Welcome back to our travel diaries! Last week, I wrote about spending over 3 days in Barcelona and today I'm going to talk about our day tour to Montserrat.
In my last post, I spoke about how easy it is to plan day trips from Barcelona and that decision completely change the mood. Initially, when my husband and I were planning our trip to Spain, we'd decided to only visit Barcelona for a week and take day trips. But based on recommendations, we ended up going to Madrid too (more on that later)!
A Day Tour To Montserrat: Things You Need To Know
Great views, rocky mountains with a little bit of culture, we chose Montserrat before heading out.
Montserrat is about an hour and a half away from the city of Barcelona. You can take a train, drive down or go in for a guided tour. We chose a guided tour with the same people who run the hop off hop on city tours. This tour covered an English guide, with the coach and some liquor sampling.
What did we make of the guided tour?
The Catalonian countryside is not only picturesque but very serene too.
The MontesseratTour called The Trip of A Lifetime included the guide telling us about the history of Montserrat and the legend behind it. To my mind was average and I thought that the guide was a bit biased. I know bad vibes, and this guy was exuding it. Leaving my sensibilities aside, the journey to-n-fro was average on comfort. Anurag really enjoyed the whiskey tasting. The tasting also helped in drowning out the monotones of our staccato tour guide!
What can you do in Montserrat?
If you're neither a hiker nor too religious - click pictures, a lot of them. The place offers some beautiful views, we were lucky since the day was sunny. While walking to the monastery, we took a lot of pictures, saw the cable car which can be a good way of a commute as well.
The monastery is quite beautiful and the iconic black Madonna statue is worth lining up for. We marveled at the architecture, took some more pictures and lit candles in the basilica. While we thanked the lord for one of the most life-changing years of our life, we prayed for a happy 2017. (We are a god fearing family, excuse me?)
Another highlight of the tour is a performance of a Boys' Choir in the Basilica, usually a Gregorian chant, which is supposed to be quite fascinating. Since the day we visited was a public holiday in Montserrat, the choir was on a leave. This was quite a bummer since I'm quite eager to judge (and enjoy) music and dance performances.
Where To Eat In Montserrat?
On the street I guess. There is just one restaurant, you can imagine how busy it gets - plus its self-service, so we decided to skip the meal (as we grow older - we get lazier not wiser) in Montserrat and decided to have it once we were back in the city.
We feasted on the snacks I packed, which always makes us late. Now, who's saving the day?
Did you like this article and the pictures? Would you visit Montserrat?
I would love to hear your views in the comments section.
This blog was originally published on Be For Beauty.
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