to Montserrat and back

I planned to take a nature day today, but rainy weather put me indoors a little more than I intended; in any event the day was only moderately altered.  I grabbed a nice big breakfast at the hotel this morning, then made my way to the Metro and transferred to the suburban train line (kind of like Chicago's Metra) at the Espana station.  From there I took the hour long train ride to mountainous Montserrat. in the Catalan Pre-Coastal Range.  It houses the Benedictine Abbey Santa Maria de Montserrat.  The Abbey houses la Moreneta ("the little dark-skinned one"), a black infant Jesus held by a black Madonna.  The Madonna of Montserrat is the patron saint of Catalonia, and has been the catalogued object of the official behests of various Catalonian freedom fighters, Saint Ignatius Loyola, and the Barcelona FC football club.

The train deposits its riders at the base of a mountain, where I exercised the fastest option up:  a 1930 Leipzig-designed cable car, billed as the safest way.  It looks precarious, as seen in two shots below.

But the ride was smooth, quick, and safe.  

And so to the top, where one finds the Monastery, commenced in 1025 AD.  It's neat and tidy at the top, and filled with lots of stonemasonry.  For some reason, there are a LOT of Russians wandering around.  It's likely not the first time, as many of the signs are in Russian as well.

My plan was to hike many of the trails, as I have seen plenty of buildings in Barcelona, but it began to rain, so I adjusted.  I thus toured the very nice art museum.  I've taken a shine to these Romanesque primitives, such as shown below.

Here's a nice shot of a cafe in Paris.

There was a room full of Russian Orthodox iconography.  And Russians.

This I believe was an accurate depiction of an unhappy Russian baby.

I then had a modest cafeteria lunch of two small pork chops (one undercooked, and thus uneaten), and grilled tomato, eggplant, and potato.  Good enough.  

The rain continued so I decided to tour the monastery.  Curious.  There were really no personnel to guide the few hundred tourists.  And there were no written instructions.  Everyone formed a line, so I joined it.  That was probably a mistake.  The line snaked on for a few hundred yards, and everyone seemed very happy to be in it, except me.  Or me and the shrieking Russian baby, who squealed for about the entire 1 1/2 hours I was in line.  Once the line entered the building, there really was no turning around.  There were signs everywhere insisting on silence in many languages.  That was widely ignored by nearly everyone.  There was a very talented organist practicing throughout, whom essentially no one paid any heed.  Line aside, the architecture of this monastery is dazzling.  It is in marvelous shape and has been very well updated over the centuries.  Here is an interior courtyard at the early stages of the line.

Here are some mosaics at the later stages of the line.

After 1 1/2 hours, here is  la Moreneta!  The line is so slow not because everyone is praying to la Morenta; instead, EVERYONE is taking three cell phone pictures from all angles.  I took one.

Here is the nave.  Wow.

Here is a better shot of the floor of the nave.

It was still raining!  So, I sat down in the pews of this stunning church, listened to the organist, and read more from Robert Hughes' wonderful history of Barcelona.  He's my kind of writer--he really knows the history and weaves it in well with architecture, art, and urban planning.

Here is a view of outside the monastery after the rain stopped.

It was about 4:00 PM by this time, and with the halting of the rain, I decided to foray into the upper reaches of the mountain.  Good bye to long lines and Russians!  Hello nature!

Hello little abandoned chapels scattered along the monk's nature walk.

Here's a view of the monastery.

And here are the distinctive rocks.

I then returned to the Cable car.  It's still scary, but safe--see below.

I had to stand for an hour on the train back to Barcelona.  I ventured out for a modest seafood dinner (fresh turbot and grilled vegetables--needed more spice).  Some say the service in European is not bad, it's just different.  Tonight I thought it was bad!

The rain began again after dinner, so I took a cab for the mile ride to my hotel.