Barcelona, Mont Serrat - the serrated mountains and La Sagrada Familia.

6th -7th Jan 2014

Barcelona has some very interesting sights both in the city itself and in the nearby Catalonia region. The highlights and cannot missed sites include La Sagrada Familia - an amazingly awesome ( yet unfinished ) Gothic church, Park Guell and of course the football stadium.

Locked in this rectangular maze of buildings, you see the pinnacles of the La Sagrada Familia church. More about that later. Mont Serrat  is a multi peak serrated mountain range located in Catalonia about an hour's drive from Barcelona. It's highest peak is Sant Jeroni at 1236 m height..

Jason and Sue Jan and the serrated mountains
with the Santa Maria Benedictine
monastery in the background

The two red circles show two groups of hikers on the trail.
That is how small and people the trail look from 1/3 way up this trail

There are many hiking mountain trails beginning from the funicular train station up to Sant Joan.  I could only complete 1 and 3/4 mountain trails that day whilst Ken Jon did about 3 mountain trails. Some trails are quite challenging but they are not impossible. It is quite amazing when one realizes  the early monks built these huge monasteries at the end of so many mountain trails without modern technology. It reinforces a very clear point - back in the good old days, people were much cleverer than we actually give them credit for.

Climbers ascending the trail

Ken Jon and Francesca posing above us.
This point is about  1/2 up the trail

Me and Sue Ann are 3/4 up this trail.  After this point,  we girls 

chickened out when we saw the  intimidating steep steps

 ascending an open mountain face. Ken Jon was the only one 

who completed this trail. Note the cave behind us. Here the monks 

could eat at a rock table and enjoy the mountain view 

whilst being sheltered from the biting winds

I am jubilant because I finally finished one trail.
 See the serrated mountains behind me.
Although the temperature is about 6 degrees Celsius,
I feel quite hot after the climb and has removed
my scarf and unbuttoned my jacket.

After we descended to the monastery, I feel cold again
and stayed nicely bundled inside my jacket and scarf.

We spent some time at the monastery where we waited in line to touch the Black Madonna. Then we took the Sant Cova funicular down. Here there was another track with stations featuring different stages of Christ's life. Jason, Sue Ann, Francesca and Ken Jon finished this trail too while I sat it out together with Sue Jan.

At the station where Simeon meets the
Holy  Infant Jesus and his family at the temple

Sue Jan prettily  perched in the pavilion
overlooking the valley below Montserrat

The next day, we went to the awesome Sagrada Familia, a large church designed by the famous Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926). Although still largely incomplete, the beautiful church is gazetted a UNESCO world heritage site. You have to see the inside to do it justice. Antoni Gaudi was a devoted Christian who showed his love of God in the extravagant, detailed and at times, playful architecture of the church.

The stained glass windows

The forest like canopy ceiling

Our creed on what we believe.

A bright burst of rainbow color

Gaudi was not afraid to show his playful childlike streak. He incorporated nature in the architecture of the church. He was a mathematician as well as an architect. He calculated the weight of  each beam and lever and made  stringed models to hang  upside down to ensure the weight is supported. We await our turn to the escalator to go to the top. There we gawk and marvel at the playful colorful uniquely different "smarties" placed on each sacred pillar. We descend down this wonderfully symmetrical spiral stairway that looks beautiful both from the top and bottom view.

Gaudi added playful  colorful and different
"smarties"on top of each sacred pillar.

Down the spiral staircase.

Empty spiral staircase  looks so
symmetrically pretty.
See Jason's face on one end

What do I learn from Gaudi? Be passionate about what God has made you to be passionate about. Give to your work or passion, the time and energy above and beyond the call of duty. And God will bring generations of people, both believers and heathen to marvel and gawk at the passion He has displayed through you.