Velichka..European trip. Part 2
The next day we had plans to go to Wieliczki and visit the Salt Mine. No signs of trouble. We got up early, had breakfast and went in search of the bus. Based on the data on the site, minibuses go straight to Wieliczki from the bus station.
We arrived at the bus station. We look at the departure board, not a word about Velichki. We look at the sign "Information". ABOUT! We go there! Come on - it's closed. There is a huge line at the only checkout. We catch some bus driver, he waves his hands and says “I don’t understand. ” We think what to do. We open guidebooks on our phones, and it says "minibuses go from the Main Post Office. " Pi***…. The main post office is near our hotel. We return there. Surprise! Judging from the timetable at the bus stop, the bus to Wieliczki goes only at night. We sit at the bus stop and scratch our turnips. But how do tourists go there? We decide to return to the station in the hope that the information bureau has already woken up. Dotopali again - close. We go to the railway station in the hope of taking the train. We approach the Information at the station, since it worked, and there is an overlay. The train left, the next one in an hour. They don't know where the *lyadskie buses come from. We start to get angry. We return to the bus station. Thank you for having Wi-Fi. Google gives out that regular bus No. 304 goes to Wieliczki. We pass to the Galeria Krakowska shopping center, go to the bus stop, and here, we notice an inconspicuous parking lot of minibuses like Mercedes. They say GREAT! There was no chapel for our joy, and two hours had not passed since we found a minibus. We understood why exactly Poland, together with Ukraine, meets EURO-2012.
Wieliczka is 10 km from Krakow. Drive no more than half an hour. The driver dropped us off somewhere at the entrance to the city, and then following the signs (at least thanks for that) we reached the Kopalni themselves.
All individual tourists are grouped and with a guide are already descending into the mines. Entrance for a group with a Polish-speaking guide - PLN 49 per person, entrance for excursions in foreign languages - PLN 68 / person. +10 PLN for the camera. The Russian group in the off-season takes place once a day. We did not become original, and went with a Polish group!
We were immediately taken down one level along a huge number of steps, and then lower and lower, along high passages carved into the salt rock, past staged scenes with puppet miners and horses, huge salt famousness, we descended to the lowest level. 130 meters deep. The whole tour was quite interesting, not a tall pretty Polish woman joked and talked about various interesting places. Sometimes I even understood it. She offered to everyone who wanted to “lick” the wall. In my opinion, some even took advantage of her offer. We were underground for three hours. All this time we climbed various mines almost non-stop. As soon as we got down to the cafe on the lower level, we collapsed into huge chairs. Legs hummed and refused to contact. What is interesting is that mobile communications worked at such a depth and (like everywhere else) there was Internet access.
We would have been breathing healing air for a long time, but the cry “All individual tourists get out” brought us out of relaxation. I had to queue up for the elevator. They gathered the group again and led them along new corridors to the elevators. Elevator, oh that elevator!! ! Knocked down metal rectangular frame with bars, divided into 4 levels. Entrance from different sides, from below and from above. You go into this trap for mice, there are ten more people with you in the dark butt to butt, and there are also people above and below you. And the elevator starts to move up. I prayed! I'm not lying! I was afraid that he would fall apart to hell! As soon as the grate opened, we all fell out at once.
Evening, we decided to walk around the city. Velichka is a very quiet town. Modest churches, a small fort with a restaurant inside, shops, a park. Silence and grace.
I wanted to eat and take a shower. It was hot against all forecasts. We found the stop of the ill-fated 304 bus and began to wait. Naturally, we did not wait for him and jumped into the first minibus going to Krakow.
photo in mines by Gudik)
