This morning we will be visiting another Barcelona highlight that we have not seen on any of our previous visits. It is the Benedictine monastery at Montserrat, located in the mountains about 30 miles (1 hour) from Barcelona. Montserrat is the highest point in this part of Spain, rising to 4,055 ft.above the valley floor.

The Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey (Order of St. Benedict) dates back to 1025 and has about 70-80 monks in residence. The basilica, Mare de Déu de Montserrat, is the major church there and it dates back to the 16th century. Its major relic is the “Black Madonna”, a statue of the Virgin Mary with child, but the faces are almost black in color, thus the name. Note: there are other Black Madonnas in the world, it is not truly unique. Also it is not truly black; it simply has darkened over time. Believed by some to have been carved in Jerusalem in the early days of the church, it is more likely a wooden Romanesque sculpture from the late 12th century. Its origin is one of speculation. By one account, the image of the Madonna was moved to Montserrat in 718, to avoid the danger posed by invading Saracans.

A bit of trivia: The opening chapter of Dan Brown’s 2017 novel Origin is set in Santa Maria de Montserrat. In the book, a crucial, secret meeting is held between an outspoken atheist and major Catholic, Jewish and Muslim clergymen.

We left earlier than normal (8AM) to beat the expected crowds as it was a Saturday. It turned out to be a wise idea. There are three ways to get to the actual monastery: drive, Rack Train, or Funicular. Because of our size we rode to the top on the modern rack railway, a trip that took about 10 minutes. Even though we arrived very early there were large crowds already at the sight. We immediately went into the basilica to view the Black Madonna, a process where time reservations are needed and because of the crowds it is a slow process (15-20 minutes) to actually get close to the statue, located behind the main altar of the church.

From there we visited the museum where we could see exhibits about the monastery and the church, along with several informative videos about them. There is a famous children’s choir in residence at the church but there was no performance today. We were able, however, to view a video of them singing. They are quite good.

We were then given about one hour of free time to further explore the church, the  museum, several souvenir shops, hike some short trails in the area or visit the cafeteria for food and drink. Our bus had driven to the top of the mountain and we convened at the proper time to return to Barcelona where we had the rest of the day to explore on our own.

We were hungry and although we had eaten at an Italian restaurant earlier we had not had pizza so that became the luncheon choice. Again the hotel staff was great and steered us to the best pizza establishment in the area.

Jane and John wanted to look for some souvenirs so we suggested to them that they walk to the popular and famous  La Rambla area as our tour had not been there. Yvonne and I have been to La Rambla on past trips and we would be staying there the next two nights so we simply spent the afternoon relaxing (i.e. taking a nap).

It would be our last night together and John and Jane had not yet experienced the other major culinary treat of Barcelona- tapas! The hotel steered us to a famous local spot:  Vinitus. They do not take reservations but being early eaters we arrived by 6:45 to find that we could get a table in about 10 minutes. The menus are huge but luckily our waitress provide friendly advice and we ended up with a lovely selection of excellent tapas. It was a fun experience! When we left at 8:15 the place was packed and 25-30 people were lingering around at the entrance waiting to get a table.

The formal AmaWaterways tour was officially over. John and Jane were leaving for home the first thing in the morning. We would be moving to another hotel in the La Rambla area and spending two extra days in the area, the prime reason is to venture to the nearby (3 hour drive) to the country of Andorra, a tiny, independent principality situated between France and Spain in the Pyrenees mountains. It is an official UN country that we have never visited. It will be country #104 for me! Being this close to it I simply had to take the time to visit it.