AAAaaahh.. nothing like a road-trip with a purpose on an extra day off, huh? Today we were able to combine the Museum of Natural History at the Monastery Maria Laach with a small quilt show of the local Eifel Quilt Ladies. There were some nice pieces there but the fotographs (below) won´t pay them tribute since I had to take them from odd angles due to the architechtural structure of this old building (narrow hallways and such). Still, it was great to have a reason to finally visit the Monastery! And it was well worth it. After the small museum tour we walked through a nature trail with vulcanic rock formations and signs with their different uses etc. There were wild mushrooms in abundance but since I´ve already forced my family to eat what I collected last week I refrained from going mushroom crazy :-D We didn´t have an adequate receptacle such as a basket with us anyways.
The Monastery sits on the shore of the largest lake of the region called Laacher See.
It´s a maar like many you´ll find in this area. In case you didn´t happen to study geology, a maar is simply a lake formed by a vulcanic eruption that slowly filled with groundwater (mainly) afterwards.
This particular is not only the largest, it´s also the youngest as the last eruption of this vulcano is a mere 11.000 years ago - quite recent if put into our planets history! That last eruption is rated to have been 50 times as powerful as Mt. St. Helens - wow! There is still enough activity to produce vulcanic gases which occasionally rise to the surface of the lake - cool, huh?
But no chance for another eruption there.. lol.. so we went veloboating for half an hour (3.50 €) which Isa and Juju loved! No lifejackets which worried me a bit because of Juju but we could keep him in 
between us and he loved the steering.. smile..
Inside the Monastery 
we made a lasting impression because Juju didn´t care they had mass and called for his Mommyyyyyyy... aaah! lol.. We went to light some candles for the well-being of family and friends and slowly retreated but the short visit was nevertheless great. It is simply gorgous and worth the trip!
So now for some pictures of the local Quiltshow:
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