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the cable-car or the rack-railway station and take the rides up instead. All-in
cable-car/
cremallera
/Montserrat attraction combo tickets are available at the
station for drivers who park-and-ride.
There’s a
visitor centre
at Montserrat, just up from the
cremallera
station (daily
9am–5.45pm, July–Sept until 7pm;
T
938 777 701,
W
www.montserratvisita
.com), where you can pick up maps of the complex and mountain.They can also
advise you about the accommodation options, from camping to staying at the
three-star
Abat Cisneros
hotel.
There are plenty of places to eat, but all are relatively pricey and none particu-
larly inspiring. They are also very busy at peak times. The most expensive
restaurant
is inside the
Hotel Abat Cisneros
, opposite the basilica, which is
reasonably good but overpriced (meals €30–40). Cheaper, and boasting the best
views, is the
Restaurant de Montserrat
(meals €25) in the cliff-edge building near
the car park, though here and in the
self-service restaurant
, one floor up and
with the same good views, there’s no à la carte choice – that is, you have to
order a full meal – and the food can at best be described as adequate.The self-
service restaurant is where you eat with the all-inclusive Tot Montserrat ticket.
Or try the self-service cafeteria near the upper cable-car station, the bar in the
square further up, which also has a patisserie and a supermarket.There’s a lot to
be said for taking your own picnic and striking off up the mountainside.
Sant Cugat and Terrassa
A series of remarkable churches lies on the commuter line out of the city to the
northwest, the first in the dormitory town of
Sant Cugat del Vallès
– just
twenty-five minutes from Barcelona – and the second (actually a group of
three) another fifteen minutes beyond in the industrial city of
Terrassa
.You can
easily see all the churches in a morning, but throw in lunch and this just about
stretches to a day-trip, and it’s not a bad ride in any case – after Sarrià, the train
emerges from the city tunnels and chugs down the wooded valley into Sant
Cugat. FGC trains run on the S1 line from Plaça de Catalunya, also stopping in
Gràcia, with departures every ten to fifteen minutes.
Sant Cugat del Vallès
At
SANT CUGAT DEL VALLÈS
, the Benedictine
Reial Monestir
(Royal
Monastery) was founded as far back as the ninth century, though most of the
surviving buildings date from three or four hundred years later. Its fawn stone
facade and triple-decker bell tower make a lovely sight as you approach from the
square outside, through the gate, past the renovated Bishop’s Palace and under a
splendid rose window. Finest of all, though, is the beautiful twelfth-century
Romanesque
cloister
, with noteworthy capital carvings of mythical beasts and
biblical scenes.They have an unusual homogeneity, since they were all done by a
single sculptor,Arnau Gatell.The main church is free to visit (Mon–Sat 9am–noon
& 6–8pm, Sun open for Mass from 9am), but entrance to the cloister is to the side
of the church, as part of the
Museu de Sant Cugat
(Tues–Sat 10am–1.30pm &
3–7pm, June–Sept until 8pm, Sun and hols all year 10am–2.30pm; €3), which also
includes the restored dormitory,kitchen and refectory of the monastery,along with
exhibitions about its history and monastic life.What were once the monastery’s
kitchen gardens lie across from the Bishop’s Palace, though the formerly lush plots
OUT OF THE CITY
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Sant Cugat and Terrassa