This is the Spain we love. And discovering it is even more fun. We have some visitors with us for this trip, Izzy's parents. We picked them up from the airport Friday morning and headed east to Barcelona. Our goal is to visit the provinces of northern Spain during the next two weeks and we've decided to start in Catalunya.
Our first stop was in the small town Santa María de Huerta. We pulled in to see the Monastery advertised on the highway signs. The town is tiny and we arrived during the siesta so no one was about except the handful of people at a local cafe. We couldn't go in the Monastery because they too were on siesta and had closed the doors so we had to settle for walking around the courtyard. There we saw an old cemetery and met a drifter who was going to Zaragoza for work. He showed us his room and the bathroom and told us of how he was staying for the night in the Monastery until he could get on to Zaragoza. He later told us of how he believes the church is like the mafia. Interesting that he likes to bite the hand that feeds him. We bid him farewell and headed on to the Stone Monastery a few more miles down the road.
We carefully mulled our decision of whether to pay the fee to enter the trail walk and monastery. Finally, Izzy's dad said they hadn't come this far not to see it so why the hell not. We agreed and went in. The walk through the forest is incredible. The first thing we noticed was the coolness in the forest, a much welcome break from the scorching heat of Spain's summer(over 100(that's 39 for you Celsius lovers) this weekend in Madrid). The forest here is dotted with streams and waterfalls and all kinds of rushing water.
We found waterfall...
After waterfall...
After waterfall...
After waterfall in this place. And the sound of the rushing water is so relaxing. It got to me to wondering how a small oasis existed in this part of the country because the entire ride before and after, I stared at a landscape that looked like a desert planet out of a Star Wars movie.
This part of the trail we didn't walk because we felt we'd put the old man through enough so we headed on to the Monastery. It was built over a 23 year period starting in 1185. The monks that lived there were some of the first in Europe to make chocolate. The lovely candy we enjoy today came from the Americas and was written about by Cortés when he conquered Mexico. Columbus brought it back and the friars at this Monastery began cooking and experimenting with different recipes of chocolate.
There was also a large Wine Museum where we learned a lesson we keep learning in Europe. They don't hire the right people to translate important things and plugging things into a computer translator isn't the way to go. Because of this, we learned that "mosto" or grape juice becomes wine. Except they didn't translate it as such. The plaque read that must becomes wine. Oh well. We hope our generation of kids will learn better than their predecessors. There is an open air cathedral in the Monastery. The open air bit is mainly due to it falling apart but it adds a certain oneness with nature and faith that other churches just can't offer.
We finally arrived in Barcelona late Friday night and spent the next day roaming around the city. Hope you enjoy the pictures.
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