We parked in a camper park opposite the Wieliczka Salt Mines. (35pln, just under £8, for 24 hours including services) as we were overdue a cleaning day. We’d booked to visit the mine at 3pm so took the opportunity to do some “housework” in the glorious sunshine. Andy even cleaned the carpets for me, what a sweetie. It was a great place to stay for a night.
The Wieliczka Salt Mine wasn’t far from Kraków and is definitely worth a visit. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site and it’s like nothing I’d ever seen before. They’ve mined salt there for centuries and some of the miners had even carved sculptures out of it. You have to walk down a serious amount of steps (we lost count) but the effort was well worth it. The photos just didn’t do it justice! We booked our time slot online as I’d read that it gets very busy. Today was the first available date, hence visiting Zakopane first.
10 years ago any Polish person would tell you Katowice was Poland’s ugliest city. That’s what we read anyway. We also read that it had the coolest museum in the country and to make it even better, it’s free on a Tuesday! It definitely had the wow factor when you walk inside. The outside of the Slaskie museum gives nothing away. We spent a good 3 hours looking around.
After lunch we caught one of the new trams into the centre. It’s an interesting place. A mix of ultra modern and an ugly industrial past but I’m sure it will be different again in another 10 years.
We also visited Wrocław this as we’d heard how lovely the city was and headed straight for the Rynek, (Market Place). Our attention was soon diverted from the gorgeous town hall and the colourful buildings surrounding it to something a lot smaller ... dwarves!
Journeywonders.com said
*** Back in the 80’s, communism was still present in Poland and police were very strict about any sort of secret meeting and manifestation against the ruling regime. Luckily, a group of eccentric individuals began a movement called the Orange Alternative. Their strategy? Using the absurd and the nonsensical in order to avoid being arrested by the police.
Can you treat a police officer seriously when he is asking you: “Why did you participate in an illegal meeting of dwarfs?” said one of the leaders. Their tactics involved drawing dwarf graffiti on top of the anti-communist signs that were constantly painted white by the authorities.
Eventually, the movement succeeded in planting the seeds of peaceful opposition and now there is a relatively big statue of a dwarf (called Papa Dwarf by the locals) standing in Wroclaw and funded by the modern-day government of Poland ***
Apparently there are over 350 of them now, but we only saw a handful. I may be over 50 but the kid in me loves them 😍
Note: We parked at the park & ride in Wroclaw (free) and took a tram into the city. (You can park there overnight if you wish.) It takes approximately 20 minutes and cost us 6 zlotys (£1.25) for 2 adults. You can buy the tickets from the machine on the platform or inside the tram. The ticket machines have an English option so they’re easy to use. Once inside the tram you have to push each ticket into the validating machine. This seems to be the system for all trams in Poland.
Another day in Wrocław. In our opinion it’s as good, if not better, than Krakow. Maybe the Gnomes/Dwarves helped, I’m not sure, but we really enjoyed it. It’s surrounded by water, it’s the 4th city in Europe with the most bridges and has over 20 islands to explore. It’s as cheap as chips and has a really interesting history. If you visit southern Poland, don’t miss it.
The following day, we drove to the other end of the city and parked in another free car park (thanks again to the park4night app). We wanted to visit another UNESCO World Heritage site - Centennial Hall. It’s the first building to be constructed out of concrete and although we could see it’s importance it was a very ... well ... grey.
For a bit more colour we walked outside to watch the fountains dancing to the music for a while. My favourite piece was that well know classic - “Everyone’s a Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut Case” 😁
We also visited Wrocław this as we’d heard how lovely the city was and headed straight for the Rynek, (Market Place). Our attention was soon diverted from the gorgeous town hall and the colourful buildings surrounding it to something a lot smaller ... dwarves!
*** Back in the 80’s, communism was still present in Poland and police were very strict about any sort of secret meeting and manifestation against the ruling regime. Luckily, a group of eccentric individuals began a movement called the Orange Alternative. Their strategy? Using the absurd and the nonsensical in order to avoid being arrested by the police.
Can you treat a police officer seriously when he is asking you: “Why did you participate in an illegal meeting of dwarfs?” said one of the leaders. Their tactics involved drawing dwarf graffiti on top of the anti-communist signs that were constantly painted white by the authorities.
Eventually, the movement succeeded in planting the seeds of peaceful opposition and now there is a relatively big statue of a dwarf (called Papa Dwarf by the locals) standing in Wroclaw and funded by the modern-day government of Poland ***
Apparently there are over 350 of them now, but we only saw a handful. I may be over 50 but the kid in me loves them 😍
Another day in Wrocław. In our opinion it’s as good, if not better, than Krakow. Maybe the Gnomes/Dwarves helped, I’m not sure, but we really enjoyed it. It’s surrounded by water, it’s the 4th city in Europe with the most bridges and has over 20 islands to explore. It’s as cheap as chips and has a really interesting history. If you visit southern Poland, don’t miss it.
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