Things to do when in Barcelona
Well, get out of town and go to Montserrat! Or to the island of the same name, in the Caribbean, named about this very place.
Montserrat BW
A good view of the extraordinary settings of the Montserrat Abbey, for Skywatch Friday and the Weekend in Black and White.
The little house in the mountains
As big-city dwellers, we sometimes (quite often, actually) crave for some peace and quiet. So, this little house in the crags above Montserrat Abbey seems quite enchanting. For a while anyway. Who am I kidding, we would get bored quite rapidly. Would you? I took this photo with a 450mm zoom, and there is literally nothing or nobody else around. Loneliness?
Chocolate with olive oil and salt
Sounds very weird, but it’s actually really good (I tried a small piece). 73% cocoa, 5% olive oil, 0,4% salt. Would you eat it? It is sold in the shops of Montserrat Abbey, providers of fine foods since 1025 AD.
Santa Maria de Montserrat
Shame on us! After almost 4 years in Barcelona, we finally went to one of the top places to see in Catalunya: Montserrat. More specifically to the benedictine abbey Santa Maria de Montserrat.
The monastery is Catalonia’s most important religious retreat and groups of young people from Barcelona and all over Catalonia make overnight hikes at least once in their lives to watch the sunrise from the heights of Montserrat. Virgin of Montserrat (the black virgin), is Catalonia’s favorite saint, and is located in the sanctuary of the Mare de Déu de Montserrat, next to the Benedictine monastery nestling in the towers and crags of the mountain. The Escolania, Montserrat’s Boys’ Choir is one of the oldest in Europe, and performs during religious ceremonies and communal prayers in the basilica. Montserrat, whose name means serrated mountain, is 48 kilometres (approx 30 miles) west of Barcelona, and can be reached by road, train or cable car. We took the train, no Harley available.
We’ll be in France for a couple of days, for a well earned but short rest, so we will be blogging from there. After the beach, of course.
Anyway, click here to check out the English version of the abbey’s website.
Watery Wednesday
Not sure if Watery Wednesday will be on this week, but, hey, gotta nice watery photo, from northern Catalunya. So here we go! Have a look anyway, here. Or here, at Kim’s Water World Wednesday.
Watery Wednesday
Don’t you sometimes wish you could just go fishing, instead of going to work or to school?
Watery Wednesday, right here.
Winter is coming
Seems the weather is changing in the mountains, high up at the catalan-french border. I haven’t heard about snow yet, but when it will be here, this will be the best way moving around.
This is, as every friday, for Skywatch Friday.
Skywatch Friday
The television emitter in the Collserola hills behind Barcelona, one nice summer evening. Summer is officially over, but we had 28 degrees centigrade today, low 80es in other countries. Going to the beach tomorrow.
Skywatch Friday, as usual, you should really click here!
I’m sure it is a very good hotel…..
… but are you really sure you want to sleep here??? Who knows when you’ll wake up!
Andorra: the bridge
Fancy bridge in the city center of Andorra la Vella, the one you saw reflected last Saturday.
Want to see more bridges? Click here!
Weekend Reflections
Reflections in the windows of a hotel in Andorra la Vella, the capital of the Principality of Andorra. The ball and the cables are part of a bridge I’ll show you on monday, the rest is the mountain facing the hotel. Very appropriate name for the hotel, by the way: it’s the Magic Hotel, no less!
Please visit James’s Weekend Reflections blog!
Skywatch Friday
Very high up in the Pyrenees Mountains, about half a meter away from France… The ski resort of Ordino-Alcalis in the Principality of Andorra, altitude 2826 meters, or 9300 feet.
Please click here to see more Skywatch photos!
Andorra: a room with a view
During our recent trip to Andorra, we stayed in this nice 4 stars hotel in El Serrat, and we had a room with a view…. to take our city-dweller’s breath away.
Watery Andorran Wednesday
We went to Andorra last weekend, for the first time ever. And what an absolutely lovely little country this is! For those who don’t know, Andorra is a tiny principality (technically called a micro-state) in the Pyrenees Mountains, between Spain and France. Just over 400 square kilometers, 2 heads of state, the Bishop of Urgell in Spain and the french president, de facto princes of Andorra.
Mountains, water and duty free shopping. Will show you much more about it!
Oh yeah: as in Catalunya, the official language of the country is Catalan. Which means that Andorra is the only independent Catalan country in the world.
Click here to see more watery pictures for this Wednesday.
Skywatch Friday
It is brutally hot in Barcelona, so let us escape to some fresher pastures… This is Lough Corrib, in Connemara, in the Gaeltacht west of Galway, in Ireland. And the mountains are some of the 12 Bens. Aaaaahhh,a breath of fresh air!
This, of course, is for Skywatch Friday! Check it out!
Sunday Bridges
A bridge on the french side of the Pyrenees Mountains.
This is for Louis La Vache’s Sunday Bridges meme. Please click here to see more bridges from all around the world.
And some more beautiful pictures on my other blog as well, right here.
Watery Wednesday
Reflections on a mountain river.
This is for Watery Wednesday. Please click here to see more.
Amongst other news… The Unesco, meeting in Nairobi, has declared the catalan human towers, castells, an intangible world heritage! They did the same with flamenco dancing and singing, and… FRENCH CUISINE!
Skywatch Friday
A cloudy day in north Catalunya, the somber beauty of the Pyrenees mountains.
This is, like almost every Friday, for Skywatch Friday. Please click here to see more photos from other participants to the meme.
Patou
This is a Patou, or Pastou in the local dialects, in french Chien de montagne des Pyrenees, the quintessential Pyrenees mountains dog, common on both sides of the border, in France and Spain. It is a guard dog, used in medieval times to fight wolves, bears and lynx. Spotted a few of them in the mountains last weekend. They are the sweetest of dogs, but can be very protective. They need a lot of space, so don’t even think about having one in your 2 bedroom flat! He was made very famous in France through a TV series in the 70es called Belle and Sebastien, the adventures of Sebastien, a young boy, and Belle, his beautiful snow white best friend.
Barcelona Daily Photo 
