Montserrat is a short, 1 hr train ride from Barcelona (see my notes below for tips on train tickets to Montserrat). And it’s really pretty. So we went.
Montserrat is a Monastery set amongst the mountains. We didn’t think about this when packing, nor when we set off for Montserrat that morning, and we only packed our thin raincoats because there was rain in the forecast. Turns out, it’s a bit cooler at Montserrat than Barcelona. As we rode the gondola up the mountain, we looked around at our fellow travelers, most wearing snow pants and down jackets. We were nervous.
Thankfully, it wasn’t actually that chilly on the mountain and we were treated to some pretty awesome hikes and views.
If you decide not to hike at all, you can still see some pretty awesome things.
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if you decide to go on a moderately sketchy hike, you can see this!
By the time we reached Montserrat, took the required gondolas and funiculars, and went on our hike, it was roughly 2:30PM. We were running off almonds, cashews and a granola bar. I was hungry, but the only food in sight was cafeteria food. And everyone knows that food at the top of a mountain is always expensive and never that amazing. Nick tried to convince me that we’d be happier eating something delicious back in Barcelona, but by that time I was hangry. A little hungry and a little angry. But logic overcame the hanger and we powered through back to Barcelona.
It’s about now that I need to mention Nick’s awesome Spanish skills. 4 years in high school + a few years running a painting business means Nick has pretty decent conversational Spanish skillz (yes, with a z). This came in really handy when I accidentally sat on my metro card, making it unreadable. When all was said and done, I had a new metro card. Nick even threw in a “muchas” to his “gracias” which I thought was a nice touch. This kid.
We finished the night at the Churreria Granja. A little abuelita selling churros and chocolate. Obviously we owed it to ourselves to try it. We dipped them in the chocolate and they were delicious. And we were hopped up on sugar for the next few hours.
NOTES on Tickets to Montserrat
I don’t think they make this as easy as they could. But that’s ok.
1. Go to the Plaza/Placa de Espanya station
2. Find the R5 train
3. Go up to the ticket machine. This is where it gets tricky. There are a lot of options. We went for the Trans Montserrat ticket – this ticket includes the train trip from Barcelona to Montserrat, the trip up the mountain, the additional funiculars once you are at the monastery, and 2 metro tickets (just because). There are 2 ways to get to the top of Montserrat – either by cable car (5min, standing) or by funicular (15min, sitting). It costs the same, but you have to choose (your own adventure, ha!) when you get the ticket. And you can’t change your mind after. The additional funiculars at the top of Montserrat take you to the many hikes at the top of the mountain, but this is where the views are pretty sweet and the hikes are kinda sketchy – don’t worry, there are lots of non sketchy hikes as well.
4. Get on the train and take a snooze. It’s going to be around 1 hr.
5. There are 2 different stops depending on whether you go up the cable car or the funicular. The cable car/Aeri stop is first, followed by the funicular stop.
6. Enjoy your time!
A few more notes:
- While the cable cars and funiculars are on a schedule, we found that they would skip or add a car from time to time. We thought we were on the early cable car before our train home, but our cable car never showed up and we barely made it.
- If you like climbing, there’s lots of climbing to be had.
4 replies on “Barcelona, and the time I got a little hangry”
Just had gotten your postagram from there and was wondering about Montserrat. Had to google it since I was pretty sure it was in the Caribbean! Funny that Nick made you wait to eat tho’, Steve sometimes has to make me eat when I’m hangry and don’t realize it.
Glutton for punishment? 🙂
I agree on the parc guell v. Sagrada. But I really thought that area with all the columns and domes was awesome.
Oops, I think that last comment was meant for your other post.