Day 12 – Barcelona

We arrived early in the morning of day 12 in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, a region in eastern Spain.  The local population wants to believe that they are Catalan, not Spanish, although they are clearly a Spanish province.

Since we had visited Barcelona on our trip in 2005, we chose to take a tour out of the City, to a mountain sanctuary called Montserrat.  The name means ‘serrated mountain’, because the rocks that form the mountain are tall and sharp, like the teeth of a saw.  It is located about 20 miles northwest of Barcelona at a height of about 3,800 feet above sea level.  There have been chapels on the top of the mountain since the 9th century, and the first monastery was built in the 11^th century.  The monastery and the entire mountain-top sanctuary are dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God.  In the main church there is a sculpture of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus, carved in the 1800’s.  The faces of Mary and Jesus have darkened over the years, and the sculpture is now known as “The Black Virgin”.  Pilgrims flock to the mountain to pray to the Virgin.

The monastery can be reached by a steep, winding road from the valley below, by cable car or by train from a nearby town.  The sanctuary is known throughout the world, and visitors come from many countries.  The complex is a complete community with a hotel, train station, church, museum, gift shops, a restaurant and parking for many, many cars and buses.  When we visited, there were hundreds of people, mostly of school age, that had just completed an overnight hike from the bottom of the mountain.  At the conclusion of our visit, we reboarded our bus and traveled back to Barcelona.

We asked to be dropped off in the city, and we did some exploring on our own.  We wandered along “La Rambla”, a major shopping area in the heart of the city.  We stopped for a beer (of course) and ice cream on a broad avenue that faces the waterfront.  There were many street vendors, and since it was Sunday, also many people strolling along the avenue.  At the conclusion of our walk, we caught a shuttle back to the ship, and in the early evening, we set off for our next port-of-call, Marseille, France.