Barcelona Day 3: Escape from Possible Peril to Gorgeous Views

Despite still being jet-lagged, we woke up bright and early so we could have breakfast before heading off to meet up for the Montserrat, Food & Wine Tour we booked. We got there at what we thought was an hour early only to find out we arrived an hour....plus a day early! Drew and I can't still agree on whose fault it was, mine or his. Regardless, Castle Experience was more than accommodating and was able to fit us on the tour that day so we didn't need to wake up extra early again the following morning.

Sidenote...have I mentioned how efficient the Metro system in Barcelona is? We never had to wait for more than 2 minutes and 45 seconds for the next metro train to arrive and the countdowns displayed were always 100% accurate. If we had been in Boston or New York, we might have arrived to the tour departure location a day late! I was truly amazed...I didn't even think it was possible for a public transportation system to run so smoothly.

Anyways, while waiting for the tour bus to arrive, I noticed a guy wearing all black clothing carrying something that looked like a kettle-bell with a wire sticking sticking out of it; almost what I would expect a bomb to look like. He walked over to a trash can right behind Las Ramblas, put it on the ground, turned around, walked away and starting playing with his cell phone. I immediately pointed it out to Drew and one of the tour guides but was unable to find a police officer after several minutes of frantically searching for one. I did see a few other people starting to examine the object so when the tour bus was ready to leave, I hopped aboard as fast as I could.

Once on the bus, I started to feel guilty that I didn't stick around until I could find an officer. However, I was praying that the tour guide was correct in that he didn't think it was anything to worry about. I also hoped that someone else would find an officer to report it to.

After what seemed like the longest one hour bus ride of my life, we arrived at the Montserrat Monastery and our tour guide spent an hour or so explaining the history of the site, showed us around and brought us into the Monastery. I'm typically not one to be impressed by religious sites but the inside was gorgeous. It almost reminded me of Hogwarts in a way.

When services were ready to start, we went back outside and were given a few hours of free time to spend how we wished. Drew and I decided to take the Funicular further up the mountain. Once at the top, we hiked up even further and I have never seen more breathtaking views in my life!

 

 

We took the funicular back down to the Monastery once we were done exploring and headed to the gift shop...because who doesn't love shopping!? I wanted to buy a few things so we got into a short line that ended up being for a liquor tasting that was just starting rather than the check out line. What perfect timing! For $2.50 each, we were able to try 4 liquors including the Catalan Creme, which is what they're known for.

At 1:30, everyone met to get back onto the tour bus and head to our next location: Oller del Mas Vineyards. We were served a delicious Catalan-style lunch at their restaurant which included bread with ham, salad, patatas bravas, fish with a tomato salsa, chicken with a buerre blanc and pinenut sauce, wine and fresh fruit.

 

After taking our time with lunch and chatting with other couples, we headed into the vineyards to hear about how their wine is made. I was happy to learn that we could pick a few grapes off the vine to taste. They were so small yet so sweet and tasty! We then made our way into a small castle on the estate to learn even more about the wine making process and sat down for a wine and cheese tasting. I typically prefer sweeter wines so I wasn't crazy about the wines served. Out of the three provided, I preferred the most expensive...go figure. I couldn't even tell you what it was. However, I did learn one interesting fact: If you hold your hand underneath a glass of wine and can see the color of your fingernails through it, it's considered a light-bodied wine. If you only see the shadow of your fingernails, it's considered medium-bodied and if you can't see your fingernails at all, it's a full-bodied wine.

 

We returned to Barcelona at around 7 pm and I was glad to see that the mysterious object near the trash can was no longer there and that nothing had happened. Phew! After stopping in a few stores, we headed back to the hotel to wash up. Drew was still hungry because he didn't enjoy the food as much as I did on our tour (only because he refuses to eat dark-meat chicken)...but I only wanted dessert, per usual. We did a lot of walking that day and were pretty tired so we chose the only place near our hotel that had both good looking dinner and dessert: Madeleine mon Amour. I know...who eats at a French place in Spain!?

Drew still claims it was the best meal he had on our trip. He ordered the smoked salmon with green salad...while I had the Crème brûlée, lemon meringue and peach with mascarpone madeleines which were absolutely divine. Sweet dreams!