Montserrat is a multi-peak mountain range just north of Barcelona and is the home of the famous Montserrat Monastery. Montserrat in Spanish means serrated and when you see the mountain and its unusual rock formations, you understand why the mountain was named this. Tucked into the mountain at nearly 4000 ft, the monastery Santa Maria de Montserrat. The benedictine abbey was founded in 1025 and has 80 monks residing there today. It is also home to the famous boys’ choir, Escolania, and a publishing house.

Our guide for today was Ramon Burgues from Tours by Locals. Ramon provided us with a wonderful tour of Montserrat last year when we visited on the World Cruise so we were happy to book with him again for the group. After a one-hour drive to Montserrat, we started our tour of the monastery campus. One thing that you notice right away is how many extra buildings there are, in addition to the Basilica. These house the boys’ choir, the residence for the monks, the publishing company and also some unique hotel/hostel facilities. Regular people can stay in the monastery and interact with the monks and priests. People from all over the world come to pray, learn and seek solace and comfort.

Once inside the Basilica, which was originally built in the 16th century, destroyed by Napolean during the Peninsular War, and then rebuilt in 1811, you realize immediately that this is a very unique church. The light fixtures don’t match, in fact, they were each purchased and installed by unique villages and towns surrounding Montserrat. There are small chapels around the single naïve, and they all seem dark and ominous. Above the alter rests the Virgin of Montserrat. This depiction of Mary, holding the Jesus as a toddler, is unique in that she and Jesus are black. There is a legend that they were found this way, by two shepherd boys, in a cave in the mountain. But most historians believe that metal that Mary and Jesus were made of has just oxidized over the years. It’s a fascinating story and being in their presence is very special.

We finished our tour, had some free time to eat some lunch and gift shop, and then we rode the cable car back to the bottom of the mountain to meet Ramon so he could drive us back to the city. This is such a wonderful day trip from Barcelona.

In the evening, we attended a Paella cooking class that we booked through Viator. We were joined by the Flachsbarts from Texas and after some introduction, we were off to the local market to purchase the supplies to make tonight’s meal. Our chef, Hugo, selected the best shrimp, calamari, mussels and clams for the feast, and then we walked to a residential neighborhood and the kitchen of Gastronomic Arts Barcelona.

The table was already set with wonderful tapas and supplies to learn to make sangria. We learned proportions and why it is best to prepare the sangria a day in advance to get the best flavor. After tasting our concoctions, we were off to clean the shellfish. If you’ve never cleaned a squid, let us tell you, this is a multi-step process that you don’t want to get wrong. Pulling out the spine, and taking off it’s eyeballs…yowsa. Once everything was cleaned, we started layering the vegetables, cooking the fish and simmering the rice, all in one massive pot.

The results were impressive and tasted so good. Even Ari, who really doesn’t like shellfish, agreed that it was tasty. For dessert, Hugo showed us how to make a traditional Catalan cake of almond flour, eggs and sugar. With a dusting of powdered sugar, it was a real treat.

It was an exhausting day, racking over 5 miles, but we loved it. We forgot to mention earlier that we’ve been joined by our friend Mike Houser. We became friends on the World Cruise and he’s going to be with us for the next three weeks.

Tomorrow: Embarkation to the Star Princess

Recommend: Ramon Burgues, Tours by Locals, https://www.toursbylocals.com/tour-guides/spain/barcelona/guide-profile/ramon-b-664d21e296689af34333e756

Editor’s Note: We apologize for the delay in this post getting published. We’ve had some technical challenges that we believe are now behind us so we’ll endeavor to get the posts caught up in the next day or two. Onward!