Montserrat, Spain

This will be a quick one as we are packing up a our backpacks and have to catch a train in a few minutes.

We are up in the mountains of Spain in a small town called Montserrat (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montserrat). It is known for its monastery that sits atop the cliffs overlooking the town. It is a small town of about two thousand people and we are staying in the one an only hostel in town. It is a beautiful place. Fog is thick and laying low in the mountains that surround us. There is a river that runs right through the middle of town and the poeple are very friendly. We just finished our breakfast of coffee, juice and crossant that comes with each night of staying here. Good stuff.

Our first night here, while searching for hot water for our cup of noodles we were eating for dinner, we ran into some new friends name David and Juan. They are brothers that were thilled to meet Californian´s. Through our language barrier, we used lots of hand motions and laughed for a couple hours. They want us to teach them how to surf and they made fun of our crappy Spanish skills.

Yesterday we took a cable car up the cliffs to the monastery. Jan was not a big fan of the bouncing, suspended and rusty tin can of a cable car! I wasn´t in love with it myself…It is a couple thousand feet high and it was freezing cold, but full of life and interesting history. There are 80 monks that live there. We brought up a bottle of wine and bread to have for lunch between audio tours that we went on. Incredible art and construction. For the most part, it all had to be rebuilt after WWII.

We still are having some trouble with jet lag…I was reading and writing at 3am. Not easy to wake up once I finally fell asleep.
After two nights up here we are going to catch a train back to Barcelona to continue the adventure. Hope you all are doing well!

Jon and Jan