Another weekend in Barcelona, another new day of exploring and site seeing. Taking another break from traveling around Europe, my friends and I decided to book a tour that included a tour of the Montserrat monastery and after, a wine tasting at a nearby vineyard.
After 45 minutes of driving, we arrived at the scenic mountain of Montserrat. Located at the top of the Catalan pre-Coastal Range, Monserrat offered some amazing, mountainous views filled with trees and nature. The mountain is also home to the Benedictine abbey, Santa Maria, which houses the sanctuary of the Virgin of Montserrat. According to our tour guide, legend has it that the monastery could not move the statue of the Virgin for religious reasons and instead, had to build around it. We walked around the top of the mountain and also took a look inside of the monastery, where we witnessed services being held within it’s tall, beautiful walls.
After a tour of Monserrat, we drove back down the mountain to a wine vineyard close by for a tour and wine tasting. The vineyard had a beautiful view of Monserrat in the background and it was a great, sunny day to walk around and explore. The grapes had just been taken off of it’s vines, but we could see the rows of land on which the fruit s grown. After a tour of the outside, we were taken inside to the building where the wine is made and then stored in barrels. We were then seated at a table where we were given some authentic Spanish tapas and tastes of different ages of wines. Our tour guide taught us how to differentiate wine based on taste, smell, and appearance and we noted the differences between 3 different ages of red wine. I am not usually a red wine girl, but this experience made me appreciate the work and effort that goes into making it. I also enjoyed the wine more because I could appreciate the taste of the high quality wine, as opposed to the cheap 1 Euro wine we buy at our local Supermerkat 😉 All in all, it was a perfect day filled with sun, friends, and amazing views. I am very happy to share this experience with some of my best friends and I can easily put this day down as one of our best day trips so far!
Nikki Fried In Different Cities 