Railway Station at Montserrat
We enjoyed our visit to Montserrat. The mountain was very beautiful and the view from the top was great even the weather was cooperating. Because of time constraints, we were only able to visit the Santa Maria de Montserrat Basilica in the monastery complex. We didn’t get to visit the monastery itself, although I think just being able to see the image of the Virgin of Montserrat was a highlight in itself. We made our way down the mountain through the same cable car which we took going up. It wasn’t crowded at all and we were able to see nice spots to take photos. At the cable car station, there weren’t any people in the queue anymore, and I suspect that the station already doesn’t allow visitors to go up anymore. I think there is a bus visitors can take to go up the mountain, so taking that or driving should still be an option.
Cable Car Station at the Foot of Montserrat
So we head back to the railway station next door to wait for our train back to Barcelona. That station is Aeri de Montserrat, we noticed that there was only one set of tracks here. That’s strange. We reasoned that the track can’t possibly be two way, right? So when the first train passed by we immediately got on it. Thinking that there must be some other way back. Still confused, another tourist noticed that we were confused, and informed us that we were all on the wrong train. The train towards Barcelona should be heading the other direction. The train tracks apparently was two way.
We were actually on our way to Manresa and we have no idea what is there. We do know that we needed to get off the train at the next stop and get on another heading back to Barcelona. Sure enough there was another train waiting at the next station and we made a mad dash for it. It probably helped that the guys in front of use got there first. The train staff were holding the train for us to get on. There was a family behind us but they can’t really run very fast since they were carrying a baby. They too managed to get on the train. When I studied the map in detail, I realize that that train would have just made its way back up the mountain, which isn’t really a bad thing.
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