Larry and I enjoyed a continental breakfast Sunday morning before heading out to the tram. We found our way to the below ground subway where we finally found the train out of the city to the unusual mountain formations in Catalonia. It took us about three hours to arrive in Catalonia. Here we caught another tram that took us to the top of the mountain where an unusual monastary had been built right on the side of the mountain about 7000 feet above Catalonia. Montserrat is a spectacular Benedictine monk mountain retreat. It is not only of significant religous importance but the natural beauty surrounding the monastery is simply breathtaking.
From the train in Catalonia looking up.
It is hard to believe that they build this Cathedral and Monastery within these rock so high up in the mountain.
After going into the massive Cathedral , we viewed an art exhibit by one of the monks. His work was fabulous. We enjoyed walking several of the steep paths that led further up to the top of the mountain, but had tremendous views of the valley below. The day happened to be Palm Sunday and many, many people were there with a limb of greenery attached to their belongings in honor of the day. Hundreds of candles had been lit in an area beside the Cathedral that was carved out of the mountainside indicating the large number Catholics who had visited there that day. This area warmed up 20 degrees due to the candles heat. It was quite a site.
Gorgeous waterfall coming down the mountain in front of the Monastery.
Outside the Cathedral
These guys had been scaling the mountains...I would have liked to have seen that!
Lots of gold inside of here.
One section of the hundreds of candles that had been lit during Palm Sunday.
The artwork of
Part of the Monastery
What an amazing view!
The plumbing in Europe is not quite like the United States. There were five water spouts coming out of the side of a man made fountain. We did not partake in drinking this; although, many were. We have only been drinking bottled water since we arrived in Spain.
Drinking from the many fountains from the water flowing down the mountain.
We enjoyed hiking up the hills seeing statues and plagues dedicated to many monks as well as the fabulous views.
Since Catholics like to partake of the fine vintages, we decided to join them in support of their cause during the train ride back to Barcelona. It was a long ride home and we arrived back around 11:00pm. Larry kept me out late that night...and we had to catch an early flight the next morning to Vienna, Austria, but Montserrat had been quite a sight to see and we were glad that we made the trip to enjoy the Spanish countryside.
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