Moria and Beyond (aka invasion Poland)

Invasion Poland.

Damn! No autobahns to speak of. The new roads are being constructed. Dim almost lost it on the drive in. We got caught in quite a few traffic snarles. After a much longer trip than we expected, we arrived in Krakow.

Lands of Middle Earth

I think they may have misplaced the location of middle Earth. I do think that Tolkien's world would be better spent in Poland than New Zealand. The fields are lush and green. Much grass and quite a few poppy fields. The weather started off at fine and 30, but by Sunday we had spent several days under the umbrellas (the ones that I said were a stupid thing to pack). I should listen to my wife more often! But onto the Mines of Moria.

The Mines of Moria

A short trip from town we found the local salt mine. Work has been progressing here for 6 centuries. A large number of caverns and tunnels still remain to be explored. The total length of tunnel exceeds 300 km and the local forests were denuded to supply timber to support the mining. We treked through a short section prepared for tourists. It was stunnng. We traveld 2km, 800 steps and 135m in depth. The walls were polished smooth, black and ice cold to touch. Every inch was of grey salt, the segments of grey salt having already been mined. Caverns that streched 8 stories still remain and are filled with strong beams and supports. We passed uderground salt lakes and vaults and the remains of diggings and sculpture.

The miners were a religous lot and have carved over 30 chapels in the mines. We visited 3. The most impressive having crystal chanderliers (made from large salt crystals) and walls carved in intricate detail. Everything in the entire chapel was carved from salt and took the work of three brothers to complete, one after the other (I think they had large age gaps in that family). Other statues and decoration cover the entire mine. At times it felt like we were in a dwarven tomb.

Krakow

Krakow is an old city, once ringed by a walls and at its apex an impressive castle that has been the ruling seat of Poland for centuries. The wall of the city has been demolished and replaced with a belt of green that circum navigates the old city. Our apartment was a mere 10 minutes walk from the city center. As has been our normal modus operandi, we took to foot and traversed the city. I was amazed at the number of flowers out on the sidewalk. Fushias seem to be most popular.

The Castle

The trip to the castle was most excellent. We were not able to vist all its displays, but did manage to sneak past the many brides having photos taken to glimpse its wares. The most impressive being its display of treasure, arms and armour. I never realised how big a two handed sword is. The German examples were a good 5 feet in length. There were countless swords, dirks, foils, rapiers, cutlass, muskets, arburtsers, dueling pistols, guns, cannons, mortars, plate mail, scale mail, hunting spears, pikes, maces, morning stars etc etc. I was most interested to find some fine examples of tournment armour and lances, as used in jousting.

We also visted the innards of the castle and found them to be similar to the Palazzio Vecchio in Florence. A legend surrounding the first king and his dragon infuses much of the architecture and local legend. The church has some large bones hanging from its door, reputably from the dragon itself. We descended below the castle to vist the "dragon's lair" ourselves. Again we were plunged into an eiry darkness, half expecting Gollum to spring out.

The town square is impressive and is the largest in Europe. It was here that John Paul II appeared to packed crowds during the 80's. The Catholic church being a large thorn in the side of communism. It was the celebration of Polands centenary since baptism (against the will of the communists) that brought about a bloody uprising. I am realy murdering history here, I think it would be simpler to say they are all very very catholic.

We got lucky on our arival in Krakow and have been staying in a large apartment with many rooms and polished floor boards. The most exciting device being the washing machine. Nickys clothes will finally be clean again. It has been really cheap to stay here and we have been taking our time to enjoy the city. But tomorrow we will be heading south. Hopefully there will be enough time to visit the Polish aeronautical museum or Auscwitz.

Beer!

We have been blessed for choice here in Poland. But the best beer so far has got to be the Czech "Budweiser". I know that the Americans also have a crap beer named Budweiser, but it does not come from the town of Budweiser, and they have been having a ding dong legal battle over the name for years. An honourable mention goes to "Dog in the Fog" which has an extraodinary mix of malts. I would say that it tastes similar to peppermint at first taste. The local beers are also good, but we are not even halfway through sampling the local generic produce. I do love the final product's packaging which consist of neat bottles one pint in size.