34th Day: Barcelona (Montserrat)

We spent the morning doing some sightseeing of the city of Barcelona. We were taken to the cathedral and had a walk around there. We were shown a couple of buildings designed by a famous architect, Gaudi. They were definitely unique. One is known as the bones or something like that because the facade of the building looks like bones. We also went to the cathedral that is still being built there.. it was started in the beginning of 20th century (i think) and is still going!! It looks pretty cool though, it was also designed by Gaudi.

The morning sightseeing was part of the tour but in the afternoon we went to Montserrat, an optional excursion. Montserrat means 'serrated mountains' and they looked really amazing. High up on the mountain is a monastery that was built hundreds and hundreds of years ago, it is pretty incredible to think how they even got up that high (the mountain is really steep and it was a windy journey getting up there evening for us in modern times) and they managed to build a monastery and church as well! In the church at Montserrat is a Black Virgin statue and it is rumoured that if you touch it you will fall pregnant soon after. I stayed far away from that statue!!

After seeing the church we had some free time. There was a bit of a bushwalk up the mountain so Mum and I started that, it was all up stairs. Mum turned back after 15 mins or so but I continued on for a while. It just seemed to go on forever though so I had to turn back to make sure I didn't miss the bus!

We had some free time in the afternoon and then we went out for another buffet dinner. The food was pretty good and we sat with Maria and Frank who we have become pretty good friends with on this tour. They are from Sydney. We also sat near Frances and Leno and they are lovely too - they're from Melbourne.

I don't know if I have mentioned it yet but there are 48 people on the tour and all are Australian except for 2 Canadians!!! It's pretty amazing really and a bit unusual apparently but I think it has been great there was an instant comraderie because of it.

After dinner we were back at the hotel and I stayed down this time and had a Baileys (I won't mention the price but it was sickeningly expensive). I had a good chat with Maurie and Merril, they're from Torquay down in Victoria. Maurie is very funny and has been providing quite a few laughs on the trip.

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