Day 67 – 14 September 2023 – Barcelona, Espana – day 2

Off to Montserrat today & we head out at 7.45 am in an effort to get ahead of the hordes of tourists our local guide tells us go there every day. The traffic is heavy coming into Barcelona so to start with we are a little held up, but soon we are making good time with traffic in the other direction at a standstill or crawling along.

It doesn’t take long once out of Barcelona to start the climb upwards, the scenery is beautiful with high mountains on both sides & the river cutting through the valley. The road to the top of Montserrat is narrow with lots of sharp bends, being so early there is not much traffic. The views of Montserrat are stunning with the rugged exposed rock formations & many small peaks. We are the first bus in the bus parking area & our driver gets to choose where he wants to park, he chooses the one that is easiest to depart from.

The Benedictine Monastery tucked in under the peaks high up on the mountain was founded in the 11^th Century with the church or Basilica started in the 16^th Century. The first recorded Monastery here was from 880 AD. Over the years there have been numerous buildings added to house the pilgrims that visit the site plus cater for the many tourists that visit every day. This site is still an active Monastery. There is a railway station here that operates a cog rail electric train system from the town at the bottom of the mountain. Additionally there is a funicular that operates two balanced cable cars that run on a very steep track from the Monastery to the very top of Montserrat.

Inside the Basilica we are the second group through the doors, the first group is only 5 people, so we only have a short wait to walk up to the alabaster portal & past mosaics of female saints across to the small room that houses the carved black Madonna with child dating from at least 880 AD. They are protected behind a glass shield with a small cut-out so that the devout can touch the sphere the Madonna holds in her hand for a blessing. Tereza & I touched the sphere as well & made a wish just in case, like everyone else, that miracles happen. This is the reason most visitors come to Montserrat. The artwork, sculptures & carvings are truly magnificent. As we walk away there is a long row of candle mounts for the devout to light candles to assist their prayers being answered, with a man busily cleaning old wax off so that more candles could be mounted & lit. They must do a booming trade in candles.

The main area of the church is simple & elegant, with a large collection of incense burners of all different styles & sizes hanging along both sides. As we leave the church a large line-up of tourists are waiting to go in, it is only 9.30 am. We walk into the nearby gift shop, it is very large, with lots of books on the history of the Monastery plus lots of religious gifts. Next door is a museum with a collection of religious relics from the middle East plus a collection of religious art by famous painters, including Picasso & El Greco.

We enjoy the incredible views of the rugged peaks of Montserrat & marvel at how anybody ever built some of the small brick/stone chapels at seemingly impossible to reach spots on the sides of the mountain. The views down the valley are equally magnificent. There is a constant throng of people walking in from the carpark plus the train has arrived full of more tourists. I am so glad that we got here early.

The bus parking area is overflowing & some buses are parked in, not us though. The drive back down Montserrat gives us spectacular views over the Catalonian region of Spain, the hills are covered in trees & there are houses dotted all over the place. The drive back into Barcelona is very easy, the morning rush has finished.

We are taken on a drive past some of the Barcelona apartment creations by the architect Antonio Gaudi, then once again parking & walking to the Sagrada Familia again. It still looks magnificent & we notice there is some more hessian protection & scaffolding that has been erected since we were here nearly three weeks ago. Our tour guide is the same woman that took us through last time & she remembers Tereza. We enjoy the tour of the Sagrada Familia & afterwards we spend a little more time exploring the construction museum downstairs, it is very interesting with more information about Gaudi & some of his design works. There is also a window into the workshop where 3D models of the new building works are being created in a very large 3D printer. Outside we admire the school house Gaudi built, it is an amazing structure & you can only wonder about the architect’s vision.

Back to the hotel & some free time before our farewell dinner as today is the final day of our tour, we all depart & head our separate ways tomorrow. The farewell dinner is at the Dolca Herminia, the same restaurant where we finished our last tour at. I had the same Spanish sausage, absolutely delicious, & Tereza dared to be different & tried the chicken Spanish style this time, another excellent dish. We had a great chat with our dinner companions & it was a little sad that we would be all together for the last time.  Chad gave a nice farewell speech, we have been lucky to have such a nice caring tour director. Back at the hotel we spent a lot of time chatting & saying our farewells to all the fellow travellers, we have become good friends in a short time, once again Chad can take a lot of the credit for that. Farewell to all these lovely people that we most probably will never meet again.