A very pleasant day with this oddly shaped mountain, Montserrat, in focus. Montserrat means saw mountain in Catalan and when looking at the shape of the mountain it is obvious why. I went up into the heart of the mountain where monks during centuries have been constructing a complete city with a cathedral and all. Montserrat is a tourist magnet and there were plenty of people up there even if it was rather late in the afternoon. On my way down to the village Monistrol de Montserrat I passed by a nun’s convent and the nun on guard showed me the inside of the church that had a very modernistic touch. All the furnishing except for a sculpture showing the Madonna and the child had been crafted by the nuns themselves she said. And they certainly had made a beautiful and very professional job of it. She was quite talkative and I asked her if her order demanded that they took a vow of silence and she said it did, but five times a day they gathered in the church for praying and singing and then they took the chance to really exercise their vocal cords 🙂
When I started out this morning I had no knowledge about any footpaths to Manresa. The tourist office in Monistrol didn’t have opening hours to my liking and I couldn’t get hold of any detailed maps. The GPS-device also wasn’t much of a help as it didn’t reveal any tracks at all. So, I started walking on the busy C-55 and as if the constant noise and gusts from lorries and cars wasn’t annoying enough there was this road tunnel, at least a kilometer in length and with a shelf about 15 centimeters high and maybe 80 wide for me to walk on with almost twenty kilos on my back that should be kept steady being hit by the gusts using only the 67 kilos I weigh myself. That was an experience that I’d rather had been without thank you very much. I had to use the C-55 all the way to Manresa but there I stumbled over a track that I could use for the stage to Súria. I found a very nice guest house in Súria and I also had a very tasty meal with a local touch.
