We decided not to stay at the castle until 10 am to visit
the church that is onsite. We figured we
will see enough churches in the next few days.
We also opted not to have breakfast at the hotel as it was a buffet and
it was 18 Euros each. Left the hotel
around 8 am after admiring the views one more time. First stop was in town to see if the market was
open, as we wanted to pick up a few things to eat. Nothing was open and it looked like a ghost
town, so we headed out. I could not find
the place where we were going next on the GPS.
I knew the route from checking last night on Google so I picked a town
half way to get us started in the right direction.
It was about a 2 ½ hour drive on good roads. The landscape in the area was once again very
nice and a bit of a change from what we had encountered so far. It was fairly
flat rolling hills with lots of farmland except for the mound of stones that
would pop up everywhere. At one point we
followed a large body of water which was a dam.
Spain does not have many rivers.
We stopped to use the washroom just before we got off the main highway
to go to Montserrat. We also grabbed a
croissant to eat since we only had strawberries and a mandarin each and it was
11 now. For the last 6 km or so, it is
all twisty roads on the side of mountains with beautiful views on both sides of
the car. It would have been nice to have
a convertible car at this point, as it was hard to look up. We got to the monastery and it is paid
parking and we think it says 5.50 Euros for 30 minutes. We had planned to be there for about 4 hours.
Oh well. There must have been 20 tour buses in the parking lots on top of a few
hundreds cars. I can’t imagine this
place on a busy weekend. We walked to
the information center and get a map and ask about parking. First 30 minutes is free after that it is
5.50 Euros for the rest of the day, much better.
Montserrat monastery is famous for its Basilica boy
choir.
It started when a small group of
shepherd children saw a bright light in the sky above the mountains and heard
angels singing.
There were also visions
in a cave on this mountain, making it a sanctuary for religions pilgrimages.
The monastery was founded in 1025.
We first visited the cathedral to see the boy
choir.
These boys are chosen and move
here at age 10 and spend 4 years here.
They are off in July and over Christmas that is it.
Wonder how much Liam or Jake would like to do
this?
There were about 50 boys in the
choir.
The church was packed with
tourists, a little too packed.
We went
to get a seat at 12:00 and the choir didn’t start until 1:00, by 12:30 there
were no seats left.
They started with a
short gospel reading, prayers, and then the choir sang 2 or 3 songs.
That was it.
We were done by 1:15.
It was
definitely worth the trip here to see the monastery and beautiful mountains,
but I would pass on the choir.
There are
2 vernaculars here, one that takes you part way down the mountain to the cave
where the virgin Mary appeared, and one to take you up.
We first went down as it had the shortest
line.
Very few people were down here, a
beautiful walk along the mountain side with 15 amazing statues that had
something to do with the rosary, we got a little lost in translation here.
Back up to the main area again and took the
other vernacular up to the top of the mountain. Fantastic views here and we
decided to walk down and enjoy the views, this took about 40 minutes.
When we got back to the Main Square and
cathedral it was amazing how empty it was.
We had tried earlier to visit the Black Virgin Mary but the line was so
long we passed, this time we basically walked right up.
The square was empty, made for great
pictures.
The afternoon is definitely
the time to visit here.
There is also a
hotel here, would be a great place to spend the night, I am sure it is very
peaceful and spiritual once all the tourists leave.
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| Drive up to Montserrat |
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| Montserrat Cathedral on the right, not so pretty outside, but inside WOW |
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| The WOW part |
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| Boys choir |
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| One of the walks in Montserrat to a small chapel |
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| Funicular ride up |
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| Hiking down after the funicular ride up |
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| Inside again |
Drove back down the very windy road into Barcelona. Dropped the car off at the airport, about $350.00
cdn for the 4+ weeks car rental, priceless for what we got to do with the
exploring. Grabbed a taxi to take us to
our apartment downtown, we are so glad we did the taxi rather than try to drive
ourselves, the traffic was crazy at one point. It was well worth the 30 Euros we paid for it.
Apartment is in a fantastic location.
Right at the end of the famous La Rambla
street.
Out our window we see the statue
of Christopher Columbus, which is right at the entrance to the port.
The apartment is perfect for 4 days,
fantastic location, wifi, and a little kitchen to get us going in the
morning.
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| View from our apartment balcony, Christopher Columbus statue and beginning of Las Ramblas street |
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| View from apartment balcony |
Went for a walk right after we got here, and within about 15
minutes a guy approached us with a brochure to a music theatre that was
happening that night, we were actually looking for the tourist information
centre.
We didn’t want to buy tickets
from him on the street, and weren’t decided, so he told us we could buy them at
the tourist info place.
When we got to
the tourist info place the woman told us how amazing the theatre was, it is now
a Unesco site, plus it was a famous Spanish Guitar player that night.
So we splurged and did it.
That left us 30 minutes to find something to
eat, good thing Tapas are all over here.
A quick snack and beer and we are off.
Again I know my pictures will not do this justice.
The theatre is absolutely fantastic.
Palau de la Musica, google it if you are
interested.
It is about 100 years old
and the details is breathtaking.
They
open up 30 minutes before the performance to allow you to take pictures, as
there are no pictures allowed during the performance.
We paid the extra 4 Euro to get seats at the
bottom, we were 5 rows away from the stage, absolutely fantastic seats for one
man playing a guitar.
The sound was
fantastic, and he was so talented.
He
made his guitar sound like so many musical instruments.
I think it was mostly tourists here, but
definitely some locals as well.
First
time I have actually seen someone really using those Spanish fans except for
dancing.
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| Outside of Palau de la Musica |
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