Excursions
For a Half Day
Wieliczka: The Royal Salt Mine at Wieliczka is a unique underground town, located 10km (6 miles) southeast of Cracow, which dates from the late 13th century and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Among the chambers is the Chapel of St Antony, where the first Mass was held before the miners started work in 1698, and the 1896 Chapel of Blessed Kinga, which features sculptures carved from the salt, and is lit by chandeliers whose crystals are made of salt. Kingas remains were placed in the main altar in 1994 and she was canonized to celebrate John Paul IIs visit in 1999. The Muzeum Zup Krakowskich (Cracow Salt-Works Museum) comprises exhibitions within the mine and in the Salt-Works Castle. A two-and-a-half-hour tour takes in the chambers, caverns and underground lakes of the mine; visitors can also descend directly to the exhibit by lift. The temperature is a steady 14C (57F) and warm clothing is advised. Tours are available daily, 0730-1930 from mid-April to mid-October or 0800-1600 during the rest of the year. Regular trains (as well as the Lux Bus) run from Cracows Main Railway Station to the site, while coaches and excursion tours are also readily available. The Cracow Salt-Works Museum, ulica Zamkowa 8 (tel: (012) 422 1947; website: www.muzeum.wieliczka.pl) can provide further information. Admission is charged (non-professional use of cameras is extra).
For a Whole Day
Auschwitz-Birkenau: Oswiecim (Auschwitz) concentration camp is located 70km (43 miles) from Cracow and is an essential day trip, as it brings home the horrors of Nazi rule and the Holocaust perhaps more than anywhere else in the world. Auschwitz was actually three camps (Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II-Birkenau and Auschwitz III-Monowitz) with 40 sub-camps. Today, the preserved buildings of the first camp house displays of photographs and personal articles (from hair to shoes, suitcases and pots and pans), which evoke the tragedy of individuals. Many visitors never make the effort to go onto the second camp, Auschwitz II (Birkenau), but this is the extermination camp where four million victims of Nazi Germany were murdered, many led straight from their cattle trucks into the gas chambers. It is at Birkenau that the sheer scale of the tragedy is most evident, although it has few of the visitor facilities of Auschwitz itself.
The Auschwitz Memorial Museum, ulica Wiezniow Oswiecimia 20 (tel: (033) 843 2022; website: www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl) is open seven days a week from 0800 (closing time varies seasonally between 1500 and 1900) and is free of charge.
Many operators in Cracow offer coach tours, and there are also regular coach and rail services from the city. Bus travel is available between the camps.
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Excursions