An Unusual Banquet

When I booked for the conference I am attending, I thought the dinner was a little pricey and so I opted for a private meal in town. That was nearly a big mistake, but a friend found he couldn't go and gave me a free meal. And what a spectacular event it turned out to be - encased in salt something like 150 m (450 feet) underground. It took 380 steps downwards on steep and lengthy staircases - yes, we walked down but took the lift cage up - and a walk through something like 3 km of tunnels. Have a look at this sample of pictures, starting with the mine head on a lovely sunny evening with hundreds of hungry people milling around - all in our party.

The name of the mine - look it up on Google.

Start of the staircase going down.

Lots of tunnels like this one often dated with a plaque. The tunnels were sometimes very old dating back hundreds of years.

There were lots of scenes showing men working underground - all made of salt.

And here's a scene from Polish history as men search for the queen's lost wedding ring.

Salt crystals.

Lots more stairs!

Snow White and the 7 dwarfs!?

And then we came to a salt church with lots of salt frescoes adorning the walls with biblical scenes.

And so after a few more steps we came to the broad corridor leading to the dinning room - all etched from salt! Strangely, there wasn't much salt in the meal.

AS