We had an early start today; 9am saw us all in the dining room having breakfast, for we had hired a car and were going to visit the remote monastery at Monserrat.
The journey started out a bit wobbly, as the map provided by Avis was not the best and also had labels locating Avis Offices obscuring several crucial road junctions. We did eventually find a service station (on our third attempt!) that had a map of Catalonia for sale and things proceeded more smoothly after that.
Once out of the urban sprawl surrounding Barcelona you began to get a feel of the country proper, although the mountains of Montserrat are rather peculiar, looking like stacks of dough-balls or profiteroles rather than the usual scrub covered terraces. Unfortunately as we climbed higher what was undoubtedly a stunning view back towards the coast was obscured by what looked like smog. Even so, we passed some dramatic vistas before finally reaching our destination.
The first hint that we were approaching the monastery was the car park barriers across the road. Having collected our ticket we drove up the remainder of the road that was marked out with parking bays on either side. I think today was a quiet day for them, as only maybe the top third of the bays were in use. That said there were thirty or forty coaches in the coach park, which was overflowing!
The monastery of Montserrat is located on a ledge about halfway up the mountain side; it has lovely dramatic views, some of which you can see here in the photoblog, and is a very popular destination for pilgrims and tourists alike. We followed the typical tourist route I suspect; we visited the Basilica to hear the boys’ choir sing prayers, then took one of the funicular railways further up the mountain to take our photographs of the monastery and finally Brett, John & Rich joined the queue to touch the Black Madonna while I photographed the interior of the Basilica. Unfortunately though, the lighting was too low for my camera to make much of what could be seen and none of the other guys reported a sudden oneness with the universe after touching the statue. It looked like there were other places within the monastery complex that were open to visitors, but we decided to begin our trek home. Montserrat is definitely a place I would visit again though and probably aim to spend a bit more time in. After the noise and bustle of the coast, it was very relaxing to be on the track up to the hermitage, listening to the silence for a while and breathing the fresh air.
We took a more scenic route through the mountains on the way home, further inland than on our outward leg. Apart from a short delay in the rush-hour traffic around a motorway junction, the trip back to Sitges was delightful; we saw a lot more of rural Catalonia than you would even guess existed on the autopista by Barcelona though. It looks like the major crop around here is grapes, presumably for wine. We made it back in good time for a shower before dinner.
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