I got woken up by the church bells again but just turned over and went back to sleep. We woke up around 08:00 and got ready. While I was in the shower, Graham packed his few odds and ends. I packed my last few things and then we headed downstairs for breakfast.
The breakfast room was packed. We were told to pick up some utensils and sit in the area near the entrance. We also had a quick tour to the recycling facilities and with a lot of pointing the person in charge that morning explained where everything went. This was when we found the coffee machine. The spread that morning was not quite as extensive, but we most certainly did not go hungry. Graham had an assortment of fruit, bread, and cold cuts. There was no Spanish omelette that day, but I had fruit, boiled eggs, cheese, and some kind of fried dough sprinkled with sugar. We both had a couple of cups of coffee and some juice.
Once we had finished our breakfast and disposed of our recycling, we went back to the room to get our stuff. Then we went downstairs to check out. The person at reception stored our luggage for us and asked if we would be back by 16:00. Our plan was to leave early afternoon so that the train would not be too busy. Then we headed out.
I was not prepared for just how busy Montserrat was that morning. The square in front of our hostel was swarming with people. I still had two things I wanted to take care of. One was to pay my respects to the black Madonna, and the other was to visit the Path of Ave Maria. Graham wished me luck. He was going to check out where the start to the Cami de Sant Miquel was. Cami de Sant Miquel is the official name of the trail to Saint Michael’s cross. I had mentioned over breakfast that I would love to do this before we left. He said that when I came back, he would either be in the little garden near the funicular station or somewhere on our square.
I started to wonder if I would be back before I even got going. The passageway from the square where the hostel is to the square in front of the basilica is quite narrow. It was packed with people that day. I managed to squeeze through by staying close to the buildings. The square in front of the basilica was also packed. I got the sense that there was a large-scale pilgrimage happening that day. I found out afterwards that this was a pilgrimage organised by Loyola Marymount university in Los Angeles.
Once I got close to the basilica, the crowds got lighter. I headed towards the entrance from which the chapel with the black Madonna is accessed. This did not look bad at all. There are two lines. One for tourists who need paid for reservations and one for residents of Spain that do not need to pay but enter via a standby line. I knew that as we were staying at Montserrat, I did not need a reservation and just needed to show the piece of paper that I was given when we checked in. I expected that I would enter via the standby line, which in fairness did not look crazy. However, when I showed the piece of paper from the hostel, I was sent down the reservation line. There were about 20 people in front of me. When I got there, the doors had not even opened. This happened about 15 minutes later.
Behind me in line was a couple from the USA with a private tour guide. I could not help overhearing what he was telling them. A lot of this, I already knew. However, there was some interesting pieces of information that were new to me. One nugget that I found particularly interesting was about the Caribbean island of Montserrat. I always assumed that it was a coincidence that the island and the monastery shared the same name. This is not the case. A hermit from the monastery of was part of Christopher Columbus’ entourage. In his honour, the Caribbean island was named after the monastery of Montserrat.
Eventually the doors opened. Just as we were going along the walkway that runs behind some of the chapels in the basilica, I could hear a familiar chant from the Taizé Community. This is about the last thing I would have expected to hear in a Catholic church. Taizé is an ecumenical Christian monastic community in Burgundy, France. It is highly regarded in Protestant churches, but I did not think that it was in the Roman Catholic church. I never had the chance to visit Taizé as I was below the minimum age by a couple of months when our church youth group organized a trip to Taizé. My church did however have regular prayer services following the liturgy of Taizé and this always played an important role during some youth pilgrimages that I did as a teenager. This definitely brough back memories and put a big smile on my face.
The line was moving incredibly slowly. This is nothing unusual as the area with the black Madonna is tiny and can only fit one family at the time. However, considering the small number of people ahead of me, this seemed too slow. All became clear once I got to the last staircase and could see the area with the black Madonna. The family up there at the moment did what is best described as a photoshoot with various combinations of people and different poses. Photography is permitted as long as no flash is used. There is however a time and a place for everything, and I don’t really think that this is the time or the place to have a photoshoot. Eventually, it was my turn. I did say a quick prayer and took a couple of very quick photos and then I moved along. The couple with the tour guide was straight behind me and he left them to it and came down the stairs behind me. He obviously sensed that he had found a kindred spirit and had a good gripe about the behaviour of some tourists.
I headed down to the Path of Ave Maria. This is the dedicated area where people can light candles. I have always loved this area. I had never seen it as busy as it was that day though. I had made a pledge before this trip that if we made it to Sant Jeroni, I would light the biggest candle I could find as a symbol of thanksgiving. We did not make it quite as far, but as what we did manage was still a significant achievement, I decided to still light a large candle. I did this, took some photos of the area and then I went to find Graham.
By the time I got back, things had quietened down on the square in from of our hostel. Graham had found a bench on the square. He shared that there was a fairly steep hill that leads from the funicular station to the beginning of the Cami de Sant Miquel, but the path was paved and looked OK. This sounded good enough for me. We set off. Graham was not kidding when he said that the initial part was steep. It was also very interesting as there were all kinds of different sculptures in this area. We even came across a camp site that I did not even know existed. Once upon the time, this would have delighted me, but I think my camping days are over.
Just past the camp site was the official entrance to the Cami de Sant Miquel. The quality of the path remained good for the most part and there were some minor elevation changes. There was one area that looked like it had been affected by a landslide in the past where the path got a little rough. Compared to the trail to Sant Jeroni, this felt like a walk in the park. Much of this also went through woodland meaning that a lot of the path was shaded. Every now and again there was a gap in the woods, and this provided some stunning views. They were different from the views we had the previous day, but no less spectacular.
We stopped for a short while about halfway where there was a low wall next to the path. It was a nice shady spot. The trail had actually taken us further up the mountain than where the cross was located and the last part was going quite steeply downhill. This was the only part of the trail that freaked me out a little as the trail got quite narrow and there was nothing either side of this apart from a sheer drop. Thankfully, this was only a very short stretch and then we had reached the overlook with St. Michael’s cross. We enjoyed the view for a while, and I took some photos. Then we headed back towards the monastery. We were both glad that we had made the effort as this was a very nice trail.
As the trail ends close to the rack railway station, I suggested that we should sort out the tickets before heading back to the hotel to get our luggage. It was quite busy as the rack railway was about to leave. Still, we knew that we would not make that departure and therefore were in no particular rush. Once we had our tickets, we headed back towards our hostel. I quickly went inside the supermarket as I wanted to get a bottle of the lovely cava. Graham waited for me outside the hostel. Once I had made my purchase, we went to retrieve our luggage before heading back to the rack railway station. The member of staff at the ticket gates tried to convince us to come back closer to the departure time, but we told him we just wanted to sit down. He told us not to get on the earlier rack railway as this only went as far as the carpark. We have done this trip a few times now and know the score. We went downstairs and sat down.
When the inbound rack railway arrived, we were surprised just how many people arrived. Fortunately, there were not too many people leaving. There was plenty of space for us and our luggage. We had to cross over to the other platform again. I really wonder why they changed this as it used to be so convenient when you just had to walk along the platform to get from the train to the rack railway.
The train arrived not long after we got to the correct platform. This was the quietest we had seen this train and there was plenty of space for us and the luggage. We had a nice clear run to the town where we had to change trains. This is the only pain about getting by train from Montserrat to Molins de Rei where we were staying for one night. The train services from Montserrat and the train service that serves Molins de Rei are provided by two different companies. This means that no through tickets were available. The train companies also use different stations. We could see the other station from the platform, but we had to go round three sides of a rectangle to get there. There is a quicker way, but that involves a large number of stairs and was not tempting with luggage.
When we got to the correct station, we got our ticket. I was hoping that there would be some indication on the platform where we needed to go. There was no display showing the next trains. I was just checking my mobile to see if I could find that information online. A gentleman asked us where we were hoping to get to. We told him and he pointed to a train at the very far end of the platform. He told us that the train was leaving in 2 minutes. We set off towards the train at speed and to my immense surprise, we made it. We did not have much time to spare though. That train was quite busy, but there was still enough room for both of us and our luggage. Molins de Rei was only three stops away, but the distance between stops was bigger than on the other line. Still, we had a clear run and before too long, we arrived in Molins de Rei. Better still, we arrived on the same side of the station that the exit is. In all the years that we have stayed at Molins de Rei, the lift from the station down to the street level had not worked once. This is not a real problem as the stairs are quite shallow. Still to my immense surprise, the lift was actually working.
The guy who had pointed us towards the train came in the lift with us. He was pointing at my backpack, and I figured that the backpack was sticking out too much. I tried to change position, but he then mentioned that I had spilled something. I was worried that the bottle of cava had broken as this was the only thing that could have spilled, but there was barbecue sauce all over the top of the backpack and also the back of my t-shirt. I have no idea how this got on there. Fortunately, the hotel was just around the corner. We checked in and headed to our room. I did some spot cleaning on the backpack and gave the area of the t-shirt that had the barbecue sauce on it a quick wash with shower gel and water. There was a small area that was damp, but it was quite hot, and this actually felt nice. I also figured it would dry in no time. Once I had finished the clean-up job, we headed out.
On our second stay in Molins de Rei back in 2010, we discovered a real little gem. Not far from the hotel that we normally stay at is a small neighbourhood bar. It is nothing fancy. In some places, this would be referred to as a dive bar. They do things like burgers, hotdogs, and tapas. Nobody speaks English there, but we never had an issue getting what we want. We always had tapas and there is one dish particularly that I love. It is called pinchos morunos and consists of cubes of pork that are marinated with all kinds of herbs and spices and is then grilled. Normally this is served with slices of grilled bread. On every visit, I am worried that this may no longer be there. Fortunately, it seems to have some serious staying power. I noticed a couple of welcome changes this time. One was that they now have English menus. The other was that they now have a combination plate with pinchos morunos, fries and a fried egg. This sounded like just the job. This worked very well with an ice-cold glass of Estrella Damm. We both had the same meal for once. Normally Graham does not like to have the same meal that I have chosen when we are eating out. We both enjoyed our meal. We had some coffee after the meal, which for a bar was very drinkable.
After dinner, we headed back to our hotel. The bed was very comfortable and when Graham laid down, I figured that was the end of our day. I resigned myself to the fact that our bottle of cava would come on the ship with us. I was not tired yet and read my book. However, Graham woke up again an hour later and we did have our bottle of cava after all. We took time enjoying this and then we got ready for bed. Graham fell asleep again very quickly, but I still felt awake and read until my eyes started to feel heavy. Once I had fallen asleep, I slept through until the next morning.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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