We decided to get the cable car both ways as walking would have involved a lengthy stretch along a busy road with no pavement. We took our lunch up with us and I was lulled into a false sense of security as it was looking like an easy day.
Couldn’t believe all the stuff surrounding the Abbey when we got there. Shops, cafes, market stalls and scores of tour buses – its only April! What must this place be like in the summer?
We wanted to be around or in the basilica at 1pm so that we could hear the boys choir singing Ave Maria. Guy was well on form today and had us sat in the pews 40 minutes early! 🙄 In front of us a load of school children were ushered in, and we watched them start to shuffle around and get really bored. I was thinking about sneaking an early sandwich in and Guy was wondering if we should visit ‘the fallen Madonna with the the big boobies’ – I think he meant the sculpture of the black Madonna that people were queueing up to touch. The choir were very good but it didn’t really give you that hairs on the back of the neck feeling that I expected.
Back out in the sunshine, it was still freezing cold, so we started walking uphill just to warm up really. Suddenly, we are climbing up a gazillion steps and looking back down at the monastery. The path continues up, up, up and then splits. We took the trail up to Sant Jeroni which said it was about one hour, forty minutes from that point. What it didn’t say was that it’s nearly all up hill!
Somehow, we did it! The observation point at the top was at 1,236 metres and boy, could we see a long way. Apparently, Mallorca is visible on a clear day. We think it’s the highest point around Montserrat and thankfully the path was reasonable for most of the way.
Coming down was where the trouble started. My hips and legs were getting tired and it felt like slow going in places. As it was getting towards 5pm, Guy decided to check the time of the last cable car – 5:15!! 😮…don’t panic, don’t panic!!! A little part of me thought that this might be a wind up, but when we were still coming back down the steps at five past, I began to worry. Once on the flat, we both started to run on very wobbly legs and if we hadn’t….well, we would have missed the last cable car of the day and faced another 11km downhill!