montserrat

On our last day in Barcelona, we jumped on a train to Montserrat - mountains with cool rock formations an hour away from Barcelona. At first we were a little discouraged by being stuck for an hour in a tunnelled tourist queue to the cable car.

we finally emerged to a mountainous vista.

We were to ride the cable car to avoid a painful walk up the mountain. Unfortunately the wait was long because there are only 2 cars crawling along the cables.

But we made it eventually!


We were to walk for an hour and half to reach Sant Jeroni, the highest peak of Montserrat.

The walk was very pleasant, providing many views of rock formations and the surrounding region. You can hear plenty of people calling out around the place, enjoying the echoes of their annoying yells. 

Maybe they were calling for help! Oh well!

The walk was getting to grace though. We had about 2 hours to do, and hiking along bumpy and sometimes muddy paths in half broken sandals was making her a bit crazy.

Nevertheless, we continued the excellent hike.

Until finally we reached the summit! Right on time for a raincloud coming over of course. We didn't get wet - we just couldn't see very much! It was eerie in the mist- very atmospheric.

There were lots of mini off track peaks that Joe liked to explore but Grace didn't. 

The view from the top was suitably grey. It was still extremely windy, and you could watch the clouds moving over the summit. Sometimes the sun would suddenly appear, and moments later the view would present itself as the break in the clouds move past you. 

The aforementioned break in the clouds - just as we were going downhill we had to race back up to take a photo!

Its nice to see the higher cloud layers as the lower ones move past you!

Hmm you still can't see alot!

Time to descend!

Returning along the path presented some nice views of the monastery of Montserrat.

We were a bit worried getting the cable car back to the train station, as after waiting in line for 40 minutes, we only managed to make the cable car that we had to catch before the last train to Barcelona leaves. It was a nervous wait but everything turned out to be just fine! 

And that concluded the Spain leg of our trip - next stop, south of France!