We caught a bus from the town centre to see the Salt Mine at Wieliczka, and had a quick look around the town before joining the queue for the tour in English.
This isn't the queue, but I think that it is a sculpture to show the miners coming home after the long day at the salt face.
Many thousands of years ago ancient people found salty water on the ground around Krakow and realised that it was useful for preserving food and trading with other tribes.
Once that salt had all been used up, people gradually started digging down for it, and the salt mines gradually started to be created about 700 years ago.
We only went about 145 metres underground on our tour, and believe me, that seemed plenty, but the original mines went much, much deeper than that.
About 150 years ago tourists started visiting the mines, and to entertain them there are some beautiful enormous caverns that have been dug out of the salty rock.
There are lots of displays built out of solid salt, and over 100 years ago a group of dwarves were carved to represent the fairy tale with Snow White, and also to show the different jobs that needed doing underground.
There was stables for horses who were carried down when young, and who stayed in the mine for 20 years before being hauled back up for a well deserved retirement above ground.
There was also an amazing chapel with fantastic carvings, and of course, a statue of Pope John Paul II.
All in all, it was an incredible place to visit and for our finale, we ate at the underground restaurant where I had a very salty chip cob, just to check out the quality of the produce.
Disclaimer - however, this salt mine is now closed and is a tourist attraction only, so my salt was probably actually mined elsewhere.
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