Montserrat

Four years from now I will look back and smile as I remember that four years previous I spent my day 4000 feet up on Montserrat looking out over miles and miles of Spanish countryside. I couldn't think of a better way to spend my "2/29" then right where I was, it was absolutely beautiful.

My day started early. I had to get up, shower, eat and check out of the hostel before heading to the famed Montserrat, a stunning set of mountains an hour(by train) outside of Barcelona.

I had heard of these mountains before, but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw as we rode the tram (and subsequently a cable car) up the side of mountain. The views were spectacular and there was a blanket of fog over parts of the mountain, adding to that "above the clouds" feeling already created by the stunning views. We set out on a hike from the cable car station. We picked the hardest and longest one available, to the summit: Sant Jeroni, just around 4000 feet up. We set out, enjoying numerous vistas as we walked, eventually reaching the summit a couple hours later. At the top, we found an unofficial viewpoint which offered incredible, and sometimes pretty dangerous (no railing) vantage points. We sat down and soaked it all in for 20 minutes or so, all the while tossing around ideas of what it might be like to jump off. It's weird how you think about stuff like that when you look over the edge of a couple thousand foot high cliff.

One thing we all noticed was that the mountains were unlike any mountains we had ever seen. They seemed very much like they had been formed underwater years ago and over time been revealed as the continents shifted. The mountains themselves were made of conglomerate rock, giving them a very unique look, shape, and feel.

We made it back to the cable car literally minutes before it made its last departure of the day and began our descent. We all sat down on the train back to Barcelona feeling very happy with ourselves, it was a day well spent.

Pictures up HERE. (in the updated Barcelona set)