The following days were arranged for daytours out of Barcelona to the outskirts where we get in touch of nature and away from citylife. Chanced upon Explore Catalunya company and decided to give it a try after seeing the tremendous good reviews on them.
We booked a tour with Explore Catalunya long time ago. Seeing that it brings us to the mountains and wineries..we reckon it will be a great trip out of the city. True enough..the mountains, brought about by erosion by strong winds over the years form the spectacular façade, overwhelmed us.it was a very sunny day.
Montserrat formations
Though the beginning had some glitches, we had fun along the way. An American family was with us as well during the tour, very helpful in taking photos for us and had a good time meeting them too.
Our guide was from Catalunya, one of the autonomous communities of Spain,whose capital city is Barcelona. It’s kinda complicated as we thought there’s just a single flag in the country, when it turns out to be that Catalunya has their own flag and people usually speak Catalonia, their official language.
We get to understand the Catalans, the history of achieving autonomy, how different it is from the rest of Spain. Apparently, we heard from Kris earlier on that it’s seldom to see the Catalans hanging Spain flag, except for that day when we saw they did so as Spain was playing a match in the World Cup!
After an hr road trip, we arrived at the Monastery of our lady of Montserrat. A beautiful monastery built, while surrounded by the majestic mountains that kept us awed. The scenery was spectacular, just that the scorching sun made us scrutinize our eyes often.
the steep path
formations look like human sculpture
We entered the church and heard the choir sing. A peaceful moment spent and an enlightening one with what we saw in the church. We bought sandwiches and went off trekking along a trail up to a monument. The route was quite steep and I almost have to crawl with my hands for one section up the mountain. Standing at the peak of the mountain, we were greeted with the most spectacular view of Montserrat..splendid! Many people were trekking as well, carrying picnic mats etc to enjoy the summer season.
the choir
montserrat
By the time we finished the sightseeing, it was near to 2pm..we set off for the wineries at Cordoniu, where cava was produced since 1551. Never tasted cava before, never knew how it was made. These kept us excited, especially when we get to sit on a vehicle and journeyed through the underground where all the big barrels of cava were kept…whee….
well,the night tour mainly showcases those works of Gaudi, which will light up at night, giving us a different view as in the day. It works the same as the open rooftop bus just that u gotta book in advance to get a seat at the rooftop.
Sagrada familia story…this building is still not done yet after hundred years construction!
It also brought us to the Parc de Montjuic, where a magical water fountain light display show is held every Thurs till Sunday I think, from 9pm onwards. The show was really good, so much better than Sentosa’s water fountain show and this is free!haha…
It repeats itself every half an hour, so everyone just sit by the steps and enjoy the show repeatedly to their heart’s content.
Everything ended like till 12am. Taking the metro at midnight is quite scary, especially to us foreigners I think. But police were out there patrolling at the stations where we were, so we felt much safer...a wonderful day we had! Looking forward to Pyrenees Trail the next day!
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