We awoke to sunshine this morning. What a beautiful day in Barcelona!
Yesterday we scheduled a tour with a tour bus to go to the Montserrat Monastery at 3pm today. Our morning plan was to visit Gaudi's La Pedrera sometime before the tour, so we got up a bit later and dawdled over breakfast. I think it will be good for me not to have a buffet breakfast every morning. I love the coffee and end up wired for an hour afterwards. Maybe if I stopped at one cup...?
We walked to La Pedrera. La Pedrera is a unique building to say the least. The tour buses pointed it out each time we went by and commented on the wavy front with wrought iron that looks like "seaweed." We were warned that there would be lines of people and that we would have to wait to get inside. Throughout our trip this has not been true. I think we arrived in Barcelona at just the right time; the end of the low season and the beginning of the high season.
At any rate, we stood behind five or six people, bought our tickets and went directly to the elevator that took us to the roof. The roof is really amazing. Gaudi has done some interesting things with chimneys, ventilation shafts and stairwells. Here is a link that shows some pictures and explains the structures on the roof: http://www.lapedrera.com/en/la-pedrera-day#_282 There is a wonderful view of Barcelona in all directions and since the day was sunny and warm, it was stunning!
We went down one level to the attic which now contains an interpretive center for Gaudi's works. There was a lot to take in and I am sure that I missed out on tons of information. Gaudi even designed some of the first ergonomic furniture and we saw beautiful wood examples on display there. The obvious structural element in the attic was how it was formed from arches and I found this quote about it. "The attic used to house the water tanks and washing lines were formed by two hundred and seventy catenary arches of different heights which hold up the roof. So we walked through lots of brick arches as we explored the interpretive center.
From there we went to the 4th floor where an apartment was set up with period furniture. Since the house was built around courtyards, the apartment went all the way around too. It was very light and airy inside and shows Gaudi's attention to every detail of everyday life. Some people still live in apartments in this building.
After La Pedrera we had time for a little lunch and for collecting the things we thought we would need to visit a mountain late in the afternoon. Montserrat was something both Lola and I wanted to see, but we weren't sure how we should get there. On the one hand, we had detailed instructions for taking public transportation to the monastery, but on the other hand, we like hearing what a guide has to say so the convenience of riding a tour bus won out.
One of the elements of the monastery is a boys' school for 50 boys who are in a choir. As we rode out of Barcelona, someone asked if we would get to hear the boys' choir sing. Our guide told us that their tour purposely left at 3pm in the afternoon to miss the huge crowds of people that go there especially to hear the boys sing. The monastery has about 80 monks and a school for the 50 member boys' choir. The boys' choir dates back to the 14th century and our guide gave us an overview of how the boys are selected. One of the monks recruits boys from Catalonia who can play the piano (since about age 4) and sing. If they are chosen, they visit the school for short times to see if they can adapt because it is a boarding school where the boys live during the week. They have very rigorous musical training for five years--from nine until fifteen when their voices change, they are out. I wonder if anyone has followed up on the boys later in their lives to see what they end up doing with their lives after all the intensive musical training. Since I did not see them in person, I watched them on YouTube!
We wound our way up the mountain and in many places you could see (we ended up about 4000 high) the small towns (far) below. Since we knew that we could have come by public transit, so we kept looking for the train, but it was not until we got to the top that we looked down that we could see where the cable car and the rack train came up the side. We had been advised to take the rack train instead of the cable car and if I ever do go up to the monastery again, I would definitely take the train rather than the cable car. I am still quivering from the sight of it coming up the side of the mountain! Transportation-wise, there are also two funiculars, one that goes a short ways and one that goes to the top of a mountain. Our guide said there wasn't anything up there; "just the other side of the mountain and then you have to walk down." You will see my pictures of this later! (not from the top either)
The history of the monastery was interesting and it is a very peaceful place. The monks were there in 1025 and legend has it that the Black Virgin statue was discovered by children in medieval times. Our guide described the statue for us beforehand as Mary with Jesus sitting on her lap, but it is not a maternal representation. Jesus wears a crown and Mary holds a sphere in her hand. (our guide also said that the sphere is a symbol of perfection--in Barcelona when something goes well, they say something to the effect that it went round--maybe some of our Barcelona experts can tell me if that is true!)
The monastery was been rebuilt after Napoleon destroyed it . The basilica has also been rebuilt. We spent the most time in the basilica and we were able to climb right up to where the Black Virgin sits above the main altar. (up and down 50 steps so Lola saved her knees and just looked inside). When we came down the other side, there were rows and rows of votive candles. Of course, I made a donation and lit one. We need all the light we can get in this world!
As you might expect, we heard some people speaking English and met a couple from Vermont and another from California.
I am sure a lot of people go up to Montserrat for the view, to see the choir, the basilica, and the monastery, but it really is a very peaceful (dare I say holy?) sort of place and I liked that. It would be great to do a retreat there in the off season. (bucket list?)
I would have liked to walk around the grounds more, but our tour was short, so we were soon back on the bus and headed to Barcelona. We arrived after 7pm and saw the heaviest traffic we had seen so far.
Back at the hotel, we sorted through our belongings and managed to get everything stuffed back into the same luggage we arrived with last week. We had our plan for how to get Lola back to the airport (exp:ress Aerobus) and set the alarm for 6:30 am. Lola soon fell asleep, but I was waiting until the time I could Skype with my granddaughters--the youngest had her 5th birthday today. It was after 10pm for me when they got home from school. We chatted face to face several minutes over a connection that was surprisingly better than I expected. It was great to see their faces and to chat with my daughter-in-law, Lisa, too.
And that was how we spent Lola's last day in Barcelona.
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