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| Home - City Guide - Cracow - Excursions | ||
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Excursions For a Half Day Wieliczka: The Royal Salt Mine at Wieliczka is a unique underground town ten kilometres (six miles) southeast of Cracow that dates from the late thirteenth century and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Among the chambers is the Chapel of Blessed Kinga, which features sculptures carved from the salt, and is lit by chandeliers whose crystals are made of salt. 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. Tours are available from mid-April to mid-October, daily 0730-1830 and 0800-1600 the rest of the year. Coaches and excursion tours are readily available and the Lux Bus runs from Cracow's Main Railway Station. The Tourist Service, ulica Danillowicza 10 (tel: (012) 278 7302; fax: (012) 278 7333), or the Cracow Salt-Works Museum, ulica Zamkowa 8 (tel: (012) 278 3266 or 422 1947; fax: (012) 278 3028; website: www.muzeum.wieliczka.pl/en/index.html) can provide further information. For a Whole Day Auschwitz-Birkenau: One of the most ghastly reminders of the horrors that befell the Jews (and others) under the Nazi occupation is the Oswiecim (Auschwitz) concentration camp, 70km (43 miles) from Cracow. Today, the preserved buildings house displays of photographs and personal articles (from hair to shoes, suitcases and pots and pans), that evoke the personal tragedy of individuals as well as the grand scale of the catastrophe. Between 1940 and 1945, an estimated four million people lost their lives in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps. In addition to the half-day trip, a full-day trip 'The Nazi Tower of Babel - Auschwitz' includes a visit to the Auschwitz Memorial Museum and St Maxmilian Kolbe Centre with a display of art by former prisoners and the city of Auschwitz - where a synagogue has recently been opened. Many operators in Cracow offer coach tours, and there are also regular coach and rail services from the city. |
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