Underground

Today we headed underground to one of Krakow most historic sights, the Wieliczka Salt Mine.  It operated for 700 years and was a major source of Kraków’s wealth.

Yes, more stairs (that seems to be emerging as a theme of the trip).  Fortunately, we are not walking down the original stairs (seen to the right).  Everything you see is salt, the walls, the stairs. (Easily confirmed by licking the wall)  Of course just mining salt might get boring, so miners dabbled in sculpture.

This is King Casimir, the Polish king who invited the Jews of Europe to come to Poland.  And they didn’t stop there:

And yes, the chandelier crystals are salt.