Day 16

Up and got a good breakfast because we were off to the salt mine.....as we went I could not help but keep singing the Sam Cook song......going the the salt mine, going down......down.

This time it took us about 20 minutes to get to the place, a small village just outside the city.  It is famous for the mine  which has been there for many centuries.  First to get down to the bottom we walked down about 500 steips down, down down and down to about 350 meters.....which is about 1000 feet.  Then we walked all through many tunnels all made of salt.  This mine minded black salt which was made mostly to eat.  WE learned how they mined it many centuries before machines....very very interesting.....(I will hold offon thde details until we get home.....easier) but it was so very interesting.  There were huge openings or pockets that they had dug out and in their place them made rooms with sculptures and wall designs all of salt.  But the best was the cathedrial....an actual church which was carved out and all the walls covered wiht the most goreous sculptures and statues.....unbeleivavle.  You can go online to see them....just type in Krakow salt mine and it will come up (I cannot remember the name....it is in Polish).  It was so interesting and so different, I have never been to a tour like it.  Thanks Ela and Phil for the recommendation!!!

Alos, absolutely fantastic was that I found an insect inthe souvenir shop that was made of salt!!!!!  One definitely for my colection.

Back to hotel around 1 and so we dumped our stuff and headed out for lunch in the nearby park and off to the old city to enjoy the aftternoon.  Oh the weather.....sun and aboout 70.....gorgeous, so we just walked arouond, did some shop looking and sat for a while and listened to a fantastic musician who was PLAYING A PIANO IN THE CITY MARKET SQUARE!!!  It was soooo neat.

WE stopped arouond 4 and I had my afternoon beer while D splurged wiht a really great looking ice cream sundae.....mmmMMM.  Slowly walked back to the hotel for a rest and we plan to go to a nearby restaurant NOT POLISH FOOD.  It is great food, but we just have to have a break,  meat meat and more meat and pirogies......so we may lookd for an Itilian restaurant.

Tomorrow is our last day and we met British couple who lives here in Krakow (they retired here...can you imagine) and they recommended a new archiologic sight that is now open to the public....right under the main market square....so we plan to investigate.  Then around 2:00 we planto leave  for the airport and a flight to Berlin.  Then the day after tomorrow we will head home from  Berlin to Miami and Naples......so wish us luck with no delays now.

So this will proably be the last blog.....but I may do one more to describe tomorrrow's activities if they are worth mentioning.....bye bye!!!