Wednesday 13th July - Krakow
After a night of horrendous electrical storms and hot sticky temperatures, we headed down the road to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. No raincoats needed as not only is it fine again, but the tour is all underground. At 84 zlotys each, it is the most expensive tour we will do in Poland, but it is well worth it for a two hour guided tour, in English. The salt mine is well set up for tourists and shows some impressive sights created by the miners, particularly the underground chapels carved out of the rock (salt). There were even facilities for horses to be kept underground for 25 years. We managed to resist the three shopping opportunities but conceded to one of the food stops; all those stairs and tunnel walks earned me a bounty bar.
On the way to the salt mine we were waved into a car park by some enthusiastic people with flags only to discover later there was a park nearer and another further on. Entrepreneurship has the smarter people getting the Salt Mines customers for 5 zlotys cheaper. We could also camp here for the night but decided to take advantage of the all day park and headed into Krakow on the train. Poland isn’t as relaxed as Germany or Austria; you must buy a ticket on the platform or from the ticket attendant when boarding the train. There is always a nice person around to help us, even though the machines do have an English option. There are so many questions, so many instructions.
In Krakow we headed through the park walk in the shade of the trees because the temperature was still quite high in the 30s and went to the Wawel Castle and Cathedral, on a supposed hill, which were both impressive old buildings. After a self-guided tour we then walked back through the busy old town centre and square which was full of outside cafes and horse drawn carriages.
Through lack of better options we went back to our Krakow RV yard where we stayed last night and pretended to know exactly what the security guy said. He thinks we are stupid Germans who speak funny; I think he is probably good at scrabble because the Polish language uses lots of high point scoring letters like W,Z, J and K’s. Roger thought he said to ask for a discount in the morning because it is our second night,but it was in fact "you cheeky German, you used the free water not the 5zloty water". Polish is easy sometimes, Alkohole is Alcohol, Wiadukt is Viaduct, diesel is diesel, and when I say careful Roger there is a pole behind you, he knows I mean a Pole and not a Polish person, although I think he is probably getting sick of that joke (no, dear).
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Old Town Square, Krakow
Old Town Square, Krakow
Wawel Castle, Krakow
Hard to read train information