Tag: #montserrat

Montserrat Monastery Spain

23 April 2018

On the way to meet friends to go to Montserrat, I experienced Barcelona’s celebration of

St Jordi’s (St George) Day, a celebration similar to St Valentine’s Day, with a twist. The men give a rose to the woman they love, be it their partner, sister or friend and the woman gives the man a book.
The Red Cross (Crue Roja) had a stall selling roses and I introduced myself as a fellow volunteer. At the same moment, Denny (whom I met on the 15 day Transatlantic cruise) saw the stall and did the same thing. Bumping into each other in Barcelona, Denny and I discovered we had another thing in common, working for Emergency Services, not just dancing and travelling.

I then met up with friends for my adventure to Montserrat.

You can take a train to the Montserrat Monastery which costs 16EUR each way or have a friend like Stu who drove Taria, Sheryl, Kim and I, stopping off for some of the most spectacular views which photos do not do justice.

At Montserrat we were so in awe we took our time taking everything in.

I got my obligatory police photo.

The Basilica with the Black Madonna was packed with people to hear the boys choir singing.

There are so many trails you could spend a week here. We took theSant Joan Funicularto enjoy the views of Montserrat and Catalunya and to explore some of the walking trails.

We then took a slow walk up the mountain along the hermitage path to Sant Joan Chapel.

This is quite exhausting and the farmers markets were calling so we decided to put together a picnic before we returned to Barcelona.

We had a picnic feast of prosciutto, figs, potato omelette, several cheeses, nougat and fresh baguette.

Highly recommend at least a whole day at Montserrat but I would have enjoyed at least 3 days there. There is a lovely reasonably priced hostel at Montserrat.