Montserrat

Montserrat is a monastery built into an amazing rock mountain about an hour outside of Barcelona via train. Once you arrive at the train station, you can either take a cable car or a funicular up the mountain. Lucie and I opted for the cable car and the views did not disappoint. Once we arrived, we were overwhelmed by the immensity of the monastery and all of the surrounding buildings.

Basically, it is a little town set in the mountain with hotels, restaurants, stores, museums and even a post office. There are lots of hiking trails that start from the monastery, but we did not venture to far from the center of activity. The most impressive experience we had was entering the church and hearing the boys choir singing. It was amazing and made the hair stand up on the back of my neck - pure joy.

Everything about the place was lovely and is definitely a wonderful day outing from Barcelona. The views alone were worth the trip. I am sure we will be back with other visitors at which time we can explore more of the mountain.

Took this when we got off the cable car at the top!

A picture of Lucie taking a picture of the view!

Beautiful view!

Inside the church when the choir was singing.

Detail from the church.

More detail.

We lit candles for loved ones!

Outside of the church.

We got someone to take our picture TOGETHER which was nice!

Our view during lunch al fresco.

There are numerous spectacular statues.

More view. Note the buildings on the mountains. How did they do that?

Another beautiful view!

The monastery against the rock.

On the way down in the cable car. Lucie was happy!