Day 20 Barcelona, last full day.

Well the time has finally come. Today was our last full day of the trip. After breakfast, we boarded a bus for about an hour and a half ride to Montserrat in the mountains near Barcelona. The monastery has existed for almost a thousand years but was destroyed in the Napoleonic wars. It was rebuilt in the late 1800's and has about sixty monks that still live here and will do so for the rest of their lives. There is also a boys choir school here and they stay until their voices change and then are sent back to a regular school. We got to hear them sing a few songs and the sound was amazing. The church also holds the Black Madonna and you can actually touch her while saying a prayer. After our visit we rode the bus back to the hotel where the FOPs got off the bus and then the bus driver drove us for about a mile to get closer to the port. Along with the Larkins, we decided to relax and have a few cocktails while strolling around looking at all the extreme yachts in port for the America's Cup race which lasts until the end of the month. We stopped at the official swag store and bought a few items to take home. Then we walked to the restaurant and met back up with our group for a paella dinner. The food was amazing and a FOP talked my ear off while Larkin kept texting me and laughing. After dinner we had a short ride on the bus back to the hotel and said our goodbyes to the Larkins. They are leaving at 8:00 am and we don't leave until 1:00 pm. Then it was off to bed. Tomorrow we pack and fly to SFO. Here are some pics from today.







The funicular to the very top. We did not have enough time to go up.











The Black Madonna.


All gold and silver.


A large clam shell for the Holy water.





The faces of Barcelona!






A ridiculous amount of wealth.

Our group.

The calamari.

Little croquettes.

Shrimp Paella.

Chicken Pealla.



Maitre d' Larkin at it again.

The name of the restaurant.


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