Montserrat – the place where the clouds meet the mountains

“Montserrat is not meant to be a tourist hot spot but more of a place for quiet serenity and spirituality. For many people it is a place for pilgrimage and prayer. In that respect I think you can appreciate more of the beauty of the monastery and the area. For many others is a well an amazing place for hiking and enjoy the nature.”

On the 6th day we had bad luck with the weather…so we decided to go to Montserrat.

We took the train from Placa Espana (departs on an hourly basis) and after one hour we arrived at this wonderful place where the clouds meet the mountains.

The train-ticket to Montserrat costs 40 € ….but we thought that we can use our Barcelona tickets and we weren’t aware that we had to buy extra tickets…so we kinda dodge the fare hahah.

The ticket inspector never showed up…thank god…cuz the fine would have been 100 € per person.

So we kinda had hell of a luck on that day hahah.

Once you get to Montserrat…you have two options of reaching the monastery:by cable car or by rack railway.

So we took a cable car – a huge one that fits a whole bunch of people. We were late as we were busy taking photos with the mountain outside the cable car station. So we didn’t manage to get the open window standing area. But some travellers were kind enough to let us take some pictures of the mountain on our way up.

Once arrived on the other side we set out for the Monastery.

It was quite hard to keep focused with such a view all around you.

The Basilica is very beautiful, and is somewhere between the Gothic and Renaissance traditions, and contains a little room where you can bring a picture or some other thing, to offer to the virgin so that she will protect you / your family or whom every you may pray for. It is said that she can cure people.

I did see a lot of wedding-dresses as well as pictures of people who had obviously asked the virgin to protect them or help them through a rough period in their lives.