Today we have decided to travel a bit outsite of Barcelona to Montserrat Mountain. It is well known as the site of the Benedictine abbey, Santa Maria de Montserrat, which hosts the Virgin of Montserrat sanctuary. The stone from the mountain is also used for the construction of Sagrada Familia

We navigated our way through the Barcelona public transit system to reach the R5 train that will take us to Montserrat. We are still inside the Barcelona city system when we board the train. It is already almost full. Nicole and I manage to get seats, but the boys had to stand for the hour long journey. There was a young woman next to me who wasn’t well. half way through she vomitted. She had nothing to clean herself up with. I had a couple of travel tissue packs and another lady passenger had some wet wipes. She was able to clean most of it up, but the aroma travelled along with us the rest of the way. Poor girl.

We have chosen to buy tickets that include a cable car ride up to the top of the mountain. There is also a cog wheel train or funicular that can take you up as well.

There appear to be a couple of events happening on the mountain today. I tried to speak to a few of the participants on the mountain. Language was a barrier, but from what I understood is that they hiked up the mountain, I later discovered, from a gentleman at the Metro stop (who was wearing the event shirts) that it started from a town a bit north, was a 25K event with over 2,000 participants and ended with a significant climb up the mountain. Listening to particpants, there were multiple languages involved. A bit later we saw a number of cyclists arriving at the top as well.

The Abbey is also know for Our Lady of Montserrat or the Virgin of Montserrat or Black Madonna. The image is one of the Black Madonnas of Europe, hence its familiar Catalan name, La Moreneta (“the little dark-skinned one” or “the little dark one”). Believed by some to have been carved in Jerusalem in the early days of the Church, it is more likely a Romanesque sculpture in wood from the late 12th century. We were unable to secure a viewing for her, so this is best we could do to see her inside the Abbey.

We spent some time inside the Basillica and the surrounding areas. We captured some interesting shots.

We found a discrete spot to leave a bit of Stu. Somewhere new for him!

We headed back down the cable car to the train station for the ride back to Barcelona. It is a very steep descent. A woman in the center of the car is clining tight to the post with one hand and her husband with the other, all while cringing and staring at the floor. Not very much later we are on the train, this time everyone gets a seat!! YEAH!! Not long after the big boys are asleep. All it takes is 5 minutes. They make me very jealous!!

We decide for a non European dinner time at an all you can eat buffet. A place where we saw a lot of young people hanging around the day before. It is quiet inside as we are early. Had an OK meal and wandered back to our apartment. Passing some very interesting doors along the way.

This is our last night in Barcelona as tomorrow we board the Sun Princess for next 3 weeks. Alex chooses to stay at the apartment while Michael, Nicole and I go searching for a little souvenir, Adam decides to go explore a bit of Barcelona on his own. We all arrive back safe and sound to settle into our last nights sleep here.