BOU AVENUE
Wieliczka Salt Mine
Zosia Zgolak and I checked out of our hostel in Kraków, Poland on the morning of 8 January 2018 and took a bus to the nearby town of Wieliczka.  With wet snow falling outside, this was the perfect day to go underground and tour the Wieliczka Salt Mine  which dates back to the 13th Century and was still producing salt up until 2007.  The mine is renowned for its extensive tunnels, grand chapels and beautiful carvings.  Our guided tour started with a seemingly unending descent down a cramped stairwell shaft before we embarked on an approximately 3-kilometre walk through various chambers featuring mining equipment, underground lakes, and numerous sculptures.  The mine also boasts a health spa, a cafeteria, a conference centre and a “5-D” theatre.  The fascinating tour took about three hours to complete, but near the end, we were informed by our guide that we had visited only about 1% of the total mine space!  The only blemish of the visit was the elevator ride back to the surface.  While it was not surprising to have to wait in a lineup, the crazy part was that everyone was crammed tightly into the two tiny lifts like sardines in a can.  Fortunately, the ride was short (about 30 seconds), but it still felt like an inauspicious end to an otherwise fabulous tour.

The paltry offering of photos that follow does not do justice to the grandeur of the Wieliczka Salt Mine (for various reasons, we declined to purchase a photography permit), but for anyone visiting the area, this is one attraction that is not to be missed.
Good day to stay indoors...or underground! Zosia eats an apple as snow falls around her near the entrance to Wieliczka Salt Mine.
And where is the Balrog located? An overview of the tour route is presented on this poster.

Photo courtesy of Zosia Zgolak
They look like dwarfs from the Mines of Moria!

Here are some typical statues carved from salt.

Photo courtesy of Zosia Zgolak
Probably not cheaply! This underground hall can be rented for lectures, presentations, or weddings.

Photo courtesy of Zosia Zgolak

 
Kinda how I look when I shop for groceries... Sonny is not so sure about switching his career to mining.

Photo courtesy of Zosia Zgolak
Walk this way, please! If I could walk that way, I wouldn't need the talcum powder! Ba-dumm!

Sonny lands a new job as a salt mine tour guide.

Photo courtesy of Zosia Zgolak
Truly the salt of the earth! Sonny and Zosia take a selfie in front of two salt miners.
I think that's how the miners polished the walls... Zosia licks the wall to see if it's really made of salt.
Now I know how the Jews felt when they were crammed into the trains bound for Auschwitz...

Zosia waits in line to board a lift to return to the surface.