Tom`s travels: Bochnia (08/10/2016)

I decided to visit the salt mine of Bochnia located nearby the city of Krakow. They are among the 2 sites included in the World Heritage Sites including the more famous salt mine of Wieliczka, So after taking a really cheap train from Krakow's main station(6pln one way) I arrived 30 minutes later in the small town of Bochnia. It was a cloudy and rainy day but I imagined it would be good to see the mines as they would be underground. So after exiting the train station I headed on towards the center. About 10 minutes later I reached the main square, the Rynek, lined with some nice country houses. I then walked slightly uphill and entered the town's main church: Saint Nicholas Basilica. The exterior looked Gothic, with an incredible and interesting wooden detached bell tower, while the interior was mostly baroque and filled with people due to the ongoing mass. It was then time to head to the salt mines, where I bought the ticket, which included a mandatory guided tour, and in polish as the only english one would take place at 15:30 and it was still 11am. Together with the group, we then descended down the mine's depth through a really old miners elevator and reached the bottom at about 350m below the surface. The tour lasted about 2 hours and included walking through several tight and dark tunnels covered in salt, riding a small mining train and visiting a church made out of salt and wood at 400m below the surface. All along there were also several statues made of salt, sculpted by talented miners that thought it would be a great way to pass time. After the tour had finished, I had understood basically nothing, I exited the mines and decided to head to a nearby town to visit its castle as I still had some time left before heading home. I planned to take a bus but it seemed there was none available; so despite the rain I decided to head there on foot. After bout 1 hour and 40 minutes I reached the destination: the castle of Nowy Wisnicz. Once there I bought the ticket and like the other case had to wait for the guided tour to go inside, and as before it was only in polish. However at one point, two guys, which I had seen had looked at me in the mines, were also there and out of curiosity asked me where I was from. After telling them I was from Italy, they were surprised and asked how I could understand the guided tour in the mines, to which I answered in fact that I didn't. They then kindly offered to translate for me, so luckily the visit to the castle was much more interesting as I could actually understand what I was seeing. After the visit, still talking with the two polish guys, they found out I had walked all the way from Bochnia and offered me a ride back, at first I refused and said I could walk, but then they didn't seem dangerous so I accepted. 15 minutes later I was back in Bochnia's bus station and a few minutes later on a mini van bus back to Krakow.