"WELCOME TO MY MARIA LAACH / EIFEL PAGE... " a Maria Laach Travel Page by eden_teuling

In Germany, in the region called EIFEL I visited MARIA LAACH, which is not a town or village but only a most wonderful ABBEY of the BENEDICTINE MONKS, often called BLACK MONKS.

This ABBEY absolutely is a sort of medieval,mysterious, close-knit community, SELF-SUFFICIENT of course....

I saw a monk, in black habit with long pointed hood on his back, pushing his bike, loaded with produce from their fields, uphill but didn't dare take a photograph, which of course I now regret!

The Abbey is situated next to the Eifel's LARGEST VOLCANOE LAKE, the LAACHER SEE %s
(More about the volcanoe lakes in my GERMANY PAGE.....)

Driving towards Maria Laach, coming from BAD EIFELMüNSTER, where I spent the night, it was such a breathtaking moment when, in the early morning sun, I suddenly saw the LAKE and the ABBEY , lying there in front of me, ready to receive me as a guest! A wonderful feeling, it was like entering a long lost world....
a world I know from books, old paintings and visiting ABBEYS all over EUROPE.......and here I entered this world of serenity, prayer, meditation........

In the ABBEY CHURCH I saw this most touching VESPERBILD / PIëTA which deserves to be in pride of place here.
Please take your time to LET THIS IMAGE REACH YOUR HEART OF HEARTS...... before travelling on through my page......

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Here you see the ABBEY, that peaceful, serene world hidden in the German Eifel , in what long ago was the most isolated, cut off region of the EIFEL.

The ABBEY CHURCH counts 6 towers and is one of the most splendid ROMANESQUE buildings of GERMANY!

Knowing this I can't but wonder while walking there, HOW they managed to build this is such an isolated, almost unreachable, area; of course I can imagine what pushed them but they must have been extremely determinent to realise their dreams of building their own peaceful world of prayer and simple life in $s4 our chaotic, hectic, tumultuous world...... %s*

There are 2 shops for visitors and tourists : one with books, booklets, calendars, paintings, photographs, statues and other religious objects and one where they sell ECO articles from their own fields and animals such as fruits, potatoes, milk and milk-products and lots and lots more....

I myself bought a huge bag of WALNUTS which are great when baking bread or cakes this winter.....which I love doing.........and some apples & pears........