Today we had a most-of-the-day tour booked to take us up to Monserrat. Got up early again (this late night and early morning thing is starting to get to me...), picked up bakery breakfast (different bakery, of course), and walked to the tour office.
On the way on the bus we got some commentary, both teaching us about Monserrat itself and showing us varies other interesting points along the way. It took about an hour, but the last 10k were very windy and very uphill... Not so pleasant.
Once we got there, we were surprised how much there was. Lots of walking, hiking, rock climbing, as well as the monastery, Basilica, museum and an audiovisual installation. We had a little introduction to the place, were given tickets to the audiovisual installation and a liquor tasting, and set free for about 2.5hrs.
The Basilica was closed until 12 for religious services, so we all went for it liquor tasting. We tried 4 - one made with aromatic herbs (as a digestive), a walnut one, a hazelnut one, and a cream one (lemon and cinnamon flavour). Our favourite was the first one, so we ended up buying a bottle on the way back to the bus later on.
Then Richard and I decided we wanted to go on a short hike, so we caught the funincular railway (Sant Joan) up to the top, 970m above sea level. We were planning in a short walk around the top and riding the railway back down, but then we noticed that the walk all the way down would only take about 45 minutes, so we did that instead.
When we got down it was 1pm and our bus was leaving at 1:19 (the tour lady was very precise!), so we popped into the Basilica, which was lovely, bought or alcohol and headed back to the bus. We even had time to get some food! It was a lovely place to visit, although I do wish we'd had more time. A full day would have been better.
We got back to the apartment around 3pm, had a short rest, then Richard and I went to 2 more Gaudi buildings, Casa Butlla, and La Pedrera (Casa Mila).
Casa Butlla was incredible - it's all based on an underwater theme, which is very evident. The walls aren't straight, but curved to feel like sea caves, with sky lights all over the place to let in natural light. It's really beautiful, and decorated in warm wood feels very cosy and home- like. The light well in the centre of the building was really cool too, with tiles getting darker as you got higher up (because there's more natural light higher too), and smaller windows so that the floor gets the same amount of light in. I really loved it.
Afterwards we went down the couple of blocks to La Pedrera (Casa Mila). It's a very impressive building from the outside, but you actually can't look at very much, because it's still mostly privately owned apartments. The roof was cool, but most of the rest was either information about Gaudi we knew from the other places, or not so interesting. Maybe we just hit or Gaudi limit?
After this we headed back to see parents (David having gone out to meet a friend for dinner), and decided that we would like not tapas for a change. We ended up at a yummy Italian place not far from the apartment, and after dinner stopped at a super meerkat (supermercat = supermarket in Catalan) to get some ice-cream! By the time we got back with then, David was back, so we were glad we bought extra. And then bedtime.
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