Barcelona II

(Tuesday, 1 September) Despite a late night on Sunday on the beaches of the Med, we got an early start and joined the commuter rush. We drank our cafe con leches like care-free Americans while the local businessmen popped into the cafes, bantered with the barista, slammed their cappucino and bolted for the metro. Our destination this morning was at the end of a 1-1/2 hour regional train ride outside of Barcelona to Montserrat, a mountain town/monestary north of Barcelona. After getting off the regional train, we hopped on a rack train - a train that winds slowly up the mountain side to reach the monestary. Nestled by itself on the side of the mountain, it was a sight to behold. The basilica was the largest we had ever seen. Bells were ringing off and on the entire time we were there. There was a service at eleven, and the church was filled with people - astounding considering the amount of effort it takes to get there. Before visiting the church, we hiked one of the trails that would take us straight up the mountain, we were hoping to give our legs a workout since we had not been riding since we left the states. It was straight up and there were spectacular views of the monestary and the valley below. We are pretty sure we took a wrong turn and ended up at somebody's 'house.' It was an awkward situation considering the language barrier and the fact that we walked right into their front yard not knowing somebody was there. We promptly waved hello and goodbye and started heading back down - ratherly quickly! We returned to the city in the heat of the day and hid inside the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (http://www.mnac.cat/index.jsp?lan=003). As any large museum goes, we had to choose sections to visit. We checked out the Picaso exhibit, but spent most of our time in the Romanesque and Gothic period sections. Michelle took a stupid number of Madonna and child paintings in the Gothic section, it seemed to be the main focus of that time period. To end the day, we got a great window seat at a bar where we caught up on some computer chores and watched the craziness of a busy pedestrian-only street through the window as the Barcelonians celebrated another Tuesday night. It was a busy narrow pedestrian-only intersection with a constant dance of partiers, bicycles, scooters and roller-bladers all effortlessly dodging the occasional speeding taxi cab. Kenny had to resist the urge to buy the imported beer: Budweiser.