Up early, had a quick breakfast, packed sandwiches for lunch, then then zoomed off on the metro to Placa De Espanya to find the train to Monserrat. We had no trouble locating the correct platform (in spite of dire warnings in the guidebook); had to dash to make the train, since it was leaving earlier than we thought. Quite a lot of hikers already on the train even at 8:36am. Uneventful but lengthy (1 hr) ride to the Monserrat stop, where we disembarked and hopped onto the cable car for the ride up to the Monastery.
Breathtakingly nice weather-- warm sun, cool breezes, clear skies. Once up to the monastery, we took another cog railway up to the top of the trailhead, then did big circular hike that lasted around 4 and a half hours (10:30am to 3pm). The views of the surrounding hills were spectacular. Here is a representative shot. Note the tiny red dot on the side of the rock:
And here is a closeup of the red dot-- looks like it's not a dot after all:
Here is a shot from a distance of some sunbathers. Initially I thought they might be mountain goats (I've seen them before in the Alps) but the color is all wrong (mountain goats have very light fur) and the horns were the wrong shape. After quite a bit of googling I was able to identify them: ibex. Kind of cool-- first time I have seen them.
The rock that makes up the mountains here is very interesting stuff-- a sort of matrix of hard pebbles within a softer rock substrate, which makes very very interestingly swoopy "half-melted" shapes when the weather wears it down. Lots of people still hiking up as we were making our way back down, and tons of people at the monastery itself once we got in (very glad we went early). The monastery itself is nice but not especially noteworthy-- I think the really old buildings all burned down in the 19th century and were subsequently rebuilt. Here is a shot from above, taken from the hiking trail:
After getting back to the apartment to get showered and cleaned up, we headed to dinner at "Seven Doors", a local traditional Catalan food place not too far from the water. Very formal; decent food, although oddly vegetable-free (Amy & Ethan & I had paella; Lydia had fried calamari). Afterwards we walked down to the beach to wander around for a while-- pleasant street scene, with lots of people enjoying the good weather. Early bed; we were all exhausted.
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