A Day in Montserrat, Spain: A Photo Diary

When planning our trip to Barcelona, we asked a few friends who had been before what they recommended we do. One friend instantly started raving about their day trip to Montserrat, how it was the most beautiful place, the best food, an all around perfect day that was not to be missed. So we knew we had to make the time to check it out ourselves. We set aside a full day, and set out to the train station to figure out our travels. We took the first train out to a small town outside of the city where we got sufficiently lost trying to transfer to our next train, with the help of a very friendly station manager, we ran a few blocks down the street and we were on our way again.

We arrived at the Montserrat station about an hour later, where we could take in our first views of the epic and strange finger-like mountainside. We opted to take the Aeri cable car up into the mountains to the monastery first. We roamed the courtyard and little shops, as well as took in the more sacred sites along the streets. The monastery was bustling with people, but still had a sense of serenity about it. We stopped for lunch and then headed out to some of the hiking trails that lead into the Parc Natural de la Muntanya de Montserrat. We wandered along the paths taking in the absolutely amazing views of the countryside and enjoying the peace of not encountering anyone else along the trail we had chosen.

After tiring ourselves out we returned to the monastery to check when the next cable car was scheduled. We had a few minutes to pass, so naturally we stopped at a gelato shop for a refreshing treat! We caught the cable car down to the train, and headed back to Barcelona after a truly awesome day.