SPAIN: HOW TO GET TO MONTSERRAT
We spent 2 and a half days on our own, arriving on a Friday, in Barcelona ---my beloved city where I lived for 6 months in 1980 as an LDS missionary. The infrastructure is the same but I noticed that more people spoke English and seemed to be better off economically which made me happy for them. The biggest change is that they changed ALL the streets and city names from Castillian to Catalan. We stayed in a hotel called Hotel 1898 which is literally just a few steps away from Le Meridien Barcelona where our Tauck Tour was to commence on Sunday evening. Hotel 1898 used to house the Philippine Tobacco Company and is now a boutique hotel run by a local Spanish company. Very charming and lovely. The rooms are decorated in the Moderne style---beautiful wood floors, granite bathrooms complete with bidet and a large shower room with large rainshower heads and body showers and beautiful caste iron sinks. The nearest metro stop is just a few meters away, Liceu, on the green line. Walking out of entrance that faced the Ramblas, if you turned left, you would run into a local supermercado where you can get sundries and food with a sandwich shop next door called Pans where they made the best “bocadillos”---french baguettes with tomatoes, manchego cheese and jamon iberico. YUMMY. If you walk the Ramblas the same direction, you will reach Plaza Catalunya within 5 minutes. Walking out of the Hotel and turning right, you will reach “La Boqueria”---an open market full of fresh fruits, meats, fish....and the best cold horchata. No, not the horchata that you buy at Vons or Albertsons made of rice. It’s the REAL horchata made of CHUFA beans---so refreshing and addicting-----to me, anyway. It’s packed with proteins. I wish it were readily available here in the US but to get it, you will need to order from LaTienda.com at a premium. Going the same direction on the Ramblas, and turning left on the first little street (called “carrer” in Catalan), you will find the best shopping! WOW. July is the time of REBAIXES. or sales. We frequented Mango, Zara, Paramito and all kinds of little shops. We also discovered a little restaurant that served the best tarta de manzana and my favorite: CHURROS y CHOCOLATE. No, not colacao or hot chocolate from a mix---the very thick (pots de creme) chocolate that you dip the churros in....and NO, the churros do not come sprinkled with sugar or cinnamon. They are crisp and wonderful. If you continue on the Ramblas, you will eventually reach Plaza Colón where the Ramblas end. There will be a monument of Cristóbal Colón pointing out to the sea. Of course, he is pointing at the wrong direction because he is pointing towards Asia, not the Americas.
Early Saturday, we decided to go on our own to Montserrat. I had been there before so I thought it should be easy to take the Metro and then the train but alas---we had a series of “mistakes”. To get to Montserrat, one must first get to Plaza España which is an easy proposition. It was a mere 2 stops from Liceu. From there you must find the railroad, the Line R5 to Manresa---which is subterranean so you go down a series of stairs. Henceforth, you will find yourself in a very vulnerable situation because EVERYTHING---every sign, every map is in Catalán. No Spanish. No English. Nothing. Just Catalán. To get tickets for the train, you use the machine. There is supposed to be a manned table where one can get assistance but it was empty perhaps because it was still early at around 8:00am. So we went ahead and used the ticket machine. Of course, everything was in Catalán as well and we saw about 6 fares that had the name “Montserrat”. I punched the first button I saw that had “Montserrat Aeri” because I knew that “aeri” meant cable car and I knew that in order to get to Montserrat, one has to get on a cable car or cog-wheel train. We each paid about 9 euros. The train arrived perfectly on time: 8:35. Very nice, comfortable train. I knew that the stop we needed to get off was “Montserrat Aeri” and that it was going to take us over an hour. About two stops away, the conductress asked to see our tickets. She took a look at Tascha’s first, then at Tascha, then at the ticket and looked perplexed. Then she asked her something in Catalán. Of course, none of us spoke Catalán so I said: Perdón, hay un problema? To which she replied that the ticket was for retired (jubilados) people! Ha! We all got the discounted tkts for seniors! So I told her we would gladly pay the difference and she gave me instructions on how to do that. As the train neared our stop, I got up and confirmed with her that this was our stop. She said, no, next one. Which confused me. The next stop was Monistral and I knew there was NO cable car there. So we sat down and got off Monistral. Found out that Monistral stop is where you catch the cogwheel train which is NOT our ticket. So I spoke with another lady conductor who looked at my ticket and said “Da igual...passád vosotros!” So we got on! BEAUTIFUL! The slow train took us on a very steep grade of tracks and out towards beautiful vistas as we went higher and higher. After about 20 minutes we were in beautiful Montserrat. It was heavenly.
On the way back, we walked to the funicular (aeri) house and bought tickets back to Plaza España, this time, on the cable car again with fantastic and unparalleled views. When we arrived in Barcelona and to our hotel, we were very pleased with ourselves for making the “correct mistake” because if I had bought the round-trip tickets via aeri, we would not have experienced both ways to see the views. So, everything went well and our adventure was well-worth it all. Cost to see Montserrat on our own: about $30 each. Cost to Montserrat on an organized tour via tourist bus: minimum of $60 each and you have to choose either cable car or cog-wheel train but not both...First tour leaves the city at 9:30am. If you go on your own, you have at least an hour to enjoy the views without the crowds. By the time several buses arrived at about 11:00 carrying hordes of people, we were ready to leave and our cable car which they usually pack with around 35 people, carried only 7 people. It was wonderful! And easy. This is DEFINITELY the way to do it.
