Catalonia, Spain (Part 1: Montserrat and Roses)

Our MOJO family left Morocco and flew to Barcelona to spend the remainder of our trip in the Catalonia region of Spain. This is the North East corner of the country, from the French / Andorra borders to the Mediterranean sea.

We left the big city of Barcelona without any sightseeing just yet (we'll go back later). We left the airport and took the bus/train to the village of 'Monistrol de Montserrat'. We spent 4 days enjoying this gorgeous place.

Many people do daytrips from Barcelona to Montserrat to see the beautiful monastery in the mountains. But we felt really lucky to have some extra time to enjoy our cute little village and the beautiful trails for hiking and trail running. We were also really grateful to have a very clean place with hot showers, potable tap water and modern ammenities (like flushing toilet paper) after being in Morocco for 2 weeks. Rachel was particularly thrilled to wear shorts and I even wore a sports bra on a workout one day! In Morocco we were wearing more conservative clothing.

One thing that surprised us about this region in general was that the dominant language is Catalonian. Most signs are either just in Catalonian or may be in Catalonian, Spanish and French. There are a LOT of French tourists everywhere so speaking French was about as helpful as speaking Spanish, and speaking English wasn't very useful. It was also nice to be back using the euro and credit cards in many places, although there were still handfuls of shops and services that only take cash.

Finding the oldest geocache in Spain!

Gorgeous rock formations

The main monastery

The famous 'black madonna' is in the back of the main alter inside the monastery

After Montserrat, we took transit (train/train/bus/bus) to the community of Roses, Spain. Roses is a beach town on the "Costa Brava", which is the Mediterranean coast line in the area North East of Barcelona. 

Roses, Spain Map link

We were really happy to have 2 full weeks in the town of Roses. We were tired and needed to stay put and rest. We hadn't stayed in one place for that long since we were in La Ciotat, France in October (6-7 months ago). In our downtime, we caught up on work and school, planned out our return home at the end of May, and finished booking the accommodations for the end of our trip. It felt amazing to book the last place and know that I wouldn't need to look at any more AirBnbs / hotels / booking.com accommodations for a long time! That has taken a lot of my time and energy on this whole journey.

In Roses, we stayed right in the heart of the town, just a 2 min walk from a lovely beach and about a 10-15 min walk to the start of trails with good hiking and trail running nearby. 

Jason is training for the HardRock 100 mile trail ultra in July, so this is pretty key training time right now, and a lot of our time in the Catalonia region is based on access to trails and vertical. He also has a 71km event coming up in Spain mid May, which will be fun but also good preparation for the HR event.

The weather in Roses in April was pleasant. Warm and sunny most days with a consistent cool breeze. Not hot enough for any water parks to be open yet but very comfortable.

We enjoyed beach time, walking along the waterfront boulevard, explored some of the fortresses nearby, shopped at the market, and enjoyed lots of hikes. We had one minigolf game and two meals out (a couple of bonus ice cream treats). We did some good family hikes, J did some great training runs, and I was happy to have some geocaching adventures. On a couple of days we took the bus to a neighbouring town so that we could hike or run back.

 

Very excited to have a kitchen, fresh ingrediants, and local yummies like cheeses /sausage

Playing on the local ruins

Sunset on the beachfront street near our place

Bulk sangria at the food market

Views from a ridge while trail running

Who's going to win? Ava or Joey?

Really old megaliths are here and there in the hills

Pretty windy at the top of our climb!

These kids loved playing at the beach

This kid LOVED beach time

 

Locals make amazing sand art and then ask for donations

 

  

Inside the fortress

One day we visited the nearby community of Cadaques. We caught the bus there, which was a VERY curvy hilly crazy bus rides and all of us got off after 30 min with green faces and wiggly legs. We enjoyed exploring the popular fishing village and the home of Salvador Dali. Then Jason took the opportunity to run home while the girls and I caught the ferry back, which was delightful.

Art in the town by Salvador Dali

A tree grows out of an old boat next to the previous house / now museum of Salvador Dali

This is the church above the town. Later we saw a painting by Dali that was literally this exact view.

Views from J running up and away from Cadaques

All in all I'd say we definitely had an awesome time in both Montserrat and Roses, Spain. 

There are lots of emotions going on in our family as we get toward the end of the journey. We've been away from home for 10 months and we are very excited to be going back soon. There is a lot of talk about the things we are most excited about, the people we are excited to see, the food we can't wait to eat, the things inside our house we are happy to have again, and what things will be like when we return to work and school soon! Just a few weeks left...