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Well I am very impressed with the Cava in Spain and they are doing a very good job of beating the French at their game. Today I did a daytrip to Montserrat in the morning and Codornui cava in the afternoon as they are reasonably close. It was one of my best days yet and I much preferred the trip today with cava to the Champagne day trip I did out of Paris in August. Will post the photos later - quite a few.
It was an early start today and we arrived in Montserrat which is some 1200m above sealevel around 10am to almost full fog cover so we could see very little. I teamed up with Marnie from Adelaide who was also on her own and found she is also a bit of a foodie and we had an enjoyable day together as she also likes to walk. We took the funicular down the mountain and walked along the pathway to the cave where the "Black Madonna" statue (copy) is housed. Interesting story attached. The walkway is nice and wide and very scenic along the mountainside with numerous religious statues along the way which creates a lovely peaceful ambience and as it is quit steep it deters a lot of people from doing it so it is not crowded. As we walked the fog slowly lifted so it was really lovely. Then we managed to get good places for the 1pm session of the Montserrat boys choir in the cathedral which was a packed house.
We reached Codornui around 3pm and had a fantastic tour of the premises - they have been in operation for several hundred years (same family) and have a similar operation to the French but have put a lot more effort into making it less corporate and more comfortable than places like Taittinger and Moet.
Monday I took a guided walking tour around the Gothic area in the morning and then walked down to take the cable car from the port to Montjuic where I had a snack and sangria on a lovely terrace overlooking the city and harbour (you pay more for your drink and food with the sea view as opposed to the city view!). Then I walked home, had a rest and went out for dinner with Kerry who was leaving the next day - we had a pretty ordinary meal but nice atmosphere.
Yesterday I was a little exhausted so had a sleepin then went to the hairdresser for a Barcelona cut and did some washing before my tapas walking tour at 5pm. I was disappointed with the Sunday tapas tour and found another which included a tour of the market with a more gourmet focus and so I decided to take this one and was very pleased that I did as it was much better than Sunday night.
Tonight I have just packed up ready to head off to Palermo, Italy early tomorrow morning and looking forward to meeting Erika tomorrow night. I do feel a bit sad to be leaving Barcelona - I could easily spend another week here and it will definitely be on the list for a re-visit sometime. So far this has been the highlight which I did not expect.
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