TRAVEL & PHOTOGRAPHY
Hiking Montserrat
I lived to tell the tale, too sweaty to be proposed to
Like many of my hiking adventures, hiking Montserrat began with my friend Molly telling me where to go.
You can find my account of my first hike with Molly here.
Molly went to Barcelona in January 2023, hiked Montserrat, then came home and told me to hike it too.
Yes ma’am.
In May of 2023 I was in Barcelona with my partner and we booked the same hike as Molly with Catalan Trails.
Molly told me: it’s not too difficult, make sure to take the hiking poles, and don’t worry — you don’t need to bring your hiking boots, only tennis shoes.
Well, Molly was wrong. But we’ll get to that later.
Stop #1 — The Monastery
Montserrat is a mountain range in the Catalan region of Spain — close to a 45-minute bus ride from the Barcelona city center. It’s well known for its monastery.
Through the Globetrotters community, I have learned Montserrat is not much of a secret.
More often than not, people travel to Montserrat to visit the monastery.
Adrienne Beaumont has shared her experience at Montserrat, listening to their famous boys choir — which is one of the oldest boys choirs in Europe.
Allegedly, the Black Madonna within the monastery has been worshipped by Catalan people for a thousand years.
Outside of the monastery, we gawked at the train that runs vertically up one of the peaks to a chapel. Only the monks ride the train at the moment.
Fine by me!
Our guide told us about the looming fear of boulders falling on the monastery. Nets have been installed but he let us know they can only do so much.
Stop #2 — The Hike
Now for the adventure.
Jordi was our guide for the most difficult hike I have experienced to date.
When meeting Jordi, you can hear his passion for the Catalan region in his voice. It’s contagious.
He bikes and hikes in his spare time. I knew he was serious by the enormous bike tattoo covering his forearm.
Jordi shared with us that he recently biked from Tijuana, Mexico to Washington state in the U.S.
This is when I knew we were in trouble.
To add to the athleticism of our group — we were joined by a few people who were also traveling from the U.S. One of our hiking mates, Jim, shared that he organizes trail runs in Tampa, Florida for a living.
Not only hiking trails but RUNNING them? In the heat and humidity of Florida? Oh, no.
Jim’s nephew is the head coach of a college soccer team.
Molly did not prepare me. Since we were coming from the tail end of winter season in Minnesota, we had not been hiking for a few months.
The hike lasted almost four hours.
We stopped at smaller chapels and landmarks along the way.
Jordi shared the heartbreaking reality of drought, closing Montserrat for months at a time for fears of wildfires. We saw a gigantic square hole in the ground that was used to hold water for use in the mountains — it was bone dry.
Jordi took us through an uphill path of a typical Mediterranean forest, pointing out wild thyme and rosemary.
I quickly learned that the more questions we asked the more we stopped for Jordi to explain. More knowledge, more rest — win-win.
My partner shared much later that he had planned to propose to me on this hike but made the executive decision to save it for a later time.
Due to our exhaustion and sweat, he knew I would not want to show anyone the inevitable proposal photos that would be taken. He wasn’t wrong.
Some of the rock formations had names based on the animal they resembled, these photos don’t do it justice but one was shaped like an elephant.
People were climbing the elephant rock.
Nope, no thank you. I was happy to observe.
Stop #3 — Tasting & Farmer’s Market
We ended the hike with a tasting of the local liquors, made at Montserrat.
The mountain range is large enough that it has its own post office and police department. The hiking trails were not busy but with the regular travelers visiting the monastery, the resident monks, and the operations of the monastery itself — this made sense.
We made our way to the Farmer’s Market.
Cheeses, meats, breads, pecans — we tried it all.
Alas, our trip was complete.
I made it ya’ll!
Later that evening we were meeting friends for a tapas tour. The perfect way to follow seven hours at Montserrat.
I highly recommend hiking Montserrat IF you have 1) hiking boots or wicked tread on your sneakers and 2) have hiked, trained, ran, etc. within the last few months.
This was one of the two highlights from my trip to Spain and Italy. The second was a paella class in Madrid.
Yes, the hike was difficult. That’s why it was worth it.
Like most experiences, people add to adventure in a major way. This trip wouldn’t have been the same without Jordi, my partner, and our hiking companions.
Oh, and the views.
Thank you to the Globetrotters editors for July’s Monthly Challenge — Action! Adrienne Beaumont, JoAnn Ryan, Michele Maize, Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages, and Anne Bonfert.
Please check out some of the other Action! submissions I’ve devoured.
Claire Elizabeth Levesque touches on my obsession with trees by taking on the squirrel perspective in British Columbia:
Adrienne Beaumont swims with whale sharks (and somehow photographs them!) praying they don’t sense the blood from her stubbed toe (I’m having Finding Nemo flashbacks) in the Philippines:
and Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages gives us perspective on the “actions” of travel and how they can change over time. I found this piece very relevant, no matter where you are in life and travel:
