We are planning a day-trip (afternoon and evening) from Barcelona Espanya to Montserrat on August 24 (Thursday). We're thinking of taking the R5 that departs Espanya at 12:56 and using the Aeri to Montserrat. Assuming we arrive around 13:30 and spending around 2 hours at Montserrat, we plan to take the R5 departing the Aeri stop at 17:05. When we arrive in Martorell Central (around 17:23) we'll switch to the S4 or S8 to Colonia Guell. Assuming we arrive around 17:45, will the Gaudi Crypt be open or any of the others buildings (Ca l’Ordal, Ca L’Espinal, Can Soler de la Torre, La Casa del Secretario, The School and the Teacher’s House, etc)? Also, where could I find a map of a walking path for the various historic buildings?
Posted by
Barcelona (Catalonia)
2942 posts
You won't be "up" in Montserrat at 13:30, where did you get that from? If you're departing nearly at 1pm from BCN, you're going to be arriving at the train station in Montserrat one hour later, this is not a direct train, is a commuter line, THEN you have to transfer to the Aeri and go up to the monastery. Once there, there are quite a number of things to visit, including a couple of rides on two funiculars, one to the Holy Grotto another to Sant Jeroni, for great views on the top. Most visitors spend half a day at the very least, if not the full day. Either you depart early in the morning -then it's reasonable to plan to return from Montserrat in the afternoon- or else you won't be seeing much...
Posted by
Washington DC
27138 posts
The ticket office at Colonia Guell will give you a little map. There's a useful English audioguide which must be returned before the office closes. I don't remember whether there's an extra charge for that. I believe the closing time was fairly early but don't remember precisely. You should be able to find it by Googling.
People live in CG, so the area is not completely fenced off. I don't see why you'd need to leave the area at any particular time--subject to the train schedule, of course. I assume the chapel's hours are similar to those of the ticket office/reception building.
The reception building has informational displays, as I recall. As far as I know, it and the chapel are the only buildings you can enter, except there may be a cafe or small restaurant. I'm not sure about that, because there were very few visitors the day I was there.
For planning purposes, note that there's a good little walk between the train station and the reception building. I found the signage a bit confusing, but that may have been because of the road work in the area.
I enjoyed seeing Colonia Guell and felt it was worth the trip, but it is time-consuming.
Posted by
OP
Cincinnati, OH, USA
768 posts
Thanks for the responses. I am aware of the R5-Aeri logistics and I see I posted the wrong departure time from Barcelona Espanya; the departure time should be 12:36 which is scheduled to arrive at Aeri de Montserrat station at 13:20. It seems I had the departure time from Aeri de Montserrat wrong too; it is 17:28. In any event, I checked further on Colonia Guell hours for the Crypt and Visitors Service Center and while open until 19:00 hr. would not allow time to visit, so we'll remain at Montserrat later in the afternoon and visit Colonia Guell on another visit.