Montserrat (serrated mountain) is a bundle of conglomerate lifted above the surrounding plain by tectonics. It is the ideal place for building a monastery (as Meteora, Greece {27 May}).
We caught the train to the city pick-up place, and boarded one of 2 nice people-movers as there were 14 of us. It took about an hour to get there.
First stop was the church, with origins back to C12, and various renovations and extensions through to C19.
and a Madonna and Child statue. This is made of wood, and over the years smoke from candles have blacked it, and it is now known as the 'Black Madonna'. Many miracles have been attributed to it, so a big line of pilgrims forms to go and touch/pray to it. Needless to say, we didn't.
Inside the church. The Madonna lives in the well-lit shrine above the altar.
Next we went in the funicular,
then we walked down the mountain again, with our guides pointing things out along the way.
They didn't point our a particular rock in the path, though, and I ended up, very gracefully, flat on my front and with a bloody knee.
We had a bit of free time, then went back to Barcelona by about 14:30.
Since we got our SIM cards in Naples, we have been deluged with SMS messages in Italian, and we have never found out how to find out our balances. So we walked for miles to a Vodafone shop, and are not really any the wiser. We had some McD at 16:00, then went home.
We hadn't planned for tomorrow, but now we have some ideas.
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