Salt Mines

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We toured the Salt mines in Bochnia. It was very interesting and basically the key reason Poland became so powerful back in the middle ages. One large "snowman" of salt could buy and entire village! 2KG of salt was worth 1KG of Gold. I won't bore you with the history. We had an engineering student who spoke English pretty well, as our guide. Just the three of us and the one guide Piotr (Peter); he was a second year engineering student in Krakow. He was nervous - but did a great job. Mom was a trooper with all the stairs. I took a long slide down into one of the caverns, where people can acutally spend the night, host parties and play indoor soccer. The air is very good for healing alergies and other ailments. They even have a special exercise room for patients.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

I found a 300 meter track and managed 10x 300's w/ 1 minute rest after the tour. Must be the beet soup I had last night- felt great!

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Photos

Map
Lowest point of the tour 240 meters or so

Boat ride
On Brine- used to make salt

Kut PUB
Cat pub outside our apt. Waiting for our ride

Lobby
This would buy two villages!

Train is here
About a 1.5 kilometer train ride into the tunnels

Here we go!
Start of the tour

Stairs
Lots of stairs. Mom took her time but made it!

Top of the stairs
The workers would stand on those ledges and work away with pick axes for 8 hours or more- very dangerous but that was life back then. They made decent money and were very respected.

Treadmill
The horses were tied to this and stayed underground for 6 months - around and around to pull up the salt and brine.

Treadmill- horses
I bet I could pull this thing around

Chapel
Underground chapel. Our guide's Great granfather actually helped contruct the pulpit

Slide down!
Long way down- they give you a little pillow thing and you propel yourself down- sort of crazy. Mom and dad walked down. Problem is you had to walk back up!

Comments

[Sonia Bogdanowicz]

These pictures are awesome! Off to the next adventure!

[john]

friends in poland, visiting their fatherland.
i can not believe that salt was as expenive as gold in those days.

[Barbara]

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing. Love to all.