Threat of rain subsided so we got ready to head to Montserrat. A bit of a walk to the train station but along the way we were successful in getting coffee at a nice shop plus a couple small sandwiches for lunch. Found a market building where we got another sandwich and some fruit. Found our train and rode the one hour to the mountain top monastery. Got some info, dropped our backpacks at our hotel and had lunch. Then attended the short service where we heard the boys choir sing. The experience was a bit tainted as the throng of tourists ignored the requests and took many pictures with flash during the service. There was just a complete lack of respect and reverence. Disappointing. Took off afterwards and hiked to the top of the peaks at Sant Jeroni. Scary steep and windy cold. On the way down we had hoped to ride the funicular train back down to the monastery level but you had to have a ticket and couldn't buy one at the top. We ended up walking all the way back down. Found out later our train ticket included the funicular ride. Ha ha! Oh well. The whole area is geared towards the tourists and the souvenirs ($$). Very little info about the hiking and the trails are poorly marked. When we got back, we looked around a bit in shops and finally cleaned up and rested until our late dinner at the restaurant here. It was very nice.
Hotel Abat Cisneros - A good hotel
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