Today we woke up late so had to hurry to take the wrong metro line (frustrating, now we are
really late) to Placa DÉspagna to catch the 11:00 train to Montserrat, about 50 miles NW of Barcelona.
We kept waiting in lines to ask for help, and getting the wrong advice, and it took longer and longer!
Montserrat is an ancient monastery perched high on an asounding mountain. That's it in the first picture, way up high in the crook of the rocks. Montserrat was attacked by Napoleon and others, so it stands as kind of the spiritual center of patriotism fo Catalunya. (Kind of like Mont St. Michel is for France.)
Here´s a link to some pix, I hope it works:
http://images.google.es/images?q=montserrat&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:es-ES:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=es&tab=wiWe took the train for an hour to the base of the mountain, and had to stand the whole way. Then
took a high-flying gondola 1000 feet in the air to the monastery up on the top of the mountain. WOW, what a ride!
Up on top, I was surprised to find it all commercialized, with tourists and even tour busses that had driven to the top! I guess I only expected a few monks in hoods wandering around. I should have known better; that if I knew about it, so did every tourist in Europe!
We wandered through the abbey. The basilica was quite ornate, but all the real treasures were stolen by Napoleon. It has a black carved Virgin Mary that we stood in line for half an hour to see. You were supposed to kiss it to get happiness or something, but I wouldn´t. Dad is not up for museums, so we didn´t take time to learn about the Benedictine monks that used to live there. OK by me . . .
I have been seeing lots of square red Templar crosses, both at Montserrat and in the Cathar region in southern France. I don´t know what the Knights Templar had to do with this area, probably nothing good. A knight from the Dordogne area, Simon de Beaufort, led the crusade called by the pope to wipe out the Cathar apostates in the Carcassone area.
On the train back we talked to a young couple from Romania, and then all the way home to a retired Dutch couple. It was quite enjoyable. Lots better than the ride out, because we had to stand the whole way because we were the last ones on the train because we barely made it!
This evening we wandered around in the Bari Gotic ((old medieval quarter.) I wished I had my shopping daughters with me, because they had really cool stuff in all the shops! Dad is of course, not interested and besides, we can´t afford to buy it anyway. But it was really cool!
Wonderful jewelry, right in style, way better than Wal-Mart! I see the most beautiful clothes here, bright colored and ethnic, with lots of combinations of bright colors. I could redo my whole wardrobe. If I could shop anywhere, it wouldn´t be in Paris. It would be Barcelona! The little blue door is the kid's entrance to a toy store, which I always like.
We went back to La Boqueria market and bought another fruit salad. The fish smell made Dad really nauseated, so we skipped dinner and came home. I think I wore him out.
Tomorrow we leave Barcelona and drive to Arles. Actually, we are staying in Fontvielle, a little town out of Arles. That seems to work better, since we have a car. We don´t have to pay for parking, since it´s rural, and we get a nicer place for the price.
Did I tell you this place is cheap but safe? It´s only a half a block off Las Ramblas, and there is no parking, so we have the car in a pay lot, (picture at left) and I expect we will have to pay €100 to get it out tomorrow. That,s $131 for 3 days, and that is not a joke. AARGH!
Hey there all my friends!
The picture below is Larry with our rental car, which got almost 50 MPG. It's a good thing, because gas there costs about $7 per gallon!
