Day 71 POLAND Salt Mine and Jewish tour

You are charged an extra local dollar when purchasing water in Romania and Poland. You then get 50c for each bottle, if the supermarket has a bottle recycling machine. You can use the use voucher after recycling to purchase items. The recycling machines are only found in big supermarkets like Kaufland, Lidl and Carrefour.

We visited the Wieliczka Salt Mine. Operated from 1326-1986. The mine is so huge that the visit only took us through 2% of the salt labyrinth. There are 9 levels, 245 km of galleries and is 327m underground at the deepest point.
26 shafts were struck in Wieliczka and 9 million m³ of post-excavation voids were drilled. King Kiasemiesk the Great amazed his riches in salt. With this wealth, and was said to be the King came to a Poland made of wood and left a Poland made of stone.
At the end of the Middle Ages, 300–350 people worked in Wieliczka, and the annual production of salt reached 7 000 –8 000 tonnes. Horses that worked in the mine stayed for 25 years underground.
We then went to the renormous Graduation Tower and sat for 45mins. Really cleared the respiratory system.

After the salt mine we went to Hana Sushi Michelin Bib restaurant. The food was fine Japanese. Very delicious and fine. It was inexpensive with the total meal of sushi, sashimi and beef tartar bibimbup and a green tea cheesecake costing under $80 aud.

We then did am evening walking tour of the Jewish Quarter. It was so sad to hear the dehumanization of the Jewish people Their numbers went from 75,000 from 1937 to less than 1700 in 1945. It was not only in the death camps where the Jews were murdered. Executions were done in the streets, and the conditions in the ghettos were appalling. An apartment for 4 persons pre war, would have 16-20 persons. They were given 320 calories of food per person per week.
He finished with a lovely story about the survivors. A little girl and her dogs, and a boy whose father smuggled him away through the barbed fence. The boy was Roman Polanski.

We enjoyed the Japanese so much, we returned after the walking tour for a light snack.Read more