Montserrat

During one of the many long weekends we have here on IES, some of my friends and I went to Montserrat. Montserrat is a mountain top monastery about an hour away from Barcelona in Catolina. We took a Renfe train to the mountain and a cable car(which was awesome!) to the first level of the town.

Montserrat is a very interesting place to have such an important religious icon. The monastery is situated on the top of the mountain. Through research, I learned that many Catholic and Catalan pilgrims come from all over see the Black Madonna in Montserrat.

I also learned that this Monastery is one of Catalonia's most important religious retreats from Barcelona. Many people make overnight hikes and come to this religious place to watch the sunrise and see the beautiful view of Montserrat. This is also significant because this is the highest point above sea level in Catalonia.

My experience in Montserrat was unique. My friends and I had our fair share of challenges during our trip. The funicular was broken and all of the best hiking trails seemed to stem from the final stop of the funicular. We couldn't figure out how to get to the stop without taking it(besides climbing up the broken funicular tracks which seemed like a bad idea). Being the adventurous group that we are, we decided we would hike up random paths and hope they worked. We kind of had the "all roads lead to Rome" kind of philosophy. Apparently, not all roads lead to the Monastery because we were unable to find it. By the time we reached a summit, it would have taken us too long to hike to the monastery and then we would miss the last train to Catalonia. 

I enjoyed roaming the hiking trails, but I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in my lack of discovery. I did get a chance to see some sites on the first level of the mountain which was interesting. However, I do wish I had the chance to see more. Nonetheless, Montserrat is a beautiful place and here are some pictures of my experience.