The BIG FIVE-O

The BIG FIVE-O

The 23^rd July 2018  marked the auspicious occasion of Fiona’s 50^th birthday, and as such was the reason we found ourselves in Spain on this gloriously sunny Monday morning. Fiona, being the organiser that she is, had arranged for us to go on a Food & Wine tour to the spectacular mountain town of Montserrat for the day, and after an early breakfast, we headed off to the Placa de Catalunya to pick up our bus. Montserrat was about an hour or so away from Barcelona, and soon we were whizzing through the outskirts of the city and into the Spanish country heading towards the ominous mountain that stood out from the rolling hills of the local area.

There are many ways to get up to the monastery and associated church, including hiking and a cable car, but we enjoyed a short trip on the modern and quite speedy ‘Cog Railway’, which had obviously been upgraded recently, climbing a precarious route along the edge of this impressive peak. When we arrived in the small town we had a tour of some of the food and drink that the Benedictine monks of the monastery spent their time making, and then when into the church to see the famous ‘Black Madonna’. If

we had so desired we could have joined a long queue of people that were in line to go and actually ‘touch’ the holy statue, but not being of a religious persuasion or needing any external help for the unseen deity in the sky, we gave it a miss. When we had the opportunity to go off and explore by ourselves, Fiona & I went up the Sant Joan funicular to the very top of the mountain, from where you see all the way back to Barcelona from the 1200 metre vantage point.

We joined back up with our tour group and made ourway back to our coach for a pleasant drive down the mountainside and through the winding countryside, eventually arriving at the site of our wine and tapas tasting, the ‘Oller del Mas’ Winery. Set in beautiful rolling countryside with awesome views back to Montserrat, the winery was built around a walled medieval Castillo that had recently been renovated. We were soon tasting a unique white wine made the local and

somewhat rare Piquepoul Blanc grape and admiring the stylish architecture of the Castillo, before having a short tour of the cellar and a talk about the winemaking process, before we entered a very medieval looking room to sit and eat some tasty Tapas and try some more of the local wines. Very enjoyable afternoon indeed but all good things come to an end and we were back on the coach to Barcelona.

That evening we went to the rooftop restaurant the swanky Hotel 1898 on La Rambla and enjoyed a very nice meal and a couple of cocktails while watching the sun set slowly over the city as the sun dipped below the edge of the mountains. Overall it had been a lovely way to celebrate such an auspicious birthday for Fiona, a day I am sure she would not forget.