Sunday, August 30th - Barcelona and Montserrat, Spain

I probably should call this one Montserrat, Spain since that is where we spent most of the day and it is not in Barcelona.  However, breakfast was at the hotel and dinner was at an outside cafe just down the street from the hotel so part of the day was in Barcelona and that's where we are officially on our tour.

We haven't been very good members of the tour yet.  We haven't made it to anything but rather have just been off doing our own thing.  Today was a perfect example.  The tour group was doing a morning tour of Barcelona for 2.5 hours including a stop at Sagrada Familia for about 45 minutes but only looking at it from the outside and not going in.  We decided we wanted to go in so we went there yesterday and it was fantastic to see the inside.  Then the tour group (or at least the members who booked the optional tour) were heading up to Montserrat but they would only have 2-3 hours there at most.  We spent literally the whole day there and still didn't see everything.  They went to a dinner and some Catalan dancing tonight and to the magic fountain show.   That was an optional tour costing about $90.  We watched the fountain show while sitting in an outdoor cafe eating dinner and had the dancers performing around us.  Of course our dancers weren't Catalan and our meal wasn't anything special but we survived just fine on a cost of about $10 each.  But that was yesterday so on to today.

Montserrat is about an hour outside of Barcelona - a Benedictine monastery over 1,000 years old.  You get there by train plus either an aerial cable car or another train.  We of course chose the cable car route.  We bought the full package deal from the train so we got metro or train to the starting place on the line, the trip out to Montserrat, the cable car up to the monastery, use of the funiculars to the higher parts of the mountain, lunch, admission to the museum and the audio tour on the history of the place and of course the return trip.  It cost 46 euros, which seemed like a lot, but it was worth it when you started adding all the individual pieces up.  And it was a way better value than the optional tour offered by Trafalgar with lower cost and more time and more free things to see.

I went up on an earlier train than the rest of the gang as I wanted to hear the boys choir sing and the website said they were only doing so at the 11 a.m. service.  Normally they do a concert every day at noon but many of the boys were away as this is summer vacation.  The trip out was easy and the connection from train to aerial car was simple.  The views along the train route were stunning as we got into some of the higher areas . The aerial car offered great views too, and it was hard not to keep snapping pictures.  Once at the top I went directly to the info office to get a map and directions to the church.  Then I went there and sat through the entire service not understanding a word that was being said or what they were doing.  The choir did sing during several parts of the service and they were really good.

The place was packed.  I don't know how many the church holds or how many were tourists versus how many were regular parishioners, but there were no empty pews and there were a lot of people standing.  Pictures aren't allowed during services so most people were mindful of that.  Toward the end of the service the crowd just kept getting bigger and bigger.  I assumed it was just all the tourists coming in and getting trapped in the service by other tourists.  But then at the end of the service, precisely at 12 noon, the boys choir moved to the centre as everyone else at the front left and they sang several songs.  It was only about 15 minutes but they were very good.  I could have listened to them for a lot longer but 15 minutes was better than nothing.  The boys choir at Montserrat has about 50 members and they all live on the mountain and go to school there and study music and choral singing.  The choir has been around since the 13th century and is considered the oldest in Europe.  They really are quite talented and very easy to listen to, which is probably why they perform all over the world and have made many recordings..

After the service and concert I continued my tour around the basilica.  I actually don't know what to call the church.  Sometimes it is just referred to as the sanctuary, sometimes the basilica and sometimes the church.  Anyway, it is a big part of the monastery and has a lot of different points of interest in it.  36 pages of the guide book were describing items within the basilica.  Mind you it was in four different languages.  And the map with the guide said it would take 1.5 hours to go through it all.  Needless to say, the others were out a lot sooner than I was.  Oh yeah, they made it up in time to hear the concert which meant they didn't have to get up as early and they didn't have to sit through a service that they didn't understand. 

The basilica was consecrated in the 16th century but, as usual, it went though some modifications, especially in the 19th century.  It is a mix of Gothic and Renaissance architecture.  It's approximately 70 metres long, 22 metres wide and 33 metres high according to the books.  The central part seems large on its own and then there are smaller chapels down each side.  The pillars are large and rectangular on the lower floor and smaller and round on the second floor.  All of them are ornately decorated.  The arches are wider and more rounded in the lower part and then narrower and more pointed in the upper part.  The high ribbed ceiling is also ornately decorated.  In fact the whole place is decorated with carvings and colours of grey, blue, brown, gold, etc.  It's quite beautiful and changes colours as the lighting changes.  The windows are mainly higher up so the lower parts have to be artificially lit.  The main altar is an eight ton block of stone from Montserrat carved and decorated in silver and enamel.  The gold carvings and the paintings that stand behind it at the front of the church are all beautiful.  From the back where i was sitting, the people at the front were dwarfed and totally overpowered by the size and grandeur of the backdrop behind them.

The facade of the church is very basic and simple in places looking like a brick building.  And then there are carvings that adorn other parts.  I didn't figure out all of the carvings but he main ones were of Jesus and the 12 apostles.  The courtyard in front of the church is large and has a marble floor with white and grey tiles and lots of religious symbols throughout.  In this courtyard and the next there are lots of statues of saints - most of whom I'd never heard of.  The doors or walkways were all adorned in religious paintings and decorations.  It almost became overwhelming at times.

Oh, I almost forgot.  There was one area that we did not get near at all.  The line ups were hours long and we just couldn't wait (or waste) that amount of time.  The  Lady of Montserrat is a 12th century statue of Mary holding a sphere in her right hand symbolizing the world and Jesus in her left hand. It is also referred to as the Black Madonna as the carving has a dark hue.  Pilgrims travel from all over the world to touch the orb of this statue as it is believed to have healing powers.  It is one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations in Spain and that is why people are willing to line up for hours.  We were there on a Sunday and there were several services during the day.  The statue is at the front of the church above the main altar so you cannot visit it during services and that makes the line up even longer.  Once the service was over you could watch people, one-by-one, going past the statue and stopping for a moment of prayer.  

The amazing part about the monastery at Montserrat is the setting.  The monastery is part way up a mountain and seems to just nestle into the folds of the mountain peaks.  And the peaks are unusual formations like rounded hootoos that tower over the site reaching 1,150 metres.  They refer to Montserrat as an Open Air Museum and there are funiculars that will take you further up the mountains above the monastery where there are hiking trails that go for miles.  Some are just to enjoy the scenery and some are to other smaller chapels and some of the old original churches that were in the area.  We went up one of the funiculars and walked around for a while, even reached one of the old churches.  The views were spectacular.  There were hikers on the trails and they can stay in some of the buildings at the monastery while they hike the trails.  Most of us were just up for the day though.

Within the monastery area there was also a museum/art gallery and an audio visual presentation area re the history of the monastery.  Both of those were interesting and informative.  There are still monks living and serving here and the church is definitely still operational.  There were a few restaurants by the monastery and we had to have our lunch in one particular one as it was included in our ticket.  We weren't expecting much but boy was it good.  We all had huge helpings that were delicious, albeit a bit unorthodox.  I think mine was three pork loin chops with a lot of plain old beans that were delicious, a salad, a drink and a dessert.  Aside from the food, the "village" is very attractive in such a beautiful setting and I would certainly not hesitate to visit it again and even stay for a while and do some hiking or just enjoy the scenery.  The views really are spectacular from any location and in any direction.

 

After finishing our visit we went back down the cable car and waited for the train back into Barcelona and then the metro back to our hotel.  We actually didn't even go to our rooms.  We went down the street to a little cafe and had our dinner first and then headed to our rooms as once again we were exhausted.  

We probably spent 9 10 hours on this adventure and our tour group was getting 2.5 hours only.  They certainly wouldn't have seen much of the place so I'm certainly glad that we once again did our own thing.  From now on though we will have to join them since the bus will be moving us all out in the morning.