Woke up at 8am this morning so I could catch the 9am train to “Montserrat” about an hour and a half outside of Barcelona. “Montserrat” is Catalan for Serrated Mountain, and there is a very vivid reason why the mountain was named this; it is a multi-peeked mountain that forms its own small mountain range (it is similar to Mt. Kilimanjaro almost). The mountain is home to a small monastery which has evolved over the years into a small “village” within the mountains; it now houses multiple museums, hotels, and parks. It is uniquely structured, in my opinion, because the organization of Montserrat is broken down into 3 separate zones or levels. There is a small village unrelated to the abbey at the foot of the mountain, then there is the “base level” of the monastery, and the last section contains the rest of the monastery along with trails to the peaks of the Mountain. Each zone is higher up in the mountain and can be accessed by either use of the funicular, car (tedious method), and walking (even more tedious).
Once we arrived at the foot of the mountain we took the first funicular to the base level of the monastery. This area houses the main chapel for the monastery along with the museums, cafeteria, and shops. We stayed in this area for a while and attended the mass service held in the beautiful chapel (gave a new meaning to high mass, haha). Part of the service was in Catalan and then the other part was in Latin, I was still able to understand what was going on thanks again to the music! The all-boys choir was extremely good, they were in perfect unison and pitch, I guess they get a lot of time to practice being secluded up in the mountain all day.
Afterwards we took the second funicular to the higher level of the mountain; we only had time to complete one trail so naturally we chose the trail that lead to the highest peak, Sant Jeroni. The funicular closed at 5pm and if we didn’t make the last trip we would have to hike back down the mountain which was estimated to take about 3 hours; the trail to Sant Jeroni was estimated to take about an hour. I have not been hiking since my scouting days (at least 5 years ago) so it was nice to experience nature so purely again. The trail was not for anyone who is afraid of heights…at some points it narrowed to about 6-7 feet wide, mountain on one side, and 50 foot drop on the other! Some parts of the trail had railings and sidings but even still it was very narrow. Along the way we experienced some of the most breathtaking views I have ever witnessed…the verticality of the trail also gave “breathtaking” a new meaning haha. Once again I don’t think my words would give justice to the magical yet paralyzing sensations that the vistas gave me today….so I’ll let the pictures below help me!
We did see a small family of mountain goats scaling the side of one of the peaks…it was insane to see these animals effortlessly and elegantly prancing about on the side of the mountain. I am not sure if anyone else is familiar with the television series LIFE and Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet but there is one particular episode that this event reminded me of; recall the episode when they showed the group of mountain goats walking on the snow covered rocky sliver of a peak? Well that is exactly what I saw today…minus all the snow of course, I feel so lucky and blessed to have witnessed such a spectacle because the videographers on the show had to wait a full week just to catch it on camera and I just happened upon it! And I did record it, but thanks again to the terrible internet here I cannot upload the video right now.
After about an hour and 15 minutes we reached the highest peak of Montserrat, Sant Jeroni a staggering 4055 feet above sea level. The Air up there was so clean and refreshing, it was untainted! The journey back down was a lot quicker for obvious reasons but more so because we were walking (sometimes running) much faster so we didn’t miss the funicular back down.
At the top I could see Barcelona, the area where Madrid is, the snowy capped Pyrenees Mountains, and France! Who would have ever known Spain to contain such breathtaking mountainous views?
Hi AJ,
ReplyDeleteAll of the designs look great to me:). The last one is very interesting. Thanks for sharing your Montserrat adventure! Hope your critique went well this morning.
Love, Aunt Jane
Boyee!! Glad you were able to go up that Mt. and not me just looking at the picture from the top makes my head spin. If thats their idea of a quaint chapel I can't imagine what the full church would look like. Did one of those designs have glass covering the bridge? I liked the simple one with the thick glass base over a single beam with railings of course. Anyway keeep on working.
ReplyDeleteLove ya Dahd