Zaragoza via Magical Montserrat to Barcelona

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Last night the rain cleared enough for us to venture into part of the city that had a large modern shopping centre. While wandering around the mall we found a hairdresser and as one of the tour party hadn’t had a haircut for over two months there was no hesitation in making an appointment. Before you could ask how much tour member was in the chair and a young lady from Romania was busy with the No.3 clippers. All spruced up it was back to the hotel for an early night.
Rain introduced us to Day 59 of our marvellous adventure and we hoped it would be fine for our excursion to Montserrat. Those who have travelled this section of a Spanish highway will nod wisely when we describe the early part of the journey.
Being on a tight budget we try to keep off toll roads whenever possible and we had heard this particular toll road is one of the expensive ones in Spain so we headed for the N-11, known as the Truck Highway. The first 50 kilometres is a two lane highway and possibly the favourite truckies’ road in Spain. At one stage we counted about 17 trucks in a row before the next car. Once on the dual carriage-way all was go. By now the rain had stopped and there were glimpses of sun.
We took the turn off to Montserrat and the views of the mountain were spectacular. We climbed some distance before reaching the parking area for visitors to the monastery perched high on the mountains. It was very similar to Rocamadour in France. We noted there were very few cars on the road up the mountain but when we got there it was amazing how many people had made the journey. Added to this there were 19 tour buses in the parking area by the time we left. We managed to time our arrival to witness a choir made up of boys and young men sing Salve Regina i Virolai. The Basilica was full to standing room only. Many people make the trip to visit The Black Virgin of Montserrat and are prepared to stand in line quite a considerable time for the opportunity to view, touch or pray before her. We witnessed the same thing at Rocamadour.
The visit was quite magical both for the experience and the views of the countryside below. But from high up we could see ominous black clouds forming. Another dreaded thunderstorm. The drive into Barcelona meant taking a toll road for a short distance and we coincided our arrival at the toll gate with the first of many torrential down pours. Driving to the hotel we managed to get onto a road around the nearby hills. The roads became rivers and small hills developed their own waterfalls. It was quite a relief to arrive at the hotel and find an undercover carpark for the next few days.

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