It was a busy and fun Saturday in Essen. Vicki Buholz and I practiced at ETUF Essen for a couple of hours, then went with Sabine Schmitz first to the Saturday Essen Market and then to the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex, a World Heritage site.

It was a lovely day for practice in Essen and the club was quiet in the morning. We had a good practice getting used to the red dirt which is different from the green clay…slower, higher bouncing, at least on the Essen courts.

The market in Essen was not huge, smaller than most of the Mallorcan markets but similar…lots of fruits and vegetables, bread, meats and cheeses, places to eat. I bought a bread roll and some olives (delicious!). It was a nice place to see.

After the market we drove out to the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex. Coal was mined there for 135 years till the mine was decommissioned in 1986. At its peak, between WW1 and WWII, it employed 8000 workers, but after WWII, the energy. sources switched from coal to oil and the mine closed in 1986.

We returned to the hotel after visiting the coal mine and later went out to dinner at a small Italian restaurant where we ate outside, as the weather was perfect today in Essen, sunny, warm, no humidity. We had dinner with Peter, Iris and Sabine. It was a nice end to our stay in Essen.

Tomorrow I play in Cologne at TC Grun-Gold for ETUF Essen.