It had been quite a trip; one that had started in Berlin just over a week ago. We’d seen a lot, we’d spent a lot of time on our feet, and we’d tried so many different foods. We’d even gone back to a restaurant in Berlin that we’d both enjoyed last year, and had enjoyed it just as much this time. Old favourites in Germany, new favourites in Poland. Three different cities. Three different experiences, but connected by shared stories of their past. The end of our trip was now in sight, and as such, today would be my last chance to take photographs in Kraków.

We’d both got a long day ahead of us, I guess myself even more so, and the sleep would have been appreciated, but it was also my one chance to get run around Kraków’s old town without it being full of tourists. I was up at sunrise, and out the door shortly after. Fortunately it’s a very short run from the apartment to the market square.

There were already people out and about: people still out from the night before, a few walking around with tripods to get a sunrise photograph of St. Mary’s Basilica, street cleaners driving around, and even another runner stopping to take photographs.

The light levels were still quite low, but I did the best I could, and moved on to St. Florian's Gate where two white vans were already parked up in front of it. I could either wait and see if they’d eventually move, or get closer and do the best I could with them there. I felt my time was tight this morning, as we needed to be out by 08:30 if we were to make it to the Salt Mine in time. This was a place one one of Carmen’s dance teachers had recommended, and she wanted to see it for herself.

I walked through the gate and had a look at the Barbican before quickly seeing what was in Jan Matejko Square - mostly just the Grunwald monument that commemorates King Władysław Jagiełło in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410. I worked my way back to the market square for some final photographs of the town hall tower before heading back to the apartment to shower, have breakfast, and finish packing.

We were a few minutes later leaving than planned. When we saw the bus we thought that we wanted, we rushed to get on it, and found the machine onboard for buying tickets was broken. We really didn’t need this - if we had to get off and wait for the next one, we could miss the bus we’d need to make it to our scheduled tour on time. That is the real downside to having to prebook things - it dictated a lot of what we could do in Kraków, but we were enjoying ourselves regardless. My first thought was to download the app - I’d seen signs for it on a previous bus, so I was sure that’d work, but it’d take time to download.

The bus had moved on a couple of stops whilst I was trying to figure out how to pay for the bus, but then noticed that Google Maps was suggesting the bus would terminate at the theatre, and then do the route in reverse to eventually get us to the station. Fortunately, Carmen recognised where we were, somewhere near the gate, and suggested we get off now and walk. Without time to think any further we both got off the bus, and hoped we’d made the right decision.

We were right at the top of the stairs that lead down to the pedestrian underpass that would get us to the train station. It’d worked out even better than we thought, and the pressure was off for getting to the right bus on time. Carmen had saved us quite a bit of time!

Assuming the shopping centre would be closed at this time on a Sunday, we went the long way around to the bus station, paid 40 PLN to stow our luggage, and found our way to the 304 bus. We were near the first stop, so I bought us a thirty minute ticket each and hopped onboard. From where we arrived, it was only a short walk to the entrance, where we joined the queue for the English tour.

The 13th century Salt Mine in Wieliczka is less than thirty minutes away by bus. It was started in the 13th century, and has over 240 kilometres of tunnels with a depth of up to 327 metres. There are two routes that can be done, there’s the ‘Tourist Route’, which I’d pre-booked us on, and the ‘Miners Route’, which is more of a hands-on route that I felt was aimed more at children.

The first part of the tour involves walking down the 380 steps of the Daniłowicz Shaft, to where the tour begins sixty-four metres below the surface. Whilst every now and then we could feel a blast of cold air in the shaft, the tunnels themselves are usually around 16C. To maintain air pressure down there, every now and then you’ll go through one door, and once the entire group is through it’ll be closed, and the next door opened. I found my headset didn’t work that great, so I tried to keep towards the front of the group. In some ways it helped with photography too, to a degree. So when the guide got to a door that was difficult to open, I helped with that.

In the tunnels there are a number of large rooms, and one such room early on has a statue of Nicolaus Copernicus carved into the salt, as he is associated with the mine's early tourism. Another chamber has a number of figures, one of which is Princess Kinga, and it tells the legend of how she threw an engagement ring into the mine.

Every now and then we’d walk down more steps, getting deeper and deeper. Some parts reminded me of being in caves in New Zealand, whilst some of the massive galleries, such as the Michałowice Chamber, and to a degree the blocky art style, made me think more of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Whilst there’s no evidence of any inspiration there, I could picture the dwarves of his stories digging deeper and deeper for their treasure, carving magnificent structures as they went. One gallery is so cavernous that the wooden support structure for keeping the ceiling up is impressive enough by itself.

One important thing to remember is that whilst we can see these rooms brightly lit now, they would not have been there when the mine was in use. The wooden beams are painted white with lime wash to protect the wood against fire, and to reflect what little light they have from torches there. They would have to be careful though as methane gas could be trapped within the salt deposits and a naked flame would ignite it. A threat, lurking within the stone and salt they mined.

All about them as they lay hung the darkness, hollow and immense, and they were oppressed by the loneliness and vastness of the dolven halls and endlessly branching stairs and passages. — The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien

We passed through a chapel carved into the stone, and then a cavernous room of St Kinga's Chapel. There is a big staircase down, and multiple chandeliers and religious carvings in salt - one of which is a take on Leonardo’s Last Supper. I think of all the places I’d have liked a photograph without people, it would have been the top of those stairs, but alas it was far too busy for that with multiple tour groups ahead of us. By this time we were around one hundred metres underground.

Shortly after that there’s then a short break with toilet facilities and a shop where you can buy a drink and snack if you need it. The tour then continues into a room with a large brine lake, but you can’t see it until the sound and light show starts.

Eventually, we reached the end of the tour and handed in the headsets. We decided we’d head to the lift out of the mine next, so we passed through the Warszawa Chamber and the cafeteria-style restaurant to join the queue. To get back to the surface, you’re assigned to a new guide and taken up in small groups via the miners lift. This lift is a little unlike anything I’ve been in before. After the bell rang, six of us squeezed into it, the lift moved up a little, and another six squeezed into the floor below us.

The lift moved up quickly, and took us to a gift shop selling many different salt products. We had a quick look around there and then headed out into the midday sun. We thought we’d probably got about twenty minutes to wait as we didn’t want to rush for the 304 bus back that was due any second. However, we saw it waiting for people crossing and realised we could beat it to the bus stop. The short burst of speed was worth it, and it got us back into Kraków around 13:00.

I’d plotted a route for us that would be the shortest way to get to the Pod Temidą milk bar we’d seen on the Royal route previously. This time, the queue was out the door, but we wanted to eat there, so we queued. It was a fairly fast moving queue, but it did leave us wondering if there’d be somewhere to sit. I had a chicken fillet that came with mashed potato and a salad, whilst Carmen ordered Gołąbki (rice filled cabbage rolls), barszcz biały (white borscht), and also a slice of apple cake that we shared. It was another filling meal, one that neither of us could finish, for very little cost - Carmen’s order as an example cost the equivalent of only £13.25.

Once we’d finished, we walked slowly to MNK Sukiennice: the cloth hall in the middle of the market square. There are public toilets there you can use for 2 PLN, though whilst I waited at the top of the stairs, someone vomited on their way down. It was obvious enough that Carmen, downstairs in the queue, knew what had happened too. So many people walked through it, not looking where they were going. We then spent some time looking at the various stalls of the cloth hall, and Carmen was finally able to buy a new handbag - something she’d first started trying to do in Valencia close to a year ago.

We’d thought about going up the tower of St. Mary’s Basilica, so I queued for that, but found that the earliest tour available was at 16:00 today, and we’d need to be well on our way to the train station by then.

Somehow, despite all the food so far, we were then ready for ice cream. It was surprising to see how many wasps swarmed over the doughnuts of the Dobra Pączkarnia shops we passed by. Once we’d got our final ice cream of the trip, we walked back the way we came, back through the market square, and St. Florian’s Gate, all the way to the bus station to collect our luggage.

The train was easy enough to find, we’d spotted which platform it’d be previously, but had to pass it to the ticket hall to buy tickets at the kiosk there. At this point we didn’t realise the train would have a ticket machine onboard, so I’d rushed to buy tickets for 40 PLN and got back to the platform as quickly as we could as the next train was due any minute.

When we got to the airport it was almost three hours before our flight, but the bag drop was not yet open, with the board not yet providing any information whatsoever. If we’d needed more than the two hours recommended for short haul in order to account for any long queues, we couldn’t have managed it.

I saw them take some British Airways signs from the information desk, so I followed them to see where the bag drop would be, but at that point they didn’t put the signs up. We sat and waited, and by the time I next checked, almost two hours before the flight, there was already a sizable queue for the desk that had not yet been announced on the board. The bag drop wasn’t too bad, and fortunately security was quick. Minutes after we’d got through though, they announced that people on our flight should make their way to passport control, obviously to allow for any delays from queuing, but that too was pretty quick. Carmen was delayed a little though when they wondered where her entry stamp for Poland was, and she had to explain she’d entered the Schengen area through Berlin.

On this side of passport control, at first glance it seems like there’s little more than one restaurant. However, if you go down the stairs behind that, there’s another place to get some good, but then if you go down even more stairs, there’s more. I bought a ham and cheese toast and a Snickers bar from there for 43 PLN, and managed to use up some more coins to get a biscuit as well.

Whilst we ate, they announced our gate had changed, and by some amazing luck it was the one next to where we were eating. The boarding came around quickly, but we had to spend a lot of time queuing outside.

As I’d been out running early, and still had numerous hours ahead of me, I decided to buy a cup of Earl Grey tea whilst onboard the plane. We landed at Heathrow ten minutes early, and forty minutes later we were in an Uber back to Carmen’s. The traffic at that time of night isn’t too bad, which helped me with the final stage of my journey home.

After hours of travelling, I got home at 00:05, and went straight to bed; bringing another adventure to an end.