Saturday 8 October 2011

From 25 deg. & sunny to 10 deg & drizzling...


Current City: Paris
Despite not having a huge vested interest in visiting Spain (indeed I almost considered skipping it in the interest of time), I must say I’m glad I didn’t. The food was fantastic, the sights were incredible, and the club crawls in Malaga and Barcelona were great. Certainly the highlight was yesterdays visit to Montserrat, just outside Barcelona.
I just so happened to sit down and watch a Rick Steve’s travel special on Europe the day before I left, and caught his visit to this mountaintop monastery, and decided I should consider the sojourn.
A 90 minute train ride from the city took us to a cable car station, and a further 5 minute ascent took us to the village. A series of trails snake around the side of the mountain, with two funiculars ascending or descending from the village to smaller chapels on the mountain. The vistas of the surrounding Catalunya area are stunning, as was the Basilica. I really do wish I had researched this a bit more before seeing it; it probably would have made it that much more fascinating. 
Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. The lineup to buy tickets starts on the OTHER side of the building, and ends in the middle of the picture.

Park Guell, another of Gaudis works. Amazing views over Barcelona.

The giant lizard in the park. I pretty much had to elbow my way in there to get this picture.

The Basillica at Montserrat

Candles outside of Montserrat Basillica

1 comment:

  1. Bri,
    Both mom and I tried sending you a comment yesterday but it didn't work. We wrote our message and tried to send it with no luck.
    Hopefully you'll get this one.
    Thanks for sending the Spot updates from Paris.
    We love seeing where you are.
    We'll need a list of "must see" places from you for when we're back in the Mediterranean.
    Mom is making pumpkin pie (your favorite!) for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow at Grandma's.
    The sea trials are on Monday so we'll let you know how they go.
    Take care, be careful and have fun.
    Love,
    Dad and Mom (and David)

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