Amy & Andy's Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 2: ¡España! August 10, 2026 - Montserrat

 August 10, 2026 - Montserrat

Where We Drive To The Top Of A Mountain And The Breeze Is Delightful

Another day full of amazing photos! Our tour guide du jour (Carmelia) picked us up just before 8:00 a.m. this morning. The hotel had arranged a box breakfast for us, because had to leave before the breakfast room opened. I love this hotel!

We are on our way to Montserrat, a mountain monastery about an hour outside Barcelona. I actually wasn't sure what we were going to be experiencing when we got there. The last part of the drive involved a lot mountain curves. When we arrived at the parking lot, Carmela was able to get authorization for us to drive all the way up the hill to the entrance, which was a huge relief. That hill was daunting.

The view from below on the mountain road

We would have had to walk all the way up this hill, and there was another one after the entrance.

The walk up to the entrance

Saint George is the patron saint of Catalonia, so he pops up everywhere. Here he is with is sword, but no dragon.

It was a little confusing to me at first as to where we were going. There was a long flight of steps up, but there was a very slow chair lift to the top, where we saw this statue:

Angel of the Annunciation, created in 1978 by the Catalan artist Apel·les Fenosa. 

We followed the flow of people to the Black Madonna of Montserrat in the Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey. She is a 12th century wooden sculpture in a Byzantine-style chapel behind the Basilica's main chapel. It is tradition for people to touch a sphere that the Madonna has in her hand. It's the only part of the statue that is exposed. One theory as to why the Madonna is black is due to the hundreds of years of candle smoke that permeates everywhere.

The steps up to the Madonna

The Black Madonna

The view from the Madonna

We exited on the other side of the Madonna and headed towards the Basilica of the Santa Maria de Montserrat. Stunning stained glass windows!

Close up of the floor

Next we walked outside into the courtyard of the Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey basilica on our way into the basilica.

Inside the basilica, we could watch people walk by the Black Madonna.

The church was decorated with many beautiful lamps donated by other countries.

We saw a couple of tombs on the way back out to the courtyard.

The idea was for us to finally get to eat the box breakfast that the hotel gave us when we left in the morning before the restaurant opened, sitting somewhere in the courtyard. Pretty amazing view.

But a guard came up to us and told us we couldn't eat there. We shuffled off to the exit and sat on a bench while we ate. We noted that the temps and breeze up in the mountains were just delightful!

Walking back to the meeting point for the car, we saw some amazing views.

Funicular

Train

Possibly a view that appears in Episode 2 of "Andor" on Disney+

The Hermit Chapel at the site where the Virgin Mary was first sited in 880 CE.

Back in Barcelona, we had some gelato for "lunch", did some shopping, and decided to visit the Santa Maria de la Mar church right near our hotel. So many marvelous windows!

Since I'm writing this almost a week later, I have no memory of what we did for dinner, though we probably followed whatever advice from the front desk.

Tomorrow: Transfer to Valencia!