A little holiday to Barcelona, but not a holiday from running - things to train for, plus the best way to see a new place is from a pair of trainers, early in the morning, before everyone else sees it, I always think.
And when you've been on holiday for in Barcelona for a day, working hard at sitting in a restaurant by the beach all afternoon partaking in fine Spanish food and drink, and wandering around a beautiful city, what you really need is another holiday from all this hard work. Montserrat, a mountain range, which is only about an hour away on train from Barcelona, fits the bill. It's definitely worth the trip. Montserrat means 'saw mountain', a fairly self-explanatory name, when seeing it for the first time from the train....
A Benedictine monastery, Santa Maria de Montserrat, has been nestled on the rocks high up in the mountains since the 11th century. You can take a trip up there in a cable car, or on the mountain railway. I would literally rather scale the cliff face with bare hands than get anywhere near being in a cable car, but was forced to review this rash statement when stood at the bottom of the mountain, and was persuaded to get the mountain railway.
You can even stay overnight in a hotel in the monastery. This was literally the best thing. It's very lovely looking around the site with everyone else in the day, but it becomes even more magical when most people leave on the last train/ cable cars. I could literally have sat on the windowsill all day just watching the changing light....
I really could have, it was very hard to move...
....but, many things to see! Like the beautiful basilica, which enshrines the image of the Virgin of Montserrat. Some even say there are links here to the Holy Grail....
Then, there is the Stairway to Heaven, a sculpture, which you used to be able to climb to the top of, believe it or not. Really though, can you believe it! I think I would rather get in a cable car.
Soon, night, and the oddly peaceful sound of the bells every quarter of an hour, which I never thought I'd sleep through, but it was oddly soothing....
Then, up early - run time! A million times worth staying overnight and getting an early start for the views, and that magical early morning light. It felt quite out of this world, and even taking a fall couldn't knock me out of my reverie (the bruises from my last fall have faded, so it must have been time to get new ones, weirdly in exactly the same place that the last ones were).
Took a couple of short walking routes from the tourist centre, and stuck them together to get about an hours run, firstly along shady trails to Degotells and back to the monastery.
Then a steep downhill along The Path of the Rosary, lined with statues, to the chapel and grotto of Santa Cova. Breathtakingly beautiful, but kind of eerie at the same time.
The way back was slightly less eerie, as the steep downhill was now a steep uphill all the way back...
...and there is no time to worry about eeriness when your legs are screaming and your lungs are bursting. But on the plus side, breakfast was at the top.
What a bewitching place. If I go back, I would love to just have running stuff, and run all the way to the top of Sant Jeroni (the highest peak in the range), back to the Monastery for the night, get up super early to see the sun rise before breakfast, then run back down the mountain and catch the train back to Barcelona in time for an afternoon back in the restaurant by the beach, to replace the lost calories.......ahhh, holidays..... Thinking of which, my next holiday is the 10 in 10, in less than 2 weeks!
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