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| The monastery at Montserrat nestles against the rock of the mountaintop |
| Erin's Barcelona Journals 6-1-02 Today we took the train to Montserrat. We meant to be up and out by 9:30 at the La Spagna subway station where we would hook up with the out-of-city trains, but got a later start than planned and made the 12:30 one instead. After about an hour on the train going out into the Spanish countryside, we arrived at the Montserrat station, where we walked up some steps to the aerial cable car, which brought us to the monastery high in the mountains. Once there, we noticed the two 'funiculars,' or steep track trains that could take you up and down from Sant Joan and Santa Cova, which are near the monastery in the mountains. But first we explored the small town that clusters around the monastery, with even a grocery store and hotel! The monastery itself was very crowded, but we didn't know why, as the major services weren't scheduled till much later in the afternoon. We decided after viewing some holy relics that we'd follow some of the suggested hikes to see the magnificent views. We took the funicular up the hill to Sant Joan, then followed the trail for our chosen hike, but when we found the turn-off, it was so overgrown with spiny weeds that I was sure it wasn't the right spot. We walked up a little further, and sure enough, that must have been it. I was doubtful, but agreed to give it a try. We waded in through the bushes for a ways, but soon found that the trail was very out of use and hadn't been trimmed up for the year, and was pretty dangerous as it wandered along some cliffs, so we turned back and went to try a different itinerary. This one was much better, as it was steep but paved, and we saw many great vistas of the surrounding mountains & valleys. Very inspiring. As we reached a small hermitage building, we heard singing from the monastery, still a ways away, and went further on the trail to see if we could hear better. Sure enough, we found an outcropping with a great view of the monastery where we could hear the whole service clearly - they'd set up chairs & a stage outside for the benefit of those who couldn't fit in the church proper, and it was clear as a bell across all those rocks! So we sat and listened to the music & some of the service out on a rock overlooking the valley. Very cool! We finished up the hike around 6 and realized we were getting near to the last scheduled departure of the aerial cable car for the day. We rushed down to beat the crowd from the service, and waited a little while for the train back to Barcelona. We arrived back around 8, just in time for dinner. We found a pretty good paella for two near our internet place, then sat and did web work until 1am, including a lucky hookup on chat with Glenn's mom. |