Set the Controls for the Heart del Sol (part 2)

Our planned diversion on the 120km from Girona to Barcelona was Montserrat, an amazing pile of rock which some monks obviously thought would give them a heavenly head start, so they built a monastery there in 1025 and people have been visiting ever since. Getting up the 1200 metres must have been an absolute nightmare back then, it's mighty steep - the Kalos' 1.2 litre pepper-grinder of an engine only just had the necessary oomph! We would have loved to take the rack railway, but unfortunately it was not running.


When we got up there, we discovered why. The four of us were probably 10% of the entire visitor population that day! Weekends in summer are apparently pretty hectic, but it was really nice and it seemed much more appropriate that it had such a tranquility.





In fact, there were possibly more semi-feral cats than other visitors that day:


With the obligatory church/cathedral visit ticked off - no European holiday can be complete without one! - we made our (considerably faster) way back down the hill and headed for Barcelona, and our dinner dates...