Marg, Helen and Mike do Spain, Portugal & Morrocco: Montserrat to Figueres

Today we picked up our brand new, vibrant blue Renault which is to be our transport for the next 7 weeks in Spain and Portugal. Mike kindly offered to drive first, and it was all hands on deck with navigating the vehicle, the roads, the signage, the diesel, the GPS and the 'real' map.

First stop, Montserrat, an incredible mountain range west of Barcelona. According to legend, Mary was spotted up here by some shepherds who then found the small statue of the Black Virgin. So some monks built their monastery on th site. It is now the second most important pilgrimage site in Spain after Santiago de Compostella. We took the telerifico to the monastery level.

We arrived just as a bride and her father pulled up in their horse drawn carriage. So the church was full, mostly with visitors rather than guests. Above the alter is where you can pay homage to the icon of the Black Mary, we didn't join the long queue.

It's quite a big complex with several buildings to house and feed the monks, visitors and the boys choir who are also schooled here.

The views back across the valley towards Barcelona are expansive.

There are many walking trails accessed by a series of funiculars leading to different view points and sacred sites within the park. I felt at home when we found the yellow route marker showing the way to Santiago de Compostella.

Just after taking off through to cross the mountains a huge storm rolled in. At times the rain and hail was so heavy that vision was very limited. At times, so much water covered the road that caused the car to aqua plane across its surface. But still Mike could manage a smile while waiting for the worst bit to clear. The road slices through the mountains in a series of long tunnels that brought us back down to a lower altitude. I didn't realise how high we must have climbed on the way up to MontSerrat.

We stopped in the little village of Castelfullit de la Roca which I had found in a great app "The Culture Trip" (10 Most Beautiful Villages in Spain). This tiny village is perched on the edge of a limestone cliff and is one of the most photographed villages in Spain. Luckily for us the weather cleared so we could explore.