I wanted to do one Mining experience on my trip to Europe. I'm currently deciding between the National Mining Museum in Scotland and the Salzwelten in Salzburg. We will have no children with us and my husband is very interested in learning about history when it comes to mining, construction, architecture etc. I like more of the cool things to look at aspect. :)
Has anyone done both of there and could maybe steer me in the right direction? I feel like doing both might be overkill.
I've not been to the Salzwelten, but am confident these will be totally different experiences.
The Salzwelten is a Salt mine, such places are huge and cavernous, very mechanical.
The National Mining Museum at Newtongrange, just outside Edinburgh, is all about coal mining.
That is the exact opposite - hard and dirty manual labour in very cramped and dangerous conditions .
It may surprise many how close coal mining got to Edinburgh, and it was also very big in Fife. There you barely have to stray from the tightly defined tourist trail to encounter former mining communities, still recovering from the effects of the closure of the industry.
The same is true of Stirling- coal mining got very close.
I think a lot depends on what kind of mining you're interested in. But here are a couple places most Americans don't know of that are right next to each other on the French/German border near Saarbrucken. This was a huge center for coal and iron mining, and fought over for centuries, belonging to both France and Germany, depending. There are military sites in the area; the Maginot Line forts, the large American WWII Cemetery, and others. To me this is much more interesting than the mine in Salzburg.
The Carreau Wendle Mining Museum
https://parc-explor.com/en/
The Voelklinger Mining Park
https://voelklinger-huette.org/
