Adventures in Europe: Montserrat, Spain

After mass, Melanie and I caught several trains and made our way out of Barcelona and inland to Montserrat.  It was a three train trip and certainly took awhile, but ended up being well worth it.

At the Monistrol de Montserrat commuter rail station we transferred to the rack railway that takes you up the mountain.

The train climbs five kilometres out of the valley and up Montserrat, allowing for some pretty good views at times.

There are three stops total, with the final one being the complex of the Montserrat monastery, with views like this of the valley.

We still needed lunch, and actually there were not as many options as there sometimes are, because evidently the monastery was taking advantage of winter to do some renovations.  So, we were stuck (poor us) eating in what used to be stables from the 16th century!

This was the wonderful octopus leg we got to eat!

There are all kinds of fascinating things to do at Montserrat, but our time was limited, so really, besides our wonderful lunch, all we did was hike.  There is a visitor's centre that gave me a map of the trails, but it is not a very good map; anyway, we found a trail and set out further up the mountain.

Our route began here, where it seems most of the trail that go up the mountain begin.  

You can go right or left (roughly north or south), and we chose left.  Usually this funicular allows you to go up and/or down from the top, but today it, like some of the eating options, was closed for upgrades.  We had no interest in using it to go up, but later as we were coming down we would have appreciated it!

Evidently the first party of our trail was part of a way of the cross, or at least some sort of trail with religious significance. 

The trail was not especially steep, but we seemed to be climbing fairly quickly anyway--here we could look back and see the monastery complex.

From here more or less the path switch-backed northwest and began climbing further up towards the peak, and here are some pictures from our climb.

We could just see parts of Barcelona and the Mediterranean far in the distance.

The trail became increasingly rough as we moved upward.  At some point we reached the ruins of an old monastic retreat.

We did not make it quite to the top, as that would have required some serious rock climbing.

We got awfully high nonetheless, and had some great views, including this view of the main monastery complex we had eaten lunch at.

From here things turned less pleasant.  The fact is we had already hiked quite far, and I thought we could complete a loop back down to the monastery.  At least, that is what the map showed.  Sadly, trying to follow that trail turned out to be a mistake, and we only gave up on it after another two kilometres or so.  So, we had to double back, and then make our way down the way we had come up.  It was long past sunset (about 18:30) by the time we got back down.  The bells of the church were ringing just as we reached the complex, and despite how tired we were, it was sort of a nice way to end the hike.

It was another three train trek back into the city, but it had been a great day.