Friday 16 October - Montserrat & Poblet Monasteries

[Photos: Montserrat Monastery, Poblet Monastery]

 

Left Barcelona rather late, heading for Montserrat Monastery which is inland some 50km in a stunning location in steep hills. The drive out was really nice – the hills becoming more steep as we got inland further. It sits in a little valley below peaks of grey stone like fingers – really quite like Turkey’s Cappadoccia, complete with loose-looking topknots on a few of the “fingers”.

 

The monastery was at the end of a winding road, with huge car parks for cars and buses. It is an interesting place, not a ruin or an historic monument, but a working monastery we think. Some of the windows, paintings and sculptures inside are quite recent. It has a massive food hall for visitors, then large admin buildings, and a big open courtyard off which is the main church. The latter is pretty ornate, and there was a walk around the side and behind the apse. Not a stunning set of buildings, but the location is special perched up on the hillside.

 

I had Poblet Monastery on my list of places to go. I couldn’t remember why, and we were in two minds on whether it was worth the effort, as it was quite a detour off the route south to Valencia. However, we did have half a day to spare, so thought we might as well see why I had picked it.

 

It turned out to be an excellent find. It is a huge working monastery near a couple of small towns. The scale is remarkable. The buildings are in a lovely honey-coloured stone, and massive. You don’t have to pay to get in (nor did we at Montserrat) but if you want to see any more than just the church interior, you need to take a tour, and in this case it was very good. We worked our way round the cloisters, visiting refectories, meeting rooms, library, warming room, winery and right up in the apse of the cathedral. In the latter are the bodies of 12 kings and queens of Catalonia and Aragon, plus assorted children, all in behind life-size marble replicas. It really brings a place alive (so to speak) when there is a real link with life, as against just stone and mortar.

 

Leaving the monastery, we need to find somewhere to stay so drove about a bit until we came across the Hostal del Sangler (The Wild Boar Inn) which was a sort of themed medieval hunting inn. It was a bit tired, but a lovely big room. L’Espluga del Vilafranca is a very odd town. We tried to find a shop for milk for the morning, but despite a dozen bars being open, there was nowhere for a simple thing like milk. The streets are all very narrow and go every which way, so in our hunt for a restaurant later we seemed to crisscross the village many times. Despite all the bars, there appeared to be only one proper restaurant in town. Having arrived at the ridiculously early hour of 8:30pm, we had to sit with a beer until the chef started up at 9pm. A nice enough meal, but a bit Cobb & Co-ish again. We have had trouble in Spain finding small family-style restaurants. Hopefully Mojacar will be OK.