Montserrat 23/6
Hot and sunny around 30
Today we decided to head out of Barcelona to Montserrat up in the mountains.
We caught the metro to Placa d'Espanya station and took quite a while to find the R5 train platform it was as tricky as we had read in the guide. The train goes out to Manresa and took about an hour, after that we boarded a cable car up the mountain to the monastery. The Caribbean Island Montserrat was named by Christopher Columbus after the mountain.
The Benedictine abbey Santa Maria de Montserrat contains the black madonna but we only visited the chapel where you didn't have to line up for an hour to get in. There were enough other sites we wanted to see. We visited the museum which was a display of modern art and artefacts but not really connected to the history of the Monastery. We ventured further up the mountain by Sant Joan funicular and were treated to a spectacular lightning and thunderstorm show. Followed by a heavy downpour of rain which continued when we came down and soaked us as we returned to get the cable car down to catch the train back to Barcelona. Arriving back in Barcelona it was still warm and sunny. To make the most of our last day we decided to visit Park Guell designed by Gaudi, high above the city the large park overlooks the water and as there were large crowds waiting to get in this is at 7pm we just strolled around seeing what we could without waiting in line. We had our first bus trip back and then enjoyed tapas at a bar outside the beautiful Navarros nursery. Best meal so far in Barcelona tapas at Cafe Cargol.