When we finally got to the monastery at the top, we got in line to see the Black Virgin right behind at least an hour's worth of very slow, devout pilgrims. Unfortunately, there wasn't any way to get out of line. By the time we saw this relic we didn't care as much as we should have, and we kind of rushed through our moment to view her. Our 3rd mistake.
After lunch we decided we all felt well enough to try one of the funiculars, a super-steep, incredibly-hot tram (kind of a diagonal elevator), this one up to the top of Sant Joan. The peaks offer good hiking trails and even higher panoramas. Note Nate's hands on the window of the bottom funicular cab, just above the vertical drop. Then see how small Montserrat looks in the 4th picture... And yet the Stackler*Williams family thought they should go even higher. Kind of the 4th mistake (though Ed swears the funicular is the 4th for its unbelievably sweaty closeness). We chose the easiest hike but the trail was treacherous with sharp drop-offs to oblivion and slippery stone pathways with no walls/edges. I spent the entire hike with my eyes and hands glued on Ben and Nate so I have no idea how I managed to take the 5th picture here. I do know that Ben lost his DS for a week for running down the edge of the trail afer we gave him numerous warnings. I have a lot of photos in which I'm trying to capture exactly how high up we are on this teeny tiny little trail though none suffice. Montserrat is an inspiring site and one of great respect for pilgrims. But I've never been so glad to get back down off the mountain, including a funicular down, a small train, a big train, and then the Metro home to our apartment.
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