Spain and Portugal in Depth--Day 4--Cataluna

Casa Grande, AZ

Today we left early for Montserrat.  We were suppose to leave at 8 am and when Jaume found out a cruise ship was in port, he asked if we minded if we left 15 minutes early to be ahead of the cruise line people.  

When we arrived at Montserrat I understood why.  The bus parking lot needed experienced drivers to be able to park.  Our bus driver had no problem but we watched other buses that made many attempts trying to get in there parking space.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but you are given a "whisper" on the first day.  This way you have a speaker in your ear and you can hear your guide even when he isn't in full sight of you.  These cruise ship groups don't use them and the guides are shouting trying to get everyone to hear.
The other problem is there are international groups and some cultures get very pushy trying to stay in front so they can hear the guide.  I was glad our group is all Americans.

Montserrat is really hard to describe but the views were fantastic.

Did I mention that the weather was perfect the entire trip?

Montserrat is home to a Benedictine abbey.  We stood in a line to go into see the Virgin of Montserrat, a Black Madonna statue.  Many pilgrims visit this abbey every year.  We did not take photos inside.

You could take a cable car up the mountain if you didn't want to go up the curvy mountain.  Hiking trails were everywhere.

We were happy Jaume suggested we leave 15 minutes early.  It made a huge difference in the crowds.

After Montserrat we returned to the hotel in time for a walking tour of the Modernisme and Gaudi.  

Here's a replica of the Gaudi building.  

It's quite different and nothing is straight.

He was a genius 
and allowed a natural airflow throughout the building.

Here's Bill, Hal and Sue exploring the weird roof of the building.

Here's another view of the roof.

Don't you just love the architect in this city?

It was dark by the time we finished the tour.  But we found one more treasure in the two blocks back to the hotel.  Jaume had shown us on our walk about gelato.  He said not to get it from a place that has the gelato up over the container.  All the places we saw had nice looking gelato with it spread out over the container.  This was what we were looking for and it tasted so good.  

We were going to go up on the rooftop terrace of the hotel but we were so tired we went back to our room and collapsed on the bed.

Turtle Safely........