Plentiful rain and a shortage of summer sun have provided perfect munching conditions for these slimy creatures; they obviously enjoy this weather much more than most people do. Their numbers have increased rapidly lately.

Here is one photo of a slug in the Netherlands and one slug enjoying some courgettes in Scotland





(The loss or reduction of the shell is a characterisc for the Slug. This in contrary to Snails who have a prominent coiled shell)

On our daily evening stroll we encounter a kind of children's farm adjacent to a working farm. All those animals are their own property and although you can't touch them, you can .......feed them ofcourse.
We most of the time give the animals old bread, which they seem to enjoy.

And one day these cute little tiny chickens came running toward us. Aren't they just adorable?




They grow really fast and one day must look a bit like these beautiful chickens (click to enlarge).
We are not quite sure about the breed of this chicken. Anybody any idea?



At this "children's farm" also goats, rabbits, turkey and other animals run around and they already seem to know when we are coming cause they are all standing at the gate waiting for diner.

The Ink cap (Coprinus comatus), is a common fungus often seen growing on lawns, along gravel roads and waste areas. The Ink cap is recognizable from its cap which initially covers almost the whole of its stem (left picture)



Then the bell-shaped caps open out. The caps are white, and covered with scales. The gills beneath the cap are white, then pink, then turn black and secrete a black liquid filled with spores (hence the "ink cap" name) (right picture).

When young it is an excellent edible mushroom provided that, after being collected, it is eaten soon. Never tried it ourselves though. It is said that when you use alcohol with this mushroom it gets poisoned. So…… be careful.

It was going to be a long day as we wanted to go to Maria Laach and visit the Abbey which is about a 1,5 hrs drive from our hometown.
Elgar the Moose insisted on eating a proper breakfast and stuck his nose into the honeypot (mmmh....just like Winnie the Pooh does).
But oh well....... honey is a healthy product so we just let him eat the whole honeypot..


When we arrived at Maria Laach we first visited the Abbey (see our previous entry on the Maria Laach Abbey) and as we had much time left, bought ourselves a book (Kompass, Wanderfuehrer Eifel 2, Vulkaneifel) with walks in that area and opted for walk nr. 45: "Um den Laacher See". The walk is 15 kms long and goes all around the Laacher see with beautiful views and interesting geological sightings.

The walk starts near the Abbey and took us into the woods with now and then a glimpse of the Laacher see. Not many people tend to take this walking track but this snail did.



After a couple of km's we arrived at this viewing point, called Vierduempelhoehe.




Also Elgar enjoyed the view from the backpack. And don't forget to look up at the clouds as well when you are walking cause often these are spectacular to see.



After enjoying this short break we picked up our walk again and after having some troubles finding the right track cause the description is not always that clear, we finally arrived at the Lydiaturm (Lydia Tower). This tower must be mounted as it provides for an astonishing view over the area.

A lot of steps took us to the top of the Lydiaturm, and yes one have to admits: the view is awesome.



Even Elgar, who normally suffers from a fear of heights, got out of the backpack. We first spotted a young buzzard in the sky. It was hovering over our heads and we were lucky to make this nice shot.



And then we looked at the Laacher See from above. The great Eifel lake takes its name from the Old High German word "lacha" which in turn is derived from Latin "lacus" as english "lake". Thus the name literally means "Lake of the Lake" similar to the "Loch Lochy" in the Scottish Highlands with the same meaning.

You can see clearly that the Laacher see is a crater lake, or more exactly a caldera lake. The caldera was formed after the Laacher volcano erupted, between 12,900 and 11,200 years ago. The Laacher is still considered to be an active volcano.




After a while it was time to move on again and the track took us right along the waterfront of the Laacher See which also turned out to be a geology path: Mudpools, big rocks, all part of the history of this area.





After about 4 hours we arrived at the parking lot. It was a beautiful day with lots of astonishing views and interesting stuff along the route. One more glimpse to the green fields surrounding this See and off we went for a well-deserved evening meal.



We ended up at Hotel Waldfrieden in Wassenach where we had a marvellous fishplate all for ourselves as Elgar was dreaming sweet dreams in the backpack.