Montserrat Visit

Well - another day with no robbery! Ross and I took the Metro, then train, then funicular to Montserrat - a Benedictine monastery about 4055 feet in the mountains and almost 1,000 years of history. In keeping with another goofy day - it took longer than we expected and we missed the 1:00pm Escolania boys choir at the Basilica by a few minutes! Also realized the higher we went the deeper the snow.
Picture below is the "Black Virgin with Child" , the patron Saint of Catalonia (this area of Spain) thought to be made by St. Luke and brought to Barcelona by St. Peter. She is behind glass but we could touch the round globes at the bottom.
Click pictures to enlarge - also see previous post for pictures of us with our "gear".

Beautiful views of Montserrat and the Monastery. It was about 44 degrees. We also went to the wonderful art museum - Ross tolerated it and I loved it. Best thing - no lines to wait in!

Had a bit of trouble getting the funicular tickets as I only had a 50Euro paper bill and the amount was 9Euros - a worker helped us BUT I now have 41 euros in coin (about $57) - heavy load.

This is the ride down the mountain as we had a front seat in the funicular - lucked out on that one. However we were so entranced with the view when it stopped we got off - one stop too early to catch the train. So a nice woman had to let us back in to wait for the next one saying "It happens all the time". On the train to Barcelona I was looking a newspaper another person was holding which had front page pictures of yesterday's snow - "basico servicio continuoso" - basic services continue - hmmmmm. Apparently it was the most snow since 1962 so we have another life experience that we will probably not encounter again. Yahoo stated "Snow brings Barcelona to a complete collapse" - hmmm we could barely tell.....they don't know collapse.

We are waiting to go to dinner - most restaurants do not open until 8:30 or 9 so we eat late and sleep in late. I am wearing my pedometer and am clocking from 4.6 (train day) to 9.3 miles per day - lots of steps so I feel fit and could fight off another thief. We are much more attentive to our bodies. Yesterday when we had lunch with Sara in a little cafe I felt something creeping down my right leg and realized it was my tiny bag with credit cards etc that I had hooked on a belt loop and tucked inside my jeans - fell off - lucky place - now it is in 2 bags connected.
Sara is back at work still cleaning up the mess - it is a lesson learned for all of us as we have gotten more lax in the last few years. There are many nice people here but apparently many poor and not enough jobs...We have also been to many areas of Spain previously without a problem. My mom got her wallet stolen in 1985 at Southdale shopping mall in Edina; daughter Jenny had her purse and all contents stolen a couple years ago in Long Beach CA - kind of puts things in perspective.
We continue to have great food and the apartment is a lovely and warm place to come home to.