30 July - Montserrat

Montserrat is another place that I had wanted to explore but never had time on business trips. It is a unique, rocky mountain formation about an hour's drive from Barcelona.

(By Josep Renalias - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, WikiCommons)

Our actual Montserrat destination was Santa Maria de Montserrat abbey. To get there, we booked a "Montserrat, Tapas & Wine" tour with CastleExperience that filled most of our day.

We started by meeting our guide, Aurora, and the other participants in front of the Hard Rock Cafe at Plaça de Catalunya.

After a nice coach ride through the countryside ...

... we were at the base station of the Cremallera de Montserrat rack railway.

There are other ways to ascend to the abbey including a cable car, but this was included in our tour.

What a spectacular view at the base, and what a fantastic ride to the abbey!

Santa Maria de Montserrat is a Benedictine abbey that was founded in the 10th century and is still home to 70-80 monks.

(By Bernard Gagnon - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, WikiCommons)

There are several buildings in the monastery including hotels for pilgrims. According to Wikipedia, Montserrat "is Catalonia's most important religious retreat and groups of young people from Barcelona and all over Catalonia make overnight hikes at least once in their lives to watch the sunrise from the heights of Montserrat. Virgin of Montserrat (the black virgin), is Catalonia's favorite saint, and is located in the sanctuary of the Mare de Déu de Montserrat, next to the Benedictine monastery nestling in the towers and crags of the mountain. The Escolania, Montserrat’s Boys’ Choir, is one of the oldest in Europe, and performs during religious ceremonies and communal prayers in the basilica."

We started our visit with a guided tour that helped us understand some of the history and significance of the place.

Then we had some free time to hike or explore the grounds or the basilica. We decided to check out the basilica.

As we entered the church, Mass was ending, and we were treated to music by a children's choir.

We lit candles in a small walkway carved into the mountain at the back of the church.

We visited Montserrat on a Sunday, and that meant that there were a lot of people there plus some special things going on.

We weren't quite sure what was going to happen in the courtyard.

 It turned out to be some local folk dancers ...

... and a youth castellers team performing.

We tried the local "licors" ...

... then took in the views ...

  ... before decending again.

On the way back to Barcelona, our tour stopped at Oller de Mas winery.

We had a brief tour and learned some things about cork.

Then it was time to have a few (very ordinary) tapas and taste their wines.

The wines were enjoyable, and it was a nice way to finish the tour before heading back to Barcelona.

Taking this tour was a great idea.

For dinner, we went to La Fermata de Provença - a pizza place next door to Mauri. The pizza was sold by weight. We just asked them to cut the slices we wanted. It was delicious. We also had a green salad with goat cheese. It's the only time we've ever had so much goat cheese that we couldn't finish it! That was also delicious.

We were excited that Allie was going to join us the next day.