Montserrat

After a day or so spent being tourists in the rain (Pont du Gard really is quite something, and does have an interesting museum too!), we skirted around Barcelona and instead headed straight to Montserrat just outside of the city. It was climbing time!

Looking back down at the monastery from L'Elefantet near sunset

This place is famous for its large monastery and the Black Virgin, an image of Mary responsible for all manner of miracles (apparently), and being conveniently close to Barcelona, it attracts a steady stream of visitors – however, some of these visitors are like us, and reserve their interest in the place solely for the conglomerate pinnacles that rise on the top of the Serrated Mountain.

We'd been told there was camping there … what we found out on arrival was that it was for tents only. Not for people sleeping in any sort of vehicular conveyance. And their facilities were likewise only for those who were willing to pitch a tent (even if you volunteered to pay!). Hmmm. However, the parking security were much more sympathetic and allowed us to park in the coach parking lot for as long as we liked – for what turned out to be a very small fee. Bargain!

And once this was sorted, it was just a matter of working out what to climb first …!

Sunrise hitting the crags above the monastery - viewed from just near our "campsite" in the bus carpark