course: bigos and obrazy

I was a wreck about the claustrophobic elevator with 7 people crammed into it. Well, there weren't 7 people in the elevator, there were 16 in that darn thing. But the guide walked us more 20 minutes at a quick pace through twists and turns in the underground tunnel to get to the elevator. We started to wonder if we were going to the elevator or the museum which would be another 3 hours of walking and touring! No one was speaking any English! Turns out it is a modern, large elevator that took only 17 seconds to reach the surface. I was thrilled!

Good news, bad news! The elevator ride was quick and painless but our exit had us on a street and in a neighbor we didn't even recognize. We were completely turned around with no sense of direction to find our car. I stopped a taxi stand driver who used his very limited English and great hand gestures to get us headed in the right direction. Still nothing looked familiar so I asked a waitress in the outdoor cafe who reassured us we were headed in the right direction and to just keep going. FINALLY, things started to look familiar. After wandering for at least 30 minutes, we found our car and paid our 25 zl fee to exit and go home.

We got directions from the parking attendant who spoke very little English. Of course, we got lost.  I think this makes number 5 in the "getting lost" column!! So we pulled up next to two young cyclists to ask for directions. Their directions were great except for the fact that the turn they told us to take had the road closed. Now we punt. We kept driving in an easterly direction with the sun on our backs and eventually found A4/E40 to get to our S7 exit.  (Which, by the way, is crossed out on the exit sign since the road isn't finished. That doesn't mean you can't use it but I guess the X discourages others. But that's the road we needed and wanted to get home.)

We were tired and relieved to be back with a down day ahead of us so we started our laundry since dryers aren't popular in Poland and our clothes would need time to line dry. MAJOR PROBLEM!

First, the dryer is located in the attic.  It's unbelievably hot up there!!! We set the washer to 1:45 to wash and checked it later. In Poland, the wash cycle is a MINIMUM of 1 hour!  When we returned to the attic, the machine still had one minute to go.  After 5 minutes, it still had one minute to go. We couldn't open the door because it self-locks during the wash cycle. We pushed all kinds of buttons not knowing exactly what we were doing since they are all in Polish. Nothing.

I ran down and got my computer and looked up the owner's manual for a Bosch ClassiXX 5. IT'S IN POLISH! A chat popped up and I started to ask my question when the "pay" notice arrived and I backed out.  We unplugged the machine, waited a bit, and were finally able (after 30-45 minutes of sweating profusely) to get the door open. There was about 2" of water standing in the bottom. We tried to force it to spin or rinse or something but NOTHING!

So we took the clothes out of the washer and decided to reset the machine by starting the cycle again. So we put our last load in, plugged in the machine, and it started up!  We checked it 2 hours later and it had stopped in the same point of 1 minute remaining. We now knew how to get the clothes out.  I then tried to Google an E6 error which has now appeared on the machine only to discover that we would have to take the front lower panel off the washer, pull out the filter (which would mean lots of water coming with it) and clean the filter and check the motor to be sure there wasn't a pin or toothpick jamming it. AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN.  So here's our method to get our clothes wrung out and dried.

This is the wringer Washers!

And here's the dryer...fan and window breeze ALL NIGHT LONG.

TOO worn out and upset for words...off to bed to escape.  Tomorrow is "down" day to recoup and gather our thoughts for the next leg of our adventure.