I got up early this morning. I had a 11:15 a.m. appointment for a tour of the salt mines. If I could get up and get ready I’d have a few hours to spend in the old town visiting some whole churches that open early. 

Breakfast was the usual that is toast, banana, and scrambled eggs. As I watched euronews on the tv in the breakfast eating area, I noticed we were having another crisis with North Korea. I wondered if the Polish people felt like North Korea needed to be contained just as much as the United States felt.

With the cool brisk air at my face I walked to the old town. The forecast in called for rain but so far it was only cloudy. I took a few pictures of Saint Maria’s Church in the old town. I had already seen the inside of the church so there was no need to try and see it again. Although I will try to climb the tower tomorrow to get a good view of the whole old town. I visited a handful of churches including the Dominican Church also known as the Holy Trinity Church, and the Saints Peter and Paul Church. The latter of the two had some great looking statues of what appeared to be the Apostles at the entrance of the church.

I’m at the point where I see almost all churches as being the same. When I first made it to Europe in 2010 I was in awe of these churches with their massive ceilings and ornate decorations. Now it seems that they’re all blurring together and it doesn’t seem so impressive anymore. Even more so it makes me dislike the ornateness of it. I mean why not stop using so much ornate statues and give the money to the poor?

Meanwhile some Churches didn’t allow for photographs which is just as well. Many times my photographs inside churches do not come out very well.

I noticed the Dominican church had a representation of God along with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Very rarely do I see representation of God. I see many carved images of Jesus, which seems to be a favorite Catholic subject for carvings. The God is almost never shown – rightfully so which one of The Commandments privets it. 

At one of the gift shops I managed to find a Volkswagen Christmas ornament which I gladly bought. It is an old style blue Volkswagen Beetle convertible. I’ll add it to my collection of Beetle Christmas ornaments.

With time running short I decided to grab a Subway sandwich to eat on the Run while waiting for my ride to the salt mines.

While I waited in my hotels Lobby I listen to those around me speaking in English and German. As it turns out I believe it was an Australian family and a German family that knew each other. 

The gentleman with my tour company arrived to pick me up. He drove a Mercedes van. There was a Swedish couple already in the van in the very back seat. I made small talk with them and with the driver. We picked up two more Danish couples at another hotel before heading to the Salt Mine. 

The driver and I engaged in conversations about traveling. Has it turns out he was traveling to the country of Georgia for holiday in a few days. I told him I had wanted to visit Georgia. 

We got to the salt mine and waited for the rest of the other tour groups to arrive so that we could form one large tour group. Heart or God works for the salt mine and was not associated with the company that provided transportation premier hotels to the salt mine. We took several flights of stairs to the bottom of the salt mine sometimes having to stop and wait for whatever reason.

Our first stop told the story of a princess who threw her ring down the salt mine which was later found by miner which influenced her decision to marry someone from that area.

Other interesting stories included how they used horses in the mind and did not take the horses back up to the surface until they were retired. Which makes me wonder how the horses felt after seeing daylight for the first time since being Colts. 

Also the water in the mind has to be purified before being released into the sewers or else the entire water supply could be contaminated with salt. There was a story of German soldiers going on a boat ride in the mine for amusement purposes. The boat turned upside down and the Germans were unable to turn the boat right side up because the water was thick with brine. They ended up drowning and the mine that this type of entertainment was forbidden.

The mine had a chapel with various scenes of The Life of Christ carved in salt. This included a Last Supper piece carved and salt. The Chapel’s altar was also carved in salt. At the other end of the chapel was a statue of John Pope Paul II carved in salt. 

And now a note about the statue of John Pope Paul II. We were told to meet the guy at a certain time beside this said statue. I was focusing in on my tour guide and was not looking around me. I felt the hands of someone physically moving me to the side. As it turns out someone wanted their picture made in front of the Pope statue but I was in the way. Just about the time they moved me a large group of people probably were following our tour guide games that probably couldn’t get the shot anyway.

Toward the end of the tour they mind hook a note from Cracker Barrel and released the tour group has a captive audience into a gift shop. The gift shop had everything except probably a salt shaker made out of salt.

There is a Tavern in the salt mine which serves meals. I was aware of this tavern, but due to the tour schedule I would not have been able to eat there. Hence I was glad I ate before the tour.

The elevator ride back was very fast. Sometimes I think they should use the elevator for us going down. But I think it would be putting us in a completely different part of the Mine. On our way back we had to cross several blocks in order to get to the entrance of the Mine from the exit of the mine. 

I stayed with the Swedish couple hoping that we could find her way back easier. But we ended up taking a wrong turn and me and the sweetest gentleman ended up being the last two people back to the bus.

I had mentioned to our bus driver that I was interested in seeing Nowa Huta, a planned Soviet City with large spacious boulevards and Apartments built in the way as making it easier to fight fires should there be a nuclear blast. By coincidence our tour guide lived there and was willing to take me there. We had a bit of a large amount of traffic due to it being rush-hour and rain. Had it been Sunday more people would have booked or taken the bus.

There was a communist Museum that closed at 5 p.m. that was I was interested in seeing. Our tour guide said that he can probably make it by 4 p.m. We spent several minutes in traffic within the old town (dropping off passengers at their hotels) and getting to Nowa Huta. But I did have a chance to visit the Communist Museum in Nowa Huta. 

Had the Communist Museum there was some discussion about how Polish people received care packages from organizations in Western Europe. There was an interesting story about how a Polish family received toothpaste from overseas Howard the family didn’t know what it was. The grandmother thought that it was some catch all medical ointment and put it on her back. Someone else thought it was glue and used it on their school project. When the items that she thought had been glued onto paper fell off she knew that it was not glue. 

It was cold and wet whenever I exited the museum. But I wanted to find the street plaque showing Ronald Reagan Square. How ironic was it to have the leader of a democratic country the honored in a city planned by the Soviets. I guess we know who won the Cold War. I had some bit of trouble trying to find my way back but I did find tr for and rode it back to the old town. 

I had supper at Pizza Hut at the mall beside the main train station before heading back to my hotel. I stopped at a convenience store and got some candy and also at a bakery and got a brownie and cupcake

Tomorrow will be the first time that I’ll be able to spend all day in Kracow and I’m looking forward to it.