Montserrat
Trip Start
Feb 01, 2008
1
9
Trip End
Feb 16, 2008
Montserrat,
Spain
Friday, February 15, 2008
Ok, enough about the hotel. We returned to our favorite restaurant in Barcelona: Taller de Tapas for dinner. As before, we left the restaurant very full and satisfied.
The next day was a visit to Montserrat. Barcelona Montserrat is a spectacularly beautiful monk mountain retreat about 1 ½ hour North from Barcelona by train. The monastery is surrounded by weird and beautiful looking rock formation that is not found anywhere else in Spain but here in Montserrat.
Not only is Montserrat Monastery of significant religious importance but the natural beauty surrounding the monastery is simply breathtaking.
from top of monastery.
A little history: "The history of Montserrat is fascinating and started in 880 when a small group of shepherd children saw a bright light descending from the sky in the Montserrat mountains. In the same moment the children heard angels singing and the music filled their hearts with a radiant joy. Overwhelmed by the experience the children ran home to frantically recall the experience to their parents. The parents were skeptical but knew their children were trustworthy and honest and so they went to where the children had experienced the visions to see if they could see what all the fuss was about.
For the whole month following the first visitation the parents were also witness to the same heavenly experiences and were left with only one conclusion. The visions were a sign from God.
A local vicar was brought to the scene and witnessed the same experiences as the children and parents. The visions occurred in the same location in a cave on Montserrat mountain. When this cave was explored by the religious elders of the community they found an image of the Virgin Mary. And from that moment on the cave became a holy sanctuary for religious pilgrims. " They then built this monastery at the site.
It says that hermits have occupied the Montserrat mountains since 6th century, but no clear dates as to when the original monastery was built, but suspected to be in the 8th century. The new monastery was built in the 18th century.
We didn't realize that it would take so long to get to Montserrat and that the trains and funiculars are running at limited time only, so we really didn't get to spend much time here.
can't get enough of this.
If we could have a do over... we would've gotten up really early in the morning so we could spend a whole day in Montserrat. And if it was all up to me, I would've opt to spend the night at the only hotel (which has terrible reviews only and hardly any good reviews) available next to the monastery. But for the little time we got to spend there, we took a train up to the mountain to where the monastery is. Thinking that we would have time later to check out the monastery, we took a San Joan funicular up 250 meters higher into the mountains which then gave us a better view of the mountain and the monastery from the top. We then took a walk on a path that was supposed to take us to the highest point of Montserrat mountain. There are 2 paths you can take, the San Joan path and this other path (the name escapes me at this point, I'm thinking is the Jeroni path). This 2nd path they say will take about 60 minutes one way but it says to be the best path for the best view. We had a little over 2 hours before the last funicular that would take us back down to the monastery leaves us, so we thought, if we just haul ass up the mountain, we would be able to take some snaps and come back down. WRONG! The path isn't as easy as the travel book made it sound. I (Farida) was wearing my "born" sandals with some heels. Although, Brent went ahead to see if he could make it to the top, we ran out of time and had to turn around. We were about ¾ up the mountain. I have to say though... that Callista is a great hiker! Granted she was fully equipped with hiking shoes, she made it up the path with me without a single complain, and her little legs moved faster to keep up with my longer strides.
1st view of montserrat -already breath taking
There are some parts of the path which required some climbing, and she did that with no complains and needed very little help from me. I am very...very proud of her! I was sorry that we made it so far but couldn't make it to the top, but proud to say that I think if we only had another hour, Callista would be able to make it to the top and back. No doubt the site would have been beautiful, as it was breath taking from ¾ of the way where we had to turn around. We did make it back to the funicular to take us back down to the monastery. By this time, we didn't have time to check out the monastery because the last train would leave to Barcelona in about 30 minutes, which only gave us enough time to take the old cable car down to the train station. Taking the cable car was a neater experience than taking the train (which we did on the way to the top). 3 big cables essentially run from the train station straight up to the monastery area. The cable car would carry about 15 people, and takes about 15 minutes 1 way. If you're terrified of heights, cable car is not the way to go, but even a faint heart like me made it from the top to the bottom without having a panic attack. Then a 1 hr train ride back to Barcelona.
Our last night in Spain, we spent it by once again going back to "Taller de Tapas" restaurant Thinking that since we had such success with their foods, looking for another place to have great tapas and gamble on our last supper would be silly. After dinner, we went back to Sagrada Familia to get a one last glimpse of the beautiful church before going back to the hotel and pack. Sagrada Familia is an appropriate place for us to remember Spain by, and with that, we've concluded our journey to Spain.
