Montserrat

Outside of Barcelona, up on a high peak sits an eleventh century monastery and its famous resident, the virgin of Montserrat. It is actually an ornate model. Supposedly almost 1000 years ago, mountaineers saw the virgin Mary here and later pilgrims began flocking there and the construction of the church started. Today pilgrims continue to go to Montserrat to plead their requests before the virgin Mary. We took the FGC train from Barcelona and in an hour reached Montserrat Aeri station where we took the cable car up to Montserrat. It was a very steep climb. There is a rack railway that goes up there too but I don't know where to take it. The fastest way up is on the cable car. It was a little scary.

The wild and beautiful area below Montserrat.

Here we are leaving the cable car station for the steep climb up to Montserrat.

Over a bridge...

Over a river....

The cable car station is barely visible.

We are now close to the rock surface, near the top. 1235 meters to be exact.

Montserrat is in view.

Here we just got off the cable car.

The station on the top.

The rack railway.

It was a little after 1pm, the boys choir sings in the cathedral at 1pm every day. We rushed over and it was crowded, standing room only. We managed to hear them sing. It is a beautiful cathedral. There was a very long line to the back of the altar where the 'virgin of Montserrat' is. We didn't join the line, not being Catholics. I remember a similar line to touch the statue of St James at Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain. I joined the line but didn't touch or kiss it. The priest who was on duty said, 'not Catholic?' I said, 'no'.

The entrance to the cathedral.

It was fun just to be there to see it. So now I can say, 'been there, done that'. I've been curious about Montserrat for a long time. Now I have satisfied my own curiosity.