Montserrat 

What a full day! Again – being the American tourists that we are – we ventured off on another guided excursion, but this time not through Barcelona, but all around Catalunya, too.  I’m going to give a very short summary, because we are about to go get coffee and gelato!

 

Cons: First of all, I am sad to say, we did not see Sleeping Beauty’s castle today.  Apparently that town wasn’t part of the tour…  But it’s ok because we were also looking forward to hearing the very famous and oldest boys’ choir in the world at Montserrat – but wait, we found out after we were there that they actually didn’t sing on Sundays like the tour guide said.  A church choir not singing on Sunday, explain how that makes sense.  Well at least there was still the cool church museum that we got a free pass to from our tour – oh, nope.  The pass was actually for an audiovisual tour, which I think was free if you had your own headphones. Lesson learned: don’t pay 70 Euros to go on a guided tour when you can just go on your own.

 

Pros: For every disappointing aspect of the tour agency’s sorry performance, there were a hundred fascinating, wondrous features to make up for them!  Our first stop was Bodegas Torres, a winery as old as Phoenician times.  This wine country is one thing that gives the Catalonians pride and distinguishes them from the rest of Spain.  When we arrived, we were taken into this lower dungeon-like area via choo-choo train where we were greeted by a hologram tour guide, followed by a hologram scenic background.  Very high-tech.  After, we took some pictures, enjoyed the perfect weather, and sipped some wine (grape juice for me actually). 

 

Our next stop was Montserrat. The Pyrenees, among which lies the town of a thousand-year-old Benedictine monastery, are fat sausages that stick out of the earth and have a distinguishable shape and texture unlike anything I have ever seen in my life – not even in pictures.  The basilica was busy but serene.  The low hum of the monk’s chanting and the Latin murmur of the priest sent a wave of tranquility over the crowd, and I think that even non-believing tourists felt Divine presence.  In the center of the church was the famous Black Madonna statue, which is a black Mary! It is the only Mary with black skin ever found in history!  We saw some men and women standing in the circle in the middle of the church courtyard with their hands raised high, waiting to receive the Holy Spirit.  Some just did it to take a souvenir picture.  Some kids raced and rolled around the courtyard for fun.  I don’t think they were supposed to do that.  I only saw one monk while I was there, I am disappointed to say.  But we did see some sort of traveling circus act there, showing off their ability to form human towers.  We stopped in the gift shop and were on our way again.

 

The next destination was the beach town of Sitges, located thirty minutes outside of Barcelona.  It was a quaint town, most of the buildings erected during the fourteenth century.  Today happened to be some famous “flower carpet” festival, a country-known contest to test the decorative abilities of anyone who enters. It was really cool to see the streets covered in art, but this cool art brought tourists, and when there is limited street space and many tourists, you don’t have a comfortable experience. We hurried into the first open restaurant we saw, where came to the realization that Sitges is a sort of gay community, or at least there is one very nearby.  I’ve a feeling we aren’t in Houston anymore. But the culture change is a good experience – we never know what we’re going to see next. 

 

Be right back, we are getting gelato.

 

Back.  We got gelato and my long skirt blew over my head.  Note to self: don’t walk over vent-looking things in the ground.  You would think that the streets wouldn’t be crowded on a Sunday night, but luckily for me and all the people around me, there was some sort of show right next to our apartment, and it turned out that the band wasn’t the only show they got! I think I’ll just stick to shorts from now on.