Ending Point: N49°37 E20°42
Distance Traveled: 70.4 miles
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There are late starts, and then there are late starts in Poland. We woke up in the hostel in Krakow, had a bit of the continental breakfast left out for our group, and recounted the events of the night before (some of which you can find on the previous post here, some of which are Pandaland jokes that don’t belong on here). Then, we went out to see some of the sights of the city that we had only glimpsed the night before, including walking around the main square and market. After a brief daylight tour of the city, we headed south to the Wieliczka Salt Mine, one of the twelve original UNESCO World Heritage sites. Before and after lunch in the café there, Andrew finangled us press entry with a private tour guide. The tour took us through three levels and down to 150 meters below the surface. Our favorite rooms were St. Kinga’s Chapel and the underground pool where we tossed in a coin with a prayer to get us to Mongolia. We also licked salt straight off the walls! Our tour guide even gave us lumps of rock salt to take on our travels; we won’t run out of salt for a long time now. We left Wieliczka but didn’t make it too far that night, choosing to camp in Nowy Sacz (a small town near the Slovak border) after a few shopping stops. We were the lead car, using paper maps to navigate after some mix-ups with the SatNav (GPS), and so we were happy to find a great spot for us all to stop for the night and make a big dinner. Starting Point: N50°06 E19°93
Ending Point: N49°37 E20°42 Distance Traveled: 70.4 miles
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We finally fulfilled Charla’s wish of a full English breakfast when we woke up the next morning and discovered the feast that Samantha had prepared for us. After devouring a mountain of delicious food (including black pudding), it was time to explore the city of Bristol! Bristol seemed like the Portland, Oregon, of England. There was street art everywhere, including some of Banksy’s original works from back in the day. Additionally, 70% of Bristol’s retail shops are independent and local, which creates an environment of unique and interesting shopping. (As a matter of fact, when the first Tesco opened in Bristol, they rioted and burned it down! That spirit continues with anti-Tesco graffiti still visible around town.) Our exploration took us through Saint Nicholas Market downtown, an open-air market consisting of Bristol’s largest collection of independent traders. The environment was very hectic, so instead of hanging around we decided to go from there down to the harbor. The harbor was beautiful on the sunny day, with boats galore enjoying the calm water. After a snack at the harbor, it was unfortunately time to head back to London and get ourselves to Heathrow airport and prepare for our flight to Italy.
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