Посещение горного монастыря Монтсеррат Visit to the mountain monastery of Montserrat

Continuing our vacation in the resort and party town of Lloret de Mar, we decided to go on an excursion to the mountain monastery of Montserrat.

Breakfast at 6:45 a. m. , departure at 7:35 a. m. , pick up another TTV group.

Let's go early to get in line to the national shrine of Catalonia - the statue of Our Lady and Child made of black poplar - the Black Madonna.

At first we drove along the plain, and then we began to climb mountains, serpentines began, in principle, not very scary, if you look at the windshield of the bus.

At 9-30 we arrived at the parking lot and immediately went to the cathedral, to take a turn to Morenet. The queue was short, after 15 minutes, we stroked the ball in Madonna's hand and made a bunch of wishes, we went to the courtyard of the cathedral. Along the way, we collected holy water (slightly brackish non-carbonated water to taste). Then again we went into the cathedral, but through the main entrance. Coming out to Santa Maria Square, we met the procession of monks with a crucifix.

A guide from another group told where you can go, climb or descend. We studied the schedule of the funiculars (they run every 20 minutes), but then (at 10-30) we decided to walk to the cross of St. Michael. It was visible, it was not far to go according to our estimates. We remembered the guide's warnings not to miss any turn. The weather was sunny and quite warm. We walked, chatted merrily and took pictures, gorgeous views of the mountains opened from the path, the plain and you could even see the sea.

Then we figured that we had been walking for more than half an hour, we reached some small reservoir, but we never found the cross. But our fellow traveler who met us said that she was going back, because she saw the inscription that “it’s another 20 minutes to go to the cross. ” We didn't believe it, but we went back. We asked the Spaniards where the cross was, they showed us a house, which turned out to be the chapel of St. Michael, and next to it was a small cross. Again, we did not believe it - the real cross was larger and stood on the mountain. Finally, 100 meters from the chapel, they showed us the same turn to the cross, and we went to look at it.

The guide said that perhaps at 12-00 there will be a performance by the boys' choir from the music school at the monastery. After examining the cross, we hurried to the cathedral, but we were a little late, the performance had already begun, a huge number of people crowded into the cathedral, it was stuffy and not very well heard. The performance lasted 15 minutes, after which we went to have a bite to eat and see local souvenirs and goods produced by the monks themselves. I bought myself black tea with rose petals for 6.3E. And in a cafe I took a sandwich with mashed potatoes for 4.2E.

At 13:00 we went back.