Monserrat

After a good night's sleep, we awoke refreshed and prepared for our only full day in Spain. We ate protein bars we had brought with us for breakfast as we had plans to be on an early morning train to Montserrat, or "serrated mountain", a mountain range outside Barcelona, most known for the Benedictine abbey, Santa Maria de Montserrat. We left the hotel and walked up to the Catalunya Metro station, where we purchased 24-hour passes so we could take the Metro as we needed today. Our first destination was Placa Espanya, where we would catch the train to Monserrat.

We bought our rail tickets, along with our tickets for the funicular to Monserrat at the train station and then had to wait for the 8:34 AM train. We almost boarded the wrong train as we followed the signs that said 'train to Monserrat' as well as the LCD boards that said track 3, only to discover they had switched the train to track 2 while we were waiting. But we found the right platform and relaxed for the hour-long trip to Monserrat. We were glad to be the first stop, as the train filled as it left Barcelona and many people were left standing. Once at the Monistrol de Montserrat station, we boarded the rack railway for the ride up the mountain.

Overlook

Once at Monserrat, after finding the local facilities, we walked along the upper walkway to get an overview of the area.

Nature Walk

Reaching the end of the walkway, we went upstairs to do a quick walk on one of the nature walks heading towards the Church of Santa Cecilia. We walked along a little way but were unsure if we would be able to loop around, so we decided to walk back to the main entrance.

Basilica at Montserrat

Next we headed up the hill to the monestary itself and the Basilica at Montserrat. The lines were really long to vist the Black Madonna, so we decided not to walk up and touch it and instead went out to the Atrium of the Basilica, which is the open courtyard in front of the Basilica. This area was under construction, so we couldn't see a lot of the architecture, although the mosaic floor was gorgeous, once we could get the tour group to stop standing on it so we could take photos.

Basilica Interior

Next we entered the Basilica itself. The church is a Gothic structure in a traditional Catalan design. The church was rebuilt in the late 19th century. Inside the church are a number of chapels along the perimeter.

St. Joan Funicular and Hike

After the church, we got in line for the St. Joan funicular, which would take us to the top of the mountain. We embarked on a short hike up St. Jerome, the highest peak to the Hermitage of St. Jerome and took some photos of the incredible scenery. Following our funicular ride down, we made a quick stop in the restrooms, found nothing worth eating in the cafeteria, and walked through the gift shop. We found some muffins and chocolate bars there, so we ate muffins on the funicular ride down the mountain and mostly napped on the train back to Barcelona. We ran into our first transportation issue there, where our Metro tickets did not work. But after talking to a less-than-helpful transit employee, we learned we had to use our train tickets to exit the turnstiles before we could pass into the Metro.

Montjuic

Back at Placa Espanya, we exited the Metro and walked towards Montjuic, a hill near the sea. For the 1929 World's Fair, the Palau Nacional, the Estadi Olympic and the Font Magica fountains were built. We climbed the many stairs (and took advantage of the many escalators) to the top of the hill.

Olympic Stadium

At the top of the hill was the Olympic Stadium, site of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. We recalled watching these games, especially at the end, when the Olympic flag was handed over to Atlanta, our hometown at the time.

Lunch

Rebecca wanted to see the beach, so we took the Metro to Barceloneta station. We began the long walk to the beach and found several tapas bars along the street and decided to stop in one, the Meson Barceloneta. Another cerveza was on tap for J. R., while Janie had a glass of wine and Rebecca, a Coke Zero. The tapas here were much better than the day before, especially the jumbo prawns, and we also had our only paella of the trip, which was very good (although we might have skipped the prawn tapas if we had thought about the seafood paella also having prawns, but, as we said, they were very good).

Beach

We talked to our server for awhile about the beach and she directed us on our way towards the main Barceloneta beach, which she admitted was not very good, but close. Rebecca wanted to dip her toes in the water, but one step onto the hot sand in her bare feet convinced her otherwise. So we strolled instead down the waterfront to admire the Frank Gehry fish sculpture which had been commissioned for the Olympics.

Hard Rock and Spain vs Portugal

We got a little lost trying to find the Olympic Village Metro station. Our offline GPS kept telling us we were there but we saw no sight of the station. But finally we walked over and through a small park and saw the "M" sign. By getting off at the Jaume station, we didn't have to change trains and probably ended up closer to our hotel than Cataluna. We wandered the Barri Gothic for awhile and then went back to our hotel, where Rebecca headed back to the rooftop pool. Getting hungry, we decided to try to find a place to watch the Spain - Portugal World Cup game. We ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe, since we were a little tired of tapas. We listened to music for awhile before the game started and then watched the first half. It was quite a thrill to hear the Spanish supporters cheering on their squad. Ronaldo scored a pair of goals off a penalty kick and a free kick with his signature fall down and hold his ankle routine and finished off the game by falling down with no one around him to run time off the clock. He is Rebecca's favorite player but J. R. cannot stand him because of the way he flops.