Down the mine and up the hills

I had a very bad nights sleep last night due to a very heavy storm hitting the area. The rain started at 11pm and it rained solid and heavy till just gone 5am this morning. The sound in the tent was horendous and it was impossible to sleep, although no doubt I dozed. I was on the point of abandoning the tent this morning if it was still pouring down, but when I got up at 7am it had actually stopped, although the outer tent was soaking. The rain had also bought out slugs and snails in their thousand. They were all around the tent and even in the porch area, where they had climbed over the kit I had left there. Before I could take the tent down I had to evict about 50 slugs of various size.....yuk.
I had to pack the outer tent whilst it was still soaking wet and I just hope that as a result my sleeping bag does not get soaked. I am hoping that I can dry the tent out at the pension that I am stopping at tonight.
I left the campsite and rode the 15 mile to the salt mine in Wieliczka. This is a world heritage site where, in the past miners have made carvings in the rock salt, even making chapels underground, it is a must see if you are ever in the area.
The mines were actually started in the early 1600's and production (from mining) seased in the late 1990's, however, salt is still produced but now from de-salination of the water pumped from the mine.
I arrived at the mine just before 9.30 and I was just in time to join the English language guided tour. You are not allowed to wander around by yourself but have to join a tour, but they do go every few minutes. The tour actually involves walking about 2km but this is only about 1% of the tunnels that do exist.
The tour starts by everyone walking down the stairs, however the stairs do take you down to a depth of 64mt below ground, and means you use over 300 steps. At the 64mt depth the walk starts, and the first carved statue passed is a statue of Nicholas Copernicus, carved in 1973. It is only a taste of what is to come. The vast majority of the carvings were done by the miners themselves when they were not mining salt.
The first few chambers tell the story of the salt mine, and is told by life sized salt figurines. The detail is amazing.
During the tour you actually visit 3 levels of the mine, depth gained by stairs and sloping floors, the levels are at 64mt, 90mt and finally 110mt.
The most amizing chamber on view is St Kinga's chael which was laid out in 1896, after excavation of a huge block of green salt.The chapel measures 54mt long, 15-18mts wide and 10-12mt high. It is still used as a chepel and mass as said in it every Sunday. It is also possible to marry in chapel, and concerts are also held. The last supper, carved into the wall in St Kinga's chapel. The depth of carving is only 17cm but the perception of depth appears far greater.

Joseph and Mary, also St Kinga's chapel.

Even Pope John Paul II has a carved statue in the chapel.

The chanderliers are made of wood but all the drops are high grade polished salt crystals. The floor is just polished salt, the patter of the tiles has actually just been carved into the surface.

Another chanderlier in the wooden chamber.

Life size carving of 2 miners.

At the end of the tour you are 110mts below ground and need to get back up. This involves going up in 4 miners lifts that are stacked 1 on top of the other, each lift taking 9 persons. It is really a squeeze in each lift and the absolute max is 9 people! You could not get a 10th person in. The lifts do travel at 4mts per second though, so you are not in them very long at all.

It was then time to head out of Poland on some of the best roads that I have been on yet, and through some lovely countryside and through some very pretty villages, however I did fail on one point, I left the country with 35 zl in my pocket, a waste of nearly £9.00.