Montserrat

Today I am recovering at my hostel from the last two days of exploration.  I only ventured out to acquire a fresh supply of brie and bread.

Yesterday I headed to Montserrat, about an hour from Barcelona by train, with Thao and Colin.  We took a funicular up to the monastery (725m), wandered about for a bit, then began the estimated two and half hour hike to the top.  That hike was essentially a two hour stair master to Sant Jeroni (1236m).

Funicular up to Sant Joan

Looking down on Monastery

Looking up at Monastery

Colin at the Summit

On the way up

On the way down

View during descent

Goats!

Some of the thousands of stairs

And more stairs, just before the summit

Thao on way up

Thao & Colin

Sant Jeroni

Me, Thao & Colin at Sant Jeroni

Long way to fall...

Sant Jeroni

Sant Jeroni

Sant Jeroni

To put the height in perspective for everyone back home, Mt Pisgah is 320m  above the Willamette Valley, so I did stairs for about 1.5x the height of Mt Pisgah.  The views were incredible and worth every painful blister.  The hike from the summit to the funicular was another couple of hours, then we took the train back to Barcelona.

We headed down to the waterfront, also known as tourist central, for a delicious dinner of seafood paella, and tapas of octopus, sausage, seasoned mushrooms, mussels and artichokes.

By the time we got back to the hostel, we had been out for over 13 hours.  Thao and Colin flew to Dublin this morning before they head back to Toronto.   

On Tuesday, my first full day in Barcelona, I set out to explore Barcelona, just like I did in Madrid.  The flaw in this plan?  Barcelona is much larger then Madrid and I only saw lots and lots and lots of residential areas before finally ending up on Olympic hill at dusk, after five and half hours of wandering about, refusing to really consult a map.  Tomorrow, I will accept the need to just take a subway to see the sights.

Industrial Park

Industrial Park Fountains

Industrial Park

The old Olympic construction is sadly decaying away in places.  Some buildings and fields have been repurposed, but most has just been allowed to decay.

Steps on Olympic Hill

Art Museum

I stumbled on an equestrian center on Olympic Hill.  There were several classes of beginner riders going in 3 different rings.  No matter where in the world you are, all beginner riders look the same...