spain: montserrat

the next day i woke up and decided to go for another day trip...i made sure i was up early enough to walk to the train station and catch the earliest train to montserrat...it's a popular enough place to visit for tourists that the ticket machines offer a special combined (train and cable car) ticket...very convenient, yay!!
the train took me to a stop called montserrat, then i crossed the tracks and got in the queue for the cable car...the cable car took everyone halfway up the mountain...from there you can hop on a funicular to go higher up, or you can hike higher up without taking the funicular...

people go to montserrat because it's a beautiful location, and because it offers two things: culture and nature...montserrat is a monastery halfway up a mountrain...the outside of each building is rather bland, but the insides are very nice looking...the basilica is beautiful, and big...on the back wall, a little over halfway up the wall is a display case showing the black virgin...
there is a separate queue to go up close to the black virgin, i joined the line...when i jumped in, it was 'only' a 45 minute line, walking through several chapels along the way...

the guidebook says the queue is more than 2 hrs long later in the day...wow! there is someone standing close to the black virgin who keeps the line moving, you only get a few second by yourself in front of the black virgin...
by the time i got out of that line, the basilica was closed until 1200 for a worship service...to fill time, i started walking...i ended up going all the way up to where the funicular takes people...i had great views the whole time, looking out over the area...awesome...i was hot, and hoping the heat rash and heat exhaustion from the day before didn't get worse...two russian guys also hiking took off their shirts when they got hot...

as i returned to the basilica, i arrived not too long before another service started, this one open to visitors...the priest started by welcoming everyone in spanish, english, french, italian, and german...the first prayer was the Lord's Prayer, i loved hearing it spoken in all the languages of the visitors...
to get back to barcelona i did everything in reverse...cable car down the mountain, train back to the city...
if i had the chance, i'd go back to montserrat for more hiking!