Auf Wiedersehen

I will actually be departing from the Maria Laach Abbey early tomorrow morning, but thought this would be my farewell post for the Abbey and Germany. It has been a great seven days filled with some wonderful experiences.

Although today was mostly a quiet day spent entirely here at the Abbey, it provided me the opportunity for reflection and to wind down from this leg of my sabbatical travels before continuing on tomorrow to England.

After breakfast I spent two and a half hours at the console of the main organ in the Maria Laach Abbey church. The organ actually has two consoles. The newer one is located down near the monks' stalls. Playing from that console makes it easier to hear the monks when accompanying their chanting. I played today from the original console which is located up in the rear gallery with the organ itself. This is a picture of that console. (A picture of the organ facade may be found on my September 10 posting.)

The organ (and this console) date from 1910. The organ was reconfigured and the second console added in 2010. I have added four videos of music recorded on this organ this morning. (Note: I have purposely been including recordings of some of the same music more than once on this blog as a comparison of how the pieces sound on different instruments.) The videos from today are on my YouTube channel at:

https://youtu.be/GN5o2eVLkgw, https://youtu.be/DHG1leTNBq0, https://youtu.be/o_0XTn3Hp8s and https://youtu.be/BxT1ukuIkN8.

After buying a few souvenirs in the gift shop and having lunch, I spent most of the afternoon relaxing and mentally reviewing my time spent in Germany. After Vespers and dinner I bid my farewells to Gereon and a couple of the monks who have been so gracious to me this week. Back in my room I began the task of packing, but took a break to attend Compline at 7:45 p.m. and am now working on this blog post before finishing my packing and getting a few hours sleep before my departure from the Abbey at 6:15 a.m. tomorrow.