Wieliczka Salt Mine

So on a roasting hot day in Poland where better to head than underground!?

Or more precisely Wieliczka salt mine. A huge monument to the industrious nature of the Polish salt miner.

Its got everything you could possibly want from the underground! Magnificent chambers chiselled out of rock salt, underground saline lakes, huge timber constructions and unique statues sculpted out of salt.

Heading out of the blazing heat you travel down hundreds of steps to a depth of 135 meters underground to visit a series of caverns full of salty artworks.

The most impressive cavern is the Chapel of St Kinga, around 101 metres underground and full of the most amazing carvings made entirely out of salt.

Even the chandeliers are made of salt and the walls are covered in murals of biblical scenes all etched in meticulous detail, again from the salt .

At the end of the tour you all cram into a tiny metal miners lift that rockets you back to the surface. You think it holds about three, they cram in about twelve! It's sardines with strangers . ..

Wieliczka is easy to get to on public transport from Krakow. Hop on bus 304 which stops on a little side street just opposite the large Galleria Krakow shopping centre. It takes about 20 minutes to arrive at the mine shaft.

You can buy tickets in advance online at www.wieliczka-saltmine.com or simply turn up on the day and join one of the guided tours. You have to go on a tour, you can't do the mine on your own as you may well end up wandering the subterranean tunnels forever . . .