Day 14 - Montserrat, Gaudi, and Farewell To Barcelona!

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Today is the last day of our trip, we fly back tomorrow morning. After last night’s wonderful experience with Gaudi’s Park Guell, we were really looking forward to seeing Gaudi’s masterpiece church this afternoon, but first we have a brief excursion just outside of Barcelona to Catalonia to visit Montserrat.

Monserrat, the ”Serrated Mountain” is the name of a series of 3 peaks of the Catalan mountain range. It’s highest peak is about 4000 ft. The rock formations are beautiful, and there are three ways to get to the top. There is a cable car, a cog railway, and a couple of roads. Since we have a bus, we naturally took the road. Once at the top, there is a funicular that takes you to the actual peak, but there isn’t really anything at the peak, except the view. The funicular is primarily used by hikers and rock climbers who want to begin their adventure at the peak. It looks pretty terrifying, and the views were spectacular enough at the end of the road where we got out of the bus.

The other claim to fame for Monserrat is the Benedictine Abbey, Santa Maria de Monserrat. The Benedictine monks first arrived at Monserrat in the 11th century, but the current buildings date to the 19^th and 20^th centuries. There about 50 Benedictine monks who still live here, but we didn’t see any while we were there. There is a hostel, a supermarket, a farmers market and the usual cafeteria and gift shops. There are also some austere rooms available for a reasonable price for people who want to participate in a silent retreat. There are also a group of young boys who are selected at age nine to attend a five year program where they are educated and trained in choir singing. They live at the abbey for 5 years, but return home to their families on the weekend, and during the summer. The church is beautiful with beautiful carvings, but the big claim to fame is the Black Madonna.

The locals don’t particularly like the term Black Madonna, but we were able to go up the back stairway and get right up close to the Madonna and Child statue that is located in a glass case above the altar. The Madonna is very black. Amada is our local tour guide again, and someone asked her what the significance of making a Black Madonna could be? The answer was that the Madonna and Child were originally carved and varnished as a typical white Madonna and Child, however, evidently the varnish that was used to preserve the carving contained lead, and over the years, the Madonna just kept getting darker and darker until she reached the very black color she is today.

In any case, the abbey and the views were well worth the trip, though again, it sure would have been fun riding up the narrow windy road on the Goldwing. On the way down, we took the other road, and passed by what used to be the corresponding convent for the Benedictine nuns, but there have been Benedictine nuns there for centuries, so it is used by lay women today.

After we completed the Montserrat tour, we headed back to the hotel to pick up a few people who did not go on the morning tour. It was lucky for me, as the camera battery died just before we left. I had to take the last dozen or so pictures with my camera instead. We were only at the hotel for 10 minutes, but it was just enough time for me to run up to the room to get my spare battery, and we were back in business for picture taking again.

The same Gaudi that designed the Park Guell that we visited last night, began the design of the Sagrada Familia in 1883, and continued working on it until his death in 1926. The entire project is privately funded by donations and without financial support by either the Spanish government or the Catholic Church. The project is enormous, and nothing like any other cathedral that has ever been built. While Gaudi was unable to finish the project, he did provide drawings, concepts and scale models of his vision. Over the years, funding has been sporadic, but construction has been ongoing. There appear to be two colors of stone on the outside of the building, but the darker stone is original Gaudi that has darkened over the years due to pollution and the lighter stone is the new construction that has not been polluted. About 30 years ago, tours began being offered, and the funding by tourism has made large amounts of funding to stepped up construction. The constriction of the last 30 years has been more that the 100 years previous. A couple of people in our group had visited the site about 20 years ago and couldn’t believe how much more had been completed. A team of about 1000 workers, designers, engineers, artists, and architects are currently engaged in completing the structure. Before Covid-19 hit, they had announced that they planned to complete construction in 2026 by the 100^th anniversary of Gaudi’s death. Unfortunately, Covid-19 stopped tourism, and severely restricted construction, so a new completion date has not been announced.

There has been controversy over the design decisions, about how well they are following Gaudi’s original design, but the church is just magnificent! The overall style is definitely Gaudi, but still with a modern flair. They are not trying to build a 19^th century church as much as a modern interpretation of the 19^th century design. This is most visible when comparing the original façade of the side of the church built while Gaudi was alive and portraying the birth of Christ. While the overall design is unique, the statues and carvings are soft and traditional. The newer façade on the opposite side of the church depicting the death of Christ uses a more modern and hard-edge version of the statues. The intent is to shock the viewer, and it is certainly dramatic.

But the interior is even more amazing! The columns to the ceiling have the typical Gaudi tilt and curve, with the tops holding the roof giving the appearance of a forest of columns. The stained glass is bright, colorful and beautiful. It’s colors shine onto the columns giving a moving light show of color as the sun moves across the sky. It was a visit we will not soon forget, and I’m not sure pictures can do justice to the overall beauty.

The church itself was consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 as the Basilica of the Holy Family, and currently there is a single Mass on Sunday mornings at 9:00am, but as more becomes completed, services should continue to increase.

After viewing the Sagrada Familia, we were given about an hour and a half to wander around the area and grab some lunch. Of course, it was our last chance for souvenir shopping, so we wandered around and got a couple of t-shirts. We weren’t very hungry, and we are having a celebration dinner with the group marking the end of the tour tonight, so went with our typical gelato and Coke Zero for lunch, and made it back to the hotel by 3:30. We should have used the time to explore a little more, but instead used the time to check in on our flight home and address repacking our stuff for the trip home.

It was now time for our final celebration dinner, so we all headed out for Docla Herminia as our last dinner as a group. Some of us are catching the shuttle in the morning, and a few braver souls are staying in Barcelona for a couple of more days. We thought about staying for a few days, but in reality, after 15 days of drinking new experiences from a metaphoric fire hose, exploring on our own doesn’t really have the appeal it once had. By now we are just looking forward to a quiet ride home on the plane and a good night’s sleep in our own bed.

Dinner at Dolca Herminia was delicious, though we probably could have each eaten two servings of the Tuna Tataki. At least they gave us ice cream for dessert! It was the final good-bye for most of us in the group, and I do have to say that everyone was very nice. Jody and I were a little rusty on our social skills, but toward the end we were doing much better. When we get back, we need to start preparing for our August river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest, and start to think about where we would like to travel next year. This is our second tour with Insight Vacations, and I must admit Dom on this tour and Anna on the last one have both been outstanding as tour guides and performed far better than I would ever have expected. The itinerary was great, but some of the special excursions have been really special, and we really look forward to travelling with Insight Vacations again!

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