Nigra sum...

Last Sunday I had no time for a long ride so made up for the lack of distance with elevation gains. Took a spin to Montserrat, the holy mountain; a nine km climb with quite a constant grade and an elevation gain  a tad over 600 meters. It makes for an average 6.7%, not bad...

After a 50 km approach route (including getting hopelessly lost in Terrassa) and some 600 more meters gained I arrived into Monistrol de Montserrat, a small town whose main merit is holding the junction that leads up to the holy mountain. The ascent was basically uneventful but for some intimidating buses charging up the road with their full load of tourists.

Some two km to the finish passed St. Benet Abbey, actually a nunnery that is getting some unexpected renown mainly due to one of its residents: sister Teresa Forcades, a physician specialized in inner medicine and epidemiology and, of course, a theologian.






Shortly after that (and getting over a couple of merciless ramps) one stumbles onto a deceiving road sign welcoming you to Montserrat.
Ignore it: there is still one more agonizing km to climb through the car park till one finally reaches the abbey .

 

After dodging hordes of tourist (Russians and Yanks mainly) I parked the bike by the small  convenience store just opposite the main entrance and failed in my attempt to get a sizeable bottle of cola (the ones they were selling were just to big and I was not thirsty enough. Filling the bike's bottles with "carbonic waste overs" is not a good option...)

So I frugally sticked to plain water and walked the bike to the main square leading to the Basilica of Santa Maria de Montserrat.

Before returning home took a pic of the road.
Quite a nice climb, isn't it?

By the way, got lost in Terrassa again.