poland for the first time: please pass the salt

we sat at this table every time we ate at the hotel restaurant.

chad asked me to make this face, not sure why.

i'm a huge fan of drinking water with my meals, but i'm not used to being limited by the smaller amount that is in the glass bottles. ice is also something you have to ask for and might be an american thing. water is also something you have to purchase and is not complimentary at your table.

we both ordered a pizza at lunch and we were surprised at the size! it was huge!

after eating our fill, we had a few minutes to get ready for the tour. after every meal here in poland, we then have to play the waiting game before receiving our bill. while chad waited patiently, i headed up to our room to lay down on the bed for about 15 minutes. once chad arrived, we grabbed our things and headed out the door.

the bus driver was already inside the fourier waiting on us. he was a nice man and knew how to maneuver his way around town better than anyone. it seemed like a dreadful task to drive a large passenger van in and around narrow crowded streets. the rows of seats on the van were very narrow. our van ended up only carrying 8 that day so we did have plenty of room to spread out.

it didn't take too long to arrive to the wieliczka salt mine. i didn't really know what to expect, but it was recommended to see by many people who had experienced it already.

after parking the bus, we started an uphill climb towards the mill.

we passed these signs and buildings on the way.

can anyone pronounce this restaurant's name above?

this was the lower half of the building which was much easier for us to read.

this area was very charming.

there were many small shops selling items like bath salts.

one lady from our tour was concerned she would not have a chance to purchase salt and wanted to stop before starting the tour, but our driver assured her there would be lot of opportunities to purchase novelty items like that during and after the tour.