Kraków

Day 2 in Kraków featured a tour of the most important salt mines for Poland. Whilst I wasn't sure I'd enjoy it that much, I found it quite fascinating. I guess since I knew next to nothing about salt mining it really couldn't have done anything but increase my knowledge.

The miners would carve rooms, sculptures, monuments and even churches in the rock salt, it was quite impressive.

We walked down 135m deep, where it was a balmy 16°C, compared to the surface at -14°C! The elevator ride up was quick and it was really fascinating to feel the temperature drop so quickly!

Some of our numbers had a history of claustrophobia, but all did well. The elevator up was a little interesting, but I won't make any further comment on it, the tour was more than worth the ride up. I was, as ever, looking out for those people. I can't help but watch out for trouble, and as I mentioned, there were a number of pale faces at the bottom of the stairs down. I'm impressed that these people who knew they might have problems faced their fear head on - I guess I have to give the Aussies credit for something :-D

Next up I've got free time to walk around and explore, but first up was rectifying a small currency mistake, an order of magnitude more Zloti (local currency) than intended, as well as the same mistake in Budapest meant i was carry currency that was becoming less and less valuable the further we traveled. Fortunately I found a reasonable currency exchange that wasn't charging a huge percentage and converted it back to euros, a slightly more useful currency for the trip.

Tonight will be another traditional Polish dinner. Oh, I didn't mention that last night I had spinach pancakes, which sounds weird, but looked nothing like pancakes I know, and was *really* delicious!

Location: A cafe in Kraków, eating lunch

Time: 1417h

Temperature: -15°C