All Saints Day

Our little grey wood is not so little after all.  We cross over it every day, perhaps 350 m or so.  But it is long and skinny and so this morning we went for a walk in the long direction -- which goes on for a very long way indeed.  One should always take the camera because you never know what interesting little surprises await.  And this morning was no exception.  Although we of course know about the extensive coal mining in this area, we didn't quite realize that there were signs of it so close to 'home', namely the 'pingen'.  We still aren't sure what the proper translation of this word is, since google translator balked at providing one.  But 'pit' could be a possibility, because they are basically depressions in the landscape produced from previous mining efforts.  In fact, although they are clear depressions as you can see from this picture, a google search revealed to us afterwards that they are man-made shafts (now filled in) that go a long ways down.


What we found most interesting was this sign, now covered with graffiti.  It says (paraphrasing) that the pingen are difficult to distinguish from bomb craters -- another statement about the history of the region!

This is a 'serious' holiday and even those cafes in the Uni-Center that are normally open on Sunday were closed today.  We spent some time working and, en-route to the office, passed this 'crazy' guy (on the left in the picture) who was shouting at the top of his lungs.  He was wearing a white mask and had the fire extinguisher with him.  Go figure.


We are so fortunate that Yelena and Bene invited us over to see them and the children, Endre and Martin.  Little dears.  (Thought Theresa might like to see these too.)







And a few big dears too.



Time to go today, but Richard thought I should include the advertisement for my colloquium yesterday.  He liked the 'Prof Dr' part.