Monastery | this bird flies

Squatzi Montserrat — Squatzi likes Spain!

Side trips and small excursions from major hubs can be the best part of any vacation. They’re usually off the beaten path, and a little less touristy. On our third day in Spain, we decided to visit Montserrat, a Benedictine monastery in the heart of Catalonia.

The trip is about one hour by train from Barcelona, and includes your choice of air tram or railway to get to the top. Of course, we chose air tram–the Aeri de Montserrat. Once at the site, there are a few funiculars to other view points and stops of interest. And we all know how I feel about funiculars!

Aeri de Montserrat – cable car to the monastery

Aeri de Montserrat closer view of cable car

What you need to know:

There’s a pretty dark history of the monastery. During the Spanish civil war dozens of monks were killed as a violent attempt to suppress Catalan culture.
The monastery has one of the oldest and most renowned boys choir. The choir sings through the day, and they’re an impressive bunch of little kids!
Montserrat is one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in Spain. The main buildings and courtyard are overrun with people. Thankfully, the hiking trails are not.
The Black Madonna statue (claimed to be from 50AD, but carbon dated to the 12th century) is patroness of Catalonia. “La Moreneta” is the soul of Montserrat.

Imagine a super religious Banff, A.B. or Whistler, B.C. with a lot less winter sports retail, and less party boys, and you’ve got the atmosphere of Montserrat.

The rock formations, “serrated mountain” (mont serrat), that give the monastery its name are filled with hiking trails and paths that are fairly easy going. Along the way there are some lovely view points, shrines, and sculptures.

There were sculptures by Subirachs that completely echoed the figures of the Sagrada Familia. There is also the Ramon Llull’s Escala de l’enteniment. This translates to me as “scale of understanding” or “ladder of being.” From bottom to top the steps are Pedra, Flama, Planta, Bèstia, Home, Cel, Àngel, Dèu. Which to me is Stone, Flames (Hell?), Plants/Earth, Animals, Man, Sky (Heaven?), Angels, God. Not being a Catalan speaker, I hope that’s close!

Ramon Llull's Escala de l'enteniment — Ramon Llull’s Escala de l’enteniment

The courtyard of the Basilica of Montserrat is beautiful. I’m a sucker for religious iconography, so I found it particularly interesting. The fountain of youth/life was ridiculous, but the pilgrims were buying into it whole heartedly. They were also lined up forever to touch the statue of La Moreneta/the Black Virgin.

Montserrat Insignia

Magic Fountain of Life Montserrat

Montserrat Prayer

Basilica Courtyard, Montserrat

Just look at all the tiny, intricate details from top to bottom of the Basilica façade–seriously, how long would it take to make something like this?!?

Jesus & The Apostles at Montserrat — Jesus & The Apostles. Montserrat Basilica Façade built in 1900 to replace the 1500’s original

And, here’s why iconography super interesting. Why is the fourth person holding a massive saw? Or, the eleventh person holding a battle-axe? At first glance, I know which one is Jesus, but the rest can’t justifiably be lumped together as “the Apostles” without me knowing who they are. Well thanks to some research, I know much more about the Apostles lives and deaths, most of which were pretty gruesome.

So, my best guesses, from left to right are: Matthias with a sword, Philip with a cross and basket, Thomas with a spear, Simon with a saw, James the Lesser with a club, Peter with the upside down cross and keys, Jesus, John with the bible, James with the scallops on his shoulders, Bartholomew with the flaying knife, Andrew with the X cross, Matthew with the battle-axe, and Jude with sails, but I can’t really see his outfit or what he’s holding.

If anyone can offer more insight, I’d love to know!

We ended up having a couple more days in Lima then we had originally planned. The airline we were flying with to Trujillo rescheduled the flight times and made it 100% impossible to visit Chan Chan. Boo.

Almost 8 million people live in the capital of Peru. Lima is a typical metropolitan area with lots of great things to see and do, but not where we really want to spend a lot of time.

We stayed near the ocean in Miraflores which is the touristy, newer, upscale, aka “safer” part of Lima. There were several parks and a shopping mall within walking distance from the place we were staying. Larcomar overlooks the Pacific Ocean, and is partially outdoors which would never work in Canada. Being able to watch paragliders from the mall was pretty cool though. We wandered from the mall to El Parque del Amor where the famous sculpture ‘El Beso’ is located. The park was a lot smaller than I expected, and not nearly as interesting.

There was only 1 brief moment where I didn’t feel 100% safe in Lima. We were on a very busy touristy street, and there was a 2 person team trying to pick pocket us or something. One was trying to distract Jon with maps etc on the left, and the other was just way too close for comfort on my right. We quickly shut that situation down. I don’t keep stuff in my pockets anyway, so they wouldn’t have gotten anything but lint. Otherwise, Lima seemed fine. Police were everywhere–police on Segways, police with dogs, and police with full riot gear. That dog’s name is Rocco. True story. He can do loads of tricks. His policeman handler was making him pose for photos. Safety first right?

Everyone we’d talked to about Lima along the trip said we had to visit the water park. Approximately 13 million US was used to renovate the park and create the water fountain circuit. (Which is ridiculous given some of the social situations in the country. I suppose the park is a revenue source?) The park is huge, it has the worlds highest water fountain at 80m. It was beautiful, but not as spectacular as I’d hoped. (Seriously, I was more impressed with the water show at the Bellagio.)

Magic Water Circuit Water show Lima Peru

Not to be a total downer about Lima, it was just a complete change of pace from everything we’d been doing in Peru. On a positive note, I did enjoy the architecture. Some of the buildings were gorgeous. (ps: the historic district of Lima is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.) Along with beautiful churches, the Plaza Mayor also has the Presidential Palace (the Peruvian White House if you will.) Every day there is a changing of the guard–complete with marching band. Most of the police force with riot gear was out during the marching ceremony.

We visited several of the cathedrals including the San Francisco Monastery and Catacombs. The catacombs were eerie. Thousands of bones were arranged in mass graves. When someone died, their family was not permitted inside the catacombs; only monks were allowed entry. Eventually, the monastery ran out of space, and instead of being honest, they just kept piling people on top of more and more people. The bones are in a pit several meters deep. Pretty creepy really.

Here are a few photos from the city.

Adventures of a couple seeing the world 2 weeks at a time.