Poland 2010 - Day 12 - Bieszczady to Wieliczka Salt Mines

That morning we packed up our bags, paid our bill (which was ridiculously reasonable) and said goodbye to Piotr and Iza. Iza sent us off with a couple extra canned jars of mushrooms from our mushroom hunting day. It was Sunday, and in parting she recommended a short side trip to a very old church that was having a special celebration on that Sunday.

Several miles up the road we turned onto an old dirt road as directed; we knew we may be on the right track as another car had turned onto the road before us. We drove a couple miles along the rutted lane and before long we started seeing cars parked; first only occasionally, but as we drove further and further they became more frequent. Being a single lane road, we decided to turn the car around and park before the possibility of more traffic coming after us. It seemed an unlikely road to find a church on, but the road was quickly filling with cars and people continuing on foot.

Soon we rounded up a slight bend and up a slope on the hill in the trees sat an old white church.
It was a small church only able to hold 30 or 40 people and it was full to the gills with 7 times the amount of people standing outside the back and side doors.

There were vendors set up to sell toys for children and food for parishioners after the mass. Soon from up the road come a large troop of men on horseback. They circle in a field just a ways from the church. We walk over with our cameras and start taking pictures. Obviously very proud of themselves and their mounts - the leader of the pack stood up on the back of his horse for us : )

And what a coincidence, there was also a woman from Lviv, Ukraine set up around the side of one of the outbuildings that was selling her own and her sister's oil paintings. We selected a couple before we headed back onto the road. Somewhat far removed to being real, I felt fortunate that I'd be taking a bit of Lviv home with me even though I never made it there.

On way back to Krakow, we stopped at Lancut to visit the castle. Impressive in a rococo kind of way : ) Nick was having none of it.

We had made plans to stop just outside of Krakow in the town of Wieliczka - the home of the salt mines, one of the wonders of Poland. Our lodging this time was a true slice of real Poland. We stayed in the home of older couple in their upstairs bedroom. And Nick got a true slice of what it's like to sleep in the same room with Paul and Nancy (who turns on her iphone app that makes white noise to drown out her husband who has sleep apnea : ).

The next morning after a great breakfast (meat and cheese and a little tomato), we headed over to the salt mines for a lick of salt.

Entering the mines involves descending 160 meters down a stairwell. Here there are an estimated 300 kilometres of shafts and tunnels, most of which were hand-hewn, for the purpose of extracting the salt. This came from an ancient sea which dried up during the early Miocene period which subsequent tectonic movements then covered and compressed to form a series of strata of pure rock salt. The salt scupltures are numerous and impressive - except, thankfully, no Elvis.

It was hard to part with Nick. I love that boy! Home is more than a place. It's being with the people you love. And everywhere we went with Nick in Poland felt a little like home. And when we parted ways on a side street off of Ulica Zwierzyniecka in Krakow, I kept looking over my shoulder for one last gaze at this good young man who was my polish newphew - citizenship or no.