Montserrat, Spain

Montserrat ('serrated mountain' in Catalan) is a mountain near Barcelona and is known for Santa Maria de Montserrat which has the 'Black Madonna' and the famous Montserrat's Boy Choir. The boys in the choir actually live and study at the monastery!

This was an "easy" day trip from Barcelona (from memory 2hrs) and was probably the best part of my trip in Spain. To get to Montserrat required the R5 train which departs from Plaza Espanya. The ticket machine was a little confusing however there is a man who specifically sells tickets (at the same price) which is a lot easier. Sadly, the time of the year I was going meant that the furniculars were closed due to maintenance. In a nutshell, you needed to take the R5 train to Monserrat, followed by the mountain train up the mountain. Usually, the furniculars are open which would allow you to get higher up in the mountain.

The weather was not the best and it was very overcast.


Montserrat itself.


On the mountain train.







Funny story, after visiting the monastery and lining up to see the Black Madonna, I left only to discover that it was completely deserted. Eerily deserted. After checking my watch, I realised that it was 1pm (the time for the choir's performance) and quickly went back in. I watched the performance and it was good (I don't really know how to judge). I usually am quite good at filtering out things but it still nags at the back of my mind. Firstly, there were two guys chatting behind me during the performance. Secondly, selfie sticks to record the performance. I don't hate selfie sticks, I just think there is a time and place. Also, enough is enough. It gets to a point where I feel like the person must realise that it detracts from the experience. But maybe that is just me.

There really isn't much to do there after you have visited the monastery. I had planned on doing a hike up to the peak, St Jeroni because it looked incredible on Google Images. For example:

Sadly, it was incredibly overcast and in fact, it felt like being in the clouds since they were so low and visibility was pretty horrendous. However, I sometimes have a #yolo personality. Sometimes. It pops up every now and then.


Very eerie.






If the furniculars were open, they would skip part of the hike meaning that the hike to the peak would be considerably shorter. But as mentioned previously, the furniculars were closed. Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the top since I stumbled upon this (it may have been 3/4 of the way there).

The STOP was painted onto a tree branch which had blocked the path and it was in the same paint that had been used to sporadically mark the path. How annoying. It had rained quite heavily the day before so perhaps it had something to do with that. Nonetheless, it was quite an easy walk although some portions had quite a lot of stairs. A thing to note, I am not a fit person by any means so when I say it is relatively easy, it is quite easy.

There were quite a lot of tourists - namely Chinese and Japanese- moreso than when I was in the actual city of Barcelona! Or at least that was my impression. However the vast majority just stuck to the area.of the monestary and the information centre. I would definitely recommend a day trip out to Montserrat, although with a little more forward planning so that you could also complete the hike to the summit.