5-15-11 Day 2 Catholic Mass is an interesting experiance when you dont speak German or Latin.

We started out the day with a bus ride to the Eifel region of Germany to an old volcano (i.e. hasn't exploded in a couple million years). Our destination was Maria Laach, a catholic monastery and cathedral built in the Romanesque style. The cathedral was built in 1009 AD from local volcanic stone and has some exquizite carving. The service was my first catholic mass and it was very beautiful due to the Gregorian chant style of music practiced by the monks. After service we headed to Schloss Burresheim a castle originally built in the "fortress" style but later renavoted and built on to in the more "palace" style. It was fully furnished and was lived in up untill the early 1900's. From there we went to Monreal, the village voted most beautiful in Germany. We also got to visit some castle ruins on the hill overlooking the village.