The small town of Tarnόw was quite a surprise. From the very pleasant campsite it was a
short bike ride into the centre where, in the usual Market Square, the Town
Hall has a quirky round tower from the top of which, at 12 noon each day, a
bugler plays a lament.
The heavy metal doors of the Cathedral are a work of art in
themselves
It was from Tarnόw that the first Polish Jews were
transported to the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau – a fact commemorated by a
rather discrete memorial in a side street.
Our next site was on the outskirts of Krakόw. From there we were able to visit the salt
mine at Bochnia
The salt mine at Bochnia was started in the fourteenth
century and continued to produce salt commercially until just twenty years
ago. Now the salt is still mined but
only in small quantities for sale to tourists!
The mine is huge and even the small part open to visitors
requires a 2½
hour walk to see everything. The story
of the mine’s history is told with the help of very clever visual aids
including these two Italian merchants whose faces come to life as they talk
(for our benefit in English!)
There is a chapel carved out of the salt by miners
And carvings of other religious scenes.
Some of the larger chambers house bunk beds for 230 people,
a restaurant, a basket ball court and a 150 metre long slide!
Alongside the mine is a reconstruction of a thirteenth
century village ...
... where skills such as carpentry, pottery, rope-making,
weaving etc are carried on in the way they were 800 years ago.
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