August 25, 1998

August 25, 1998, Tuesday

After breakfast I found the road out of town and was surprised to find a 4 lane highway with a center strip, much like our freeways, but with more access allowed. It was possible to make much better time.

At the town of Taroskie , I stopped at the lead and silver mine where they had tours. Our guide only spoke Polish, but it was interesting descending in the first elevator and walking through the passageways where we had to stoop at times. We wore hard hats with the paint worn off the tops from scraping the rock ceilings.

About halfway through the tour, a young woman who spoke English offered to interpret for me. She was with her husband and two sons and had been hiking in the mountains of northern Slovakia. Part of the underground route was by boat. The mine was no longer in operation except for tours. Years before, there had been a mine cave in, so the superstitious miners believed the ghost of the mine wanted them to leave. They abandoned the mine.

Hour after hour, I drove on the good roads until I had arrived in Lodz, a fairly large city. After much difficulty, I found the Centrum hotel had a vacancy. Three other hotels had no vacancy.

Studying the map of Poland, I was beginning to realize how large Poland was. To reach the port town of Swinoviskie would take a lot of hard driving.