Mountain, Sea and Sky

After our late night last night, we started out a bit later today.  We drove to Montserrat to see the monastery there, Montserrat Monastir.  Jaime says they call it the Magic Mountain because it is the only one of its type in the area.  Standing alone, it is nearly bare rock jutting up out of the ground.  The monastery there was heavily damaged during the Spanish Civil War during the 1930's, and has been reconstructed.  And to get there you can either drive, take a train, or do as we did - ride the cable car up! 

 

If you squint really hard, you might be able to make out the monastery at the very top of the mountain on the right.

 

 

The trip up was uneventful, and we walked around taking in the view from various points.  There are lots of little paths you can take to various shrines in the rocks around the monastery itself, but we didn't feel the need to do that.  You can also take another little train down to a sacred cave, or up to the VERY top of the mountain, where you can walk around.  We didn't think we needed to do that, either.

 

When we went into the actual monastery, we noticed a long line of people along the wall.  It ran from way out in the front plaza, through the courtyard, and into the church.  We thought for a minute that we wouldn't be able to get in to see the church, but it turned out that this was a special line.  There is a Virgin of Montserrat that people can climb up to touch and take pictures of, and this line was for that.  I am not really interested in touching virgins, religious or otherwise, so we just went on in to the sanctuary.  We moved toward the front for a moment and sat down.....then a bell rang and everyone stood up.  Umm.... it was either slip out right then or stay for mass.  We departed. 

 

After eating the sandwiches Jaime brought (there is nothing better than ham and cheese on crusty Spanish bread rubbed with tomato), we headed back down on the cable car.  There was a geocache right there at the bridge to where we were parked, and we started down to look for it, but the terrain was a little too much for my foot and knee.  So Jaime and Adrian pressed on, found the cache, and brought it up.  We signed it, dropped some geocoins, and back they went to return it to its proper place.

 

Then we headed back to Barcelona to go to the top of Mont Tibidabo, the highest point in Barcelona.  There is an amusement park at the top, but we were only interested in the view.  And what a view it was!

 

Today was a bank holiday, so most stores and offices were closed.  There was relatively little car traffic or people in the city center, so we drove around to take another look at some things we saw yesterday, then got an early dinner (McDonald's for Adrian, since he had been so good all day).

 

Now it is time to pack up and get ready for part three of my trip - to Madrid tomorrow, then off to Gredos on Sunday!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!