The Iberian Jet Set (Part 2): Montserrat - Reaching the Heavens

- November 20, 2016, Sunday.

- Right after testing (and enjoying) the waters (or cobblestoned streets) of Barcelona (see Part 1 here), I dedicated one day to go up the mountains, particularly, Montserrat. By the way, because of its proximity to Barcelona, Montserrat is a popular day-trip destination for those visiting Barcelona. Since it's high up on the mountains, it's a good "zen" place to escape the city.

- Going to Montserrat is not tricky, but overwhelming, due to the many ways one can reach Montserrat. (Many sources in the internet can teach you the specifics of the different ways to get to Montserrat.) Here's the gist. First you have to go to Placa d'Espanya (or simply Espanya) metro station and look for the arrows directing you to the R5 line. It can be a bit confusing since Placa d'Espanya is a hub for many kinds of trains. The R5 line is a long distance train headed to Manresa. To buy tickets to Manresa, there are ticket machines before the turnstile. Here, you have many options - tickets for the train only (one way or round trip,) tickets to the train plus the cable car (aeri) or the cremallera funicular (rack railway), or the Tot Montserrat ticket. Personally, the Tot Montserrat ticket was the best choice. "Tot" in Catalan means "all" this is because the ticket not only takes care of the round trip train tickets, but it also takes care of either the aeri or the rack railway (you have to choose if you want the Tot Montserrat Aeri, or Tot Montserrat Cremallera; once you buy your ticket it's non-exchangeable,) the museum entrance fee, round trip tickets to the funicular within Montserrat that takes people to the higher part of Montserrat (more on this later,) and my favorite - an international buffet lunch!!

- It is best to check the timetable when going to Montserrat, because as the Manresa train is a long-distance train, it doesn't come as frequently as metro trains. Usually there are only one to two trains per hour, depending on the day, and the time going to Montserrat from Barcelona usually takes around an hour and a half to two hours. To make sure that I would make the most out of Montserrat, I decided to start early like what I usually do. This is also a piece of advice that many visitors have shared. For those who have decided to take the cable car (the faster way) like me, they need to get off at the MONTSERRAT AERI station. Those who wish to take the cremallera will alight at the next station, MONTSERRAT MONISTROL. This is why people should think carefully and be decisive when buying tickets before getting on the Manresa-bound train; you can't just buy a ticket for the cable car and decide halfway to go via cremallera, or vice versa. However, since the timetable can change every so often, things can backfire a little bit. As for me and a few others who decided to take the aeri, the supposedly faster way, we got to the aeri station one hour before the cable car station would open, and so there were around 8 of us who were left in the cold Spanish outdoors for a good hour. It was a few degrees colder than Barcelona since we were already in the mountain area away from the city. Still, we had no regrets going there early, since as mentioned before, it takes a lot of time going to Montserrat from Barcelona.

- While going up using the cable car, I realized that the Montserrat mountain ranges resembled the strange-looking rock formations in Meteora, Greece (click here to see). Both of these mountains house churches/monasteries.

Riding the train to Placa d'Espanya from Passeig de Gracia. The dim and musky feel of the Barcelona metro stations remind me of the ones in New York. However, the metro stations in New York....tickle the senses a lot more (in both good and bad ways.)

Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey from the foot of the mountain. 

Cable car, not yet in operation at around 9 in the morning. 

So there was a sudden change in operation time. 

Weird rock formations. 

Breathtaking, can be literally breathtaking because of the altitude. Haha.

- I finally reached Montserrat around 10am, an hour later than planned, but it was still quite early anyway, and I realized that Montserrat was quite a small place and easy to cover in half a day, depending on my speed.

Jacket goals, couple goals.

Abbot Oliva, the founder of the Montserrat Abbey.

Montserrat!!

 - The first place I visited was the Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey, the main attraction of Montserrat. One of the significant things that happened in the abbey was when St. Ignatius of Loyola received a calling and surrendered his weapons (especially his sword) and decided to serve God. The main religious statue of the church is the Lady of Montserrat, also called the Black Madonna (one of the Black Madonnas in Europe actually,) or the Virgin of Montserrat. The abbey also boasts its long-running all-boys choir, L'Escalonia. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch them perform that day. From what I've read, the choir performs every noon. L'Escalonia is one of the oldest all-boy church choirs in Europe.

This was one of the more different churches that I've seen because of its reddish hue. 

St. Ignatius of Loyola.

Details of the church facade. 

Main hall; the Black Madonna is the black dot in the shrine above the cross. The Black Madonna is actually in a separate room with a separate entrance.

- After visiting the church I wanted to visit the Black Madonna shrine, which has a separate entrance, but a mass was about to start and no one was allowed to visit the Black Madonna during the mass. I had around two hours to spare, so I decided to move on by visiting the Museum of Montserrat. The museum houses religious paintings by known Spanish artists, as well as archaeological artifacts collected from around the world by a monk named Bonaventura Ubach.

This one's Picasso's.

Another representation of the Madonna and Child.

A torah from Israel.

An Egyptian statue.

The old Spaniards had a great interest in Egypt.

Monk Bonaventura Ubach.

A special exhibition on Mother Mary.

The Gothic cloisters behind the museum.

- Seeing that I had some time left before the church staff would let people in again to have a close encounter with the Black Madonna, I decided to ride the funicular (cliff railway) to the higher part of Montserrat. Now the higher part of Montserrat has a lot of hiking trails going to farther areas of the mountains, with small churches at the end of these trails. Some trails take 15-30 minutes, some take an hour to 1.5 hours. However, since I was alone, and I was afraid that I'd be clumsy at the wrong moment (which will cost me my life,) I decided not to follow any of the trails, and just enjoy the view from the higher part near the funicular station. After all, I was semi-rushing to fall in line and see the Black Madonna.

Funicular going up the mountains.

Like from another world.

Montserrat Abbey and all other buildings at the "lower" part of the mountains.

One of the far far away churches that can only be reached by following one of the hiking trails.

I don't know why people do this. If I decide to push this person (which I won't because I'm a good person), the person would fall to sea level. I really don't understand. The person could sleep on the floor, not the ledge.

The abbey and other buildings.

This is how high up we were.

- It was almost 1pm when I went back to the abbey, and fell in line to see the Black Madonna. The church staff let people in by batches, and I waited around 45 minutes before I got in. During peak seasons, the wait can last around 2 hours. Finally, I went up the second floor and saw the Black Madonna, with the window behind me overlooking the church. I looked at the statue, hoping for a calling, but alas, there was no calling for me unlike St. Ignatius of Loyola. Still, seeing the Black Madonna up close was already a blessing.

Column details.

Going up the shrine of the Black Madonna.

I'm ready I'm ready.

The Black Madonna of Montserrat.

Did not receive any calling though.

Overlooking the whole inside of the church.

There were "secret" rooms behind the Black Madonna shrine on the way out.

Stained glass windows and statue silhouette.

Tiled Madonna and Child.

- Finally, I ended my short visit to Montserrat with a hearty lunch at the free buffet (because of my Tot Montserrat ticket.) There are some cafes and restaurants apart from the international buffet, so better ask and make sure before ordering food because you might end up at the wrong restaurant.

- I took the cable car down and rode the Manresa train back to Placa d'Espanya. I was so tired from walking the whole day (and eating a lot) that I slept through most of the long train ride. I'm quite glad that none of my things were stolen (because again, pickpockets can also operate inside public transportation.) I arrived at Placa d'Espanya around late afternoon, and I was ready to explore the rest of Barcelona!! (Don't forget to read Part 1 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here, Part 7 here, Part 8 here, Part 9 here, Part 10 here, and Part 11 here!!)