Europe Trip 2024: Day 8 in Montserrat

May 18, 2024

I had seen an ad on Instagram in the spring about Montserrat. It is a monastery on a mountain about an hour and a half outside Barcelona. I was intrigued by the video and thought it would be a fun day trip. My son had also heard of Montserrat and wanted to visit it while in Spain but had not had a chance. I was excited to see a place that was new to both of us.

We got off to a little bit later start than we originally wanted to. We had not planned well and had to wait until 9:00 am for the grocery store to open so that we could buy our lunch to take with us. After getting our supplies, we took the subway to the station to catch the train to Montserrat. It was a ninety-minute train ride. I enjoyed the last leg of the journey as we went through some smaller villages and started to get into the mountains.

We got to our stop and then had to wait in line for another ninety minutes to catch the cable car. The time went by pretty fast. I started getting nervous about riding the cable car because I was unsure what it would be like and how I would feel being on it. I was hoping that it would not make me feel anxious.

It finally was our turn. And the ride up the mountain was pretty smooth. It felt pretty solid and I was able to enjoy the views. My knees were knocking but all went well.

Once we reached the top, we had trouble buying the tickets to visit the church. We did not see a ticket office but found a sign that directed us to a website to buy tickets. We went to the site and we were not able to purchase tickets. We were a bit frustrated because we had gone to all this trouble to get up here. We decided to take a break and eat lunch. We made our way to the designated picnic space.

My son and I had a great conversation at lunch which was a bonding experience. The day had not gone as planned so we were both disappointed. We were also both feeling some uncertainty about the summer. We had a great conversation as we were both opened up. It was healing for both of us to talk about our concerns. It was the turning point of the day.

We walked back toward the center of town. We found a place to buy tickets to visit the church and the museum. I enjoyed seeing both. And I enjoyed the beauty of the rock formations on the mountain. We spent the majority of our afternoon viewing the art. It was a nice collection.

It was a long day. I had hoped to relax on the train but there were no seats available so we had to stand the entire trip back to Barcelona. I read several articles on my phone and enjoyed people-watching. We got dinner at McDonald’s and then headed back to our hotel.

I am glad that our day turned around from the early disappointment. I had fun with my son. I enjoyed exploring the church. And I enjoyed viewing the art in the museum. I was so glad to get back to the hotel and get off my feet. I was excited about the next day as we were going to start by visiting Gaudi’s Casa Batlló.