Montserrat, Spain

So finally after my third visit to Barcelona I managed to include Montserrat into my travel itinerary.

The reason why I missed it the first two times was because it is quite far away from Barcelona and the place itself would take up at least half a day.

There is already so much to do in Barcelona itself that there was little motivation to detour to somewhere so far away.

But needless to say, it was worth the trip because the view was amazing and it was definitely refreshing to go for a short hike up the mountain.

Beautiful view while we were waiting to get our cable car tickets.

There was quite a long queue to get the tickets but we passed time by taking pictures.

The queue for the cable car was faster even though there were only 2 in service.

This is because they packed so many of us into one cable car.

While on the way up.

Already making a fool of ourselves right after we got off from the cable car.

Lovebirds

It was suppose to be my solo shot but this professional photo bomber joined me.

How I punish photo bombers. Revenge is sweet ^^

Finally :)

With the ladies.

Surrounding view.

Crane pose Kung Fu style.

Guess which 2 were the scaredy cats among the 3 guys.

It took them awhile to muster the courage to finally pose acceptably.

Namaste on top of the world.

Fail heart shape.

Kitty cat ^^

No idea why there were so many cats around. How did they even get up the mountain?

21st century problem: Glued to technology.

The wonderful feeling of freedom.

Stumbled upon a cathedral.

More poser shots directed by Eric.

The interior is so beautiful.

Picture quality of the previous 2 pictures taken from my iPhone 6 vs my friend's DSLR in places with poor lighting.

I miss my DSLR :(

Asian at work.

We went for a short hike and our aim was to get to that cross. Can you spot it?

Some entertainment along the way.

The 'after feeling' from being violated.

Boys will be boys.

The place was really a heaven for posers.

Sitting at the edge, literally.

Joined the craziest one among us.

It was tiring but the view was worth the impromptu hike.

Absolutely beautiful.

Contented face at finally being able to hike after so long.

Went exploring off the main trails while waiting for our train to go back down and found 2 women rock climbing.

Water fountain. Perfect way to cool off after the hike.

We took more than half a day getting to and fro from Montserrat to Barcelona.

This is partly due to us spending more time than expected exploring Montserrat.

We did not venture to the top of the mountain as we were quite tired and still had places we wanted to go around Barcelona.

Hopefully we did not miss much!

It was definitely refreshing and very free to explore around Montserrat because it was so peaceful.

Another bonus is we didn't have to queue for anything or rush to meet pre-booked times for attractions like in Barcelona.

For some reason all of my trips to Barcelona involved a lot of time management which was definitely a pain and sometimes very stressful.

So glad I finally get to explore around Montserrat.

For those who are interested in going to Montserrat:

It may be boring if you are not into scenic views or hiking because as mentioned above, the place is very peaceful.

Apart from a short row of tents of people selling freshly made yogurt, nuts and etc, there wasn't much going on.

Or at least that's how the environment was when we were there.

To be safe, it's better to Google the place out and decide for yourselves before you go.

Till next time!

And more pictures in Gallery under Spain :)