Montserrat

Not just a monastery but 'a whole community' on the Mountain of Monserrat as the guide book says. This is certainly true as apart from the basilica and other religious sites there are several restaurants, huge souvenir shops and accomodation for several hundred 'pilgrims' with associated services. Its a big tourist attraction with dozens of bus tours a day even out of season. This is more than compensated by the spectacular location of the main complex on MontSerrat 2300 ft above the surrounding plain. There are numerous hermitages and others sites scattered around the main complex linked by 'walks' (but not for the fainted hearted or geriatrics) although 3 funiculars do make the highest places at 3500ft accessible.  We took the longer more spectacular drive round the mountain to get to the monastry (not entirely by design!) and the steeper descent down to the 'cog railway' station, which would have provided an easier and more convenient way to the monastery. We had a very interesting afternoon and early evening here, which was not enough, so it is well worth another visit when/if we are on the Costa Brava again.

We left it a bit late leaving in fact and managed to find a campsite open at 9 o'clock on the coast near Matero. Turned out to be a nice site and in the ACSI book. Our NL neighbours took quite a fancy to our van. We only stayed one night here.