On the final day of the Krakow trip, pupils visited both the Rynek Underground Museum and the famous Wieliczka Salt Mine. The first museum gave pupils a fascinating insight into the history of Krakow and its trading past, as they walked along the preserved medieval 13th century marketplace streets. Pupils had an opportunity to view a variety of artefacts uncovered in the Krakow excavation – with some coins, weapons and skeletons dating back to over 1000 years ago!

They then visited the town of Wieliczka, wherein they walked deep into the subterranean mines. Here, they heard the tale of Princess Kilga of Poland, who cast her engagement ring from the Prince of Krakow hundreds of miles deep into the mines. In an effort to prove his love, he mined deep into the ground in order to find it and produced 200 miles of tunnel networks into the salt before finally finding the ring and proving his love for her. The mines were beautiful for pupils to see and were an excellent way to end a thought-provoking trip. Their motto: “always find the light deep within the darkness” was a poignant way to end this incredible school trip!