We
had a tour scheduled to meet at 9 AM and planned to go to the Concerto dining
room for breakfast. I set an alarm for 7
AM. When the alarm went off it was still
dark outside. We were also moving along
pretty fast with no land in sight. The
ship was due to dock in Barcelona at 9 AM.
Since our balcony was on the port side, I assumed that we would see land
soon. The sky behind us was turning red
and it wasn't long before I could see lights.
This
was the first time on this trip that we had a sit down breakfast in a dining
room. It was a nice change of pace.
We
met Lou and Mona at the Vista Lounge and got our bus assignment. Our tour for today was to Montserrat. The attraction there is a Benedictine Monastery
dating to mid-evil times. The bus ride
from the port was about an hour. As we
got out of Barcelona the guide pointed out the mountain in the distance, the Monastery
was built at the 1300 meter level on the mountain. We stopped at one point along the way where
we could see the Monastery. The road
from there got narrow and winding. It
reminded me of both the "Going to the Sun Highway" in Glacier
National Park and the Mt. Carmel Tunnel road in Zion National Park. Unlike the "Going to the Sun" the
road was drivable by vehicles longer than 25'.
The Montserrat road was 10 kilometers which I think is longer than the
hair pin portion of the Mt. Carmel road in Zion, without the narrow
tunnels.
Going
up the mountain we didn't meet any other vehicles and of course none could have
passed us. It was extremely crowded at
the Monastery with more buses than the parking lot could accommodate. Our guide walked with us to the doors of the
church explaining different parts of the complex. There are 80 Monks that live at Montserrat, their
mantra is "Work and Prayer."
Most of the monks work at maintaining and reserving an extensive library
of ancient books. The books are only
available for qualified researchers.
There are accommodations for Pilgrims of all stripes and reasons you can
imagine from hikers and mendicants to historians and anything in between. The accommodations ranging from hostel to commodious.
We
went into two parts of the church, the Asp, and a room where pilgrims leave
gifts and notes asking for favors from the Black Madonna, a patron Saint of
Catalonia. I posted pictures on Facebook.
Part
of the decent from the mountain was over the same route as we ascended. Of course it was just as winding. I must give credit to our driver, and all the
other drivers, who make a living driving 40' coaches up and down this mountain
with the lives of so many people's loves depending on their skill and
attention.
We
got back to the ship at about 3 PM.
Gerri went aboard with the intention of getting in sometime around the
pool. I checked my GPS and there was a
cache less than .1 miles away. Our ship
was at Terminal B and the direction arrow pointed toward Terminal A. I walked that way and the arrow turned at
140' toward the bridge from town. I
walked back to where the bridge came down to the terminal level and then back
up the bridge about 500' to a parking area.
I found the cache and signed the log.
This was my 4th and final cache in Spain.
Back
on the ship I looked around for Gerri in the pool area with no luck. I went back to the room and she came in a
little later after getting her hair cut.
A
P&O cruise ship sailed just before dark and I watched them sail away. Then it was time to get ready for dinner. We joined our table mates for dinner at our
regular time.
After
dinner we went back to our room and read and watched TV.
Tonight
and tomorrow night our course is toward the port of Madeira, Portugal on the
island of Funchal. That is our next and
last port of call before heading across the Atlantic to Ft. Lauderdale.
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