On emerging from the monastery, it occurred to us that the package tickets we’d bought included admission to a museum. We found the museum across from the station at which we’d been dropped off from the rack railway and went in.

We found an assortment of paintings, a few by well-known artists such as El Greco, Dalí, Picasso and Mirķ, and some interesting artifacts. Unfortunately, photography was not permitted, so I was only able to get this picture that I took by accident:

Also included in our package tickets was admission to two funiculars located near the museum. One of the funiculars goes up (the “Sant Joan”), and one goes down (the “Santa Cova”). We elected to try the Santa Cova funicular first.

We followed the signs and boarded, and were taken down to a trail which leads to the Santa Cova chapel.

The chapel is about a mile from the drop-off point, and there are some very nice views to be had from points along the trail.

Aeri de Montserrat Med   Lrg   Xlg	View from Start of Trail Med   Lrg   Xlg
Valley and Aeri de Montserrat Station MP4-Sml   MP4-Med   WMV-HD	Rocks and St. Michael's Cross Med   Lrg   Xlg
St. Michael's Cross, Rocks and Valley MP4-Sml   MP4-Med   WMV-HD	Rocks and Monastery Building Med   Lrg   Xlg
Rocks Med   Lrg   Xlg	Nella on Trail and Monastery Building MP4-Sml   MP4-Med   WMV-HD
Aeri de Montserrat Med   Lrg   Xlg	Valley from Trail Med   Lrg   Xlg

Also along the trail are 15 sculptural groups dedicated to mysteries of the rosary (for non-Catholics such as myself, a rosary is a sort of beaded necklace thing with a specific arrangement of beads that helps one pray in a certain way, or such is my understanding; I’m not sure what’s mysterious about them - an expert, such as any Catholic, would be able to give you a better description). Some of these sculptural groups were executed by well-known Catalan artists (Gaudí worked on one, for instance).

The Presentation of Jesus Med   Lrg	Jesus at the Temple Med   Lrg
Jesus in the Orchard of Getsemani (1897, Matali and Campeny) Med   Lrg	Trail and Rocks MP4-Sml   MP4-Med   WMV-HD
Crucifixion (Cadafalch and Llimona) Med   Lrg   Xlg	Resurrection (1907, Gaudí, Llimona and Renart) Med   Lrg   Xlg
Resurrection (Gaudí, Llimona and Renart) Med   Lrg   Xlg	The Coming of the Holy Ghost Med   Lrg   Xlg
Iron Butterflies Med   Lrg   Xlg	Coronation of the Virgin (1906, Lluciā) Med   Lrg   Xlg

After walking the trail we eventually arrived at the Santa Cova chapel, which is a chapel that was built around the cave in which the Virgin of Montserrat is said to have been found in the 9th Century. There has been a chapel here since around 1700, though the original was heavily damaged during the Napoleonic Wars and had to be rebuilt in 1859. Damage during and following a forest fire in 1994 led to its latest restoration, which was completed in 1997.

The cave of the Virgin is nicely presented, with a copy of the Virgin figure and effective lighting. There is a bank of candles in the room set aside for viewing of the cave.

Nella, Holy Grotto, Candles and Reliefs MP4-Sml   MP4-Med   WMV-HD

Candles Med   Lrg   Xlg

A second room is used to display a peculiar collection of objects that have been left or sent in as offerings or expressions of gratitude, or maybe both, I’m not exactly sure. There are articles of clothing, motorcycle helmets, artificial limbs, photographs and rosaries, among other things.

The chapel also has a tiny but well-maintained courtyard or cloister.

Nella and Chapel Courtyard MP4-Sml   MP4-Med   WMV-HD

Courtyard and Overhanging Rock MP4-Sml   MP4-Med   WMV-HD

Following our visit to the chapel, we retraced our steps back to the funicular and rode it back up to monastery level.

At this point we disembarked and boarded the other funicular, the Sant Joan, which took us up the mountain from the monastery. This trip ended on a ridge from which we could see what was on the other side of the mountain (more mountain, and a valley beyond). This also seemed to be a confluence of trails leading to other parts of the mountain. We were tempted to wander around a little, but it was getting late and we wanted to make sure we had rides back down the mountain, so we stayed close to the funicular station.

View from Pla de les Tarāntules Med   Lrg   Xlg	View from Pla de les Tarāntules MP4-Sml   MP4-Med   WMV-HD
Trail and Nella at Funicular Station MP4-Sml   MP4-Med   WMV-HD	Bob Med   Lrg

There was a small observation deck on top of the station from which we could see some picturesque rocks. We also had a birds-eye view of the monastery complex.

Group of Rocks Med   Lrg   Xlg

Nella and Group of Rocks with Sign MP4-Sml   MP4-Med   WMV-HD

Rocks and Monastery from Above MP4-Sml   MP4-Med   WMV-HD

Monastery from Top of Funicular Med   Lrg   Xlg

Eventually we re-boarded the funicular for the trip back down to the monastery.

From here we caught the rack railway back down to the valley train station.

Crossing a River MP4-Sml   MP4-Med   WMV-HD

Back in the Valley Med   Lrg

The regular train took us from here back to Barcelona, where we found some dinner and returned to the hotel. We rested up for the next day, not because we had a lot of things planned (though we had a few things in mind), but because the next day was to be our last in Europe for this trip, and we knew we would have to do any last-minute shopping and make preparations for our departure.