Catalunya: Montserrat, Margalef, Siurana, and Barcelona

With two weeks left in our Spanish getaway, we rented a car in Barcelona and jetted out to a few climbing hotspots in Catalunya, before Dylan and I flew out of Barcelona and parted ways with Purpur, who continued his epic world travels. We went through so many beautiful places; I'll let the pictures do the talking.

If you drive an hour west of Barcelona, you'll see this ridiculous cluster of mountains. This means you are near Montserrat.

Before we left Barcelona, we made a pitstop at Decathlon(the european sporting goods store, think somewhere between a Dick's and REI) to buy some sleeping mats so we could sleep outside. The boys did a thorough cost-quality-packability analysis before settling on getting the cheapest option, 2 pads at $2.99 each per person. We got the pads that look like tin foil, to the right in the photo.

Totally worth waking up to this epic view.

We got rained out the next day, so we just toured the monastery instead of climbing, and booked an airbnb in Fulleda, a nearby small town to avoid sleeping in the rain that night.

We were three of maybe 5 people that were in this town, one of them being our airbnb host and the other one being that dude on the tractor.

Add two dogs, and that was the extent of anything alive in this ghost town. Luckily we had enough food to survive for one night.

The next morning, we drove through a couple of different seasons, and arrived in Margalef.

Spring!

Winter!

Margalef!

These guys were the Spanish version of Purp & Dyl.

While the spanish dads tended to their meltdown kids, we adopted a lizard that just wanted to play dead.

Purp found himself some more tufas.

Dyl found himself some roped bouldering.

We loved Margalef. Awesome outdoor sleeping spots, cool bar with cheap good food, fun and hard climbing. Must go back.

After too short a stay in Margalef, we headed on to Siurana, where we saw the most incredible sunsets. We also climbed and reunited with friends we met in Chulilla.

A cool caterpillar "procession." Apparently these guys sting.

#alpinebabe in Montsant, the next town/mountains over.

Tried spanish vermouth for the first time. Delicious!

Awesome dinner party and Sol and Ginnie Jo's. Can't wait to see these guys again this summer!

Cuties being cuties...

Randomly bumped into another friend from Chulilla on our last day.

Our favorite bar in Siurana! Not so good wine, amazing view.

On our way back to Barcelona, we stopped in Salou, the cheapest place we could find near a beach. This place turned out to be the Myrtle Beach of Spain, and it was definitely the off season. Nevertheless, we enjoyed unlimited wine with a three course* lunch that cost 10 euros (*pudding cups for dessert... ha!) and even went in the water.

Once we got to Barcelona, we tried to take in as many sights and snacks as possible. For a short stay in such a big city, I think we did alright.

This wraps up our Iberian Peninsula adventure! Climbing or not, Portugal and Spain are wonderful places to visit and I could not recommend it enought to everyone. Hoping we can go back sooner than later!

That wraps up our Spanish excursion! Stay tuned for VannaWhite's North American Road Trip!