How do you stay cool when it’s 95 degrees out all afternoon? Go to an underground salt mine! Once you’ve gone down a zillion steps to tunnels 400 feet under ground, it really is nice and cool.
We spent the morning and early afternoon on a tour of the Wieliczka salt mine outside of Kraków. When it closed in the 1990s it had been in operation for seven centuries. We walked through about 2 km of tunnels, a tiny fraction of the 200 km carved into the near solid rock salt down there. There are also cavernous entertainment spaces, stables, chapels, and even a few lakes down in this bizarre underground world where everything is made of salt.
Yesterday we visited the incredible museum dedicated to the German occupation of Poland in World War II, which is housed in Oskar Schindler’s enamel factory, where he protected hundreds of Jews from the German atrocities most of their neighbors met.
We’ve also spent plenty of time just soaking up the beautiful architecture and lovely green spaces in this amazing city. Kraków is incredibly beautiful, historically fascinating, and buzzing with life even in the heat wave. A few random pics below.
Wawel Cathedral
Escaping the afternoon heat at a river bar
Cool bike
Musician in the Market Square
This guy is everywhere in Kraków