Day 68: Poblet Monastery

Last couple of days out in the countryside and driving around! Had a hotel breakfast at our accommodation in Andorra before leaving fairly early around 9:30 am. The drive to our world heritage site for the day, Poblet Monastery, was about 2 hours 40 minutes almost directly south, which passed mostly without incident. Had to hurry though because the monastery was closing at 12:30 for siesta, and missing that meant we'd have to wait around for 3-4 hours until it re-opened. No thanks!

Anyway we arrived at 11:45 and bought tickets for the 12pm tour, which although in Spanish, the guide also spoke a bit of English and let us essentially wander around while she explained for the Spanish (we had a pamphlet pointing out various things of interest).

Poblet was an important monastery for the kings of Aragon and Catalan over the years, and includes a small palace as well which isn't open to the public. The most interesting part about this one was a large area of royal tombs at the centre of the main church - they were located in huge stone cross-beams just near the main altar, which seemed like a very odd place to house them!

It's also interesting because it was a monastery for Cistercian monks, and their ethos is based around simplicity, humbleness and plainness of decoration. So the church was quite large, but very very plainly decorated, aside from the royal tombs. No stained glass or intricate windows and archways, just large blocks of stone.

The tour lasted about an hour and was quite interesting - there were a couple of signboards talking about the role it played in political upheavals of the late 18th century (which I know absolutely nothing about), but the info was only in Spanish so I guess it'll continue to remain unknown!

After the end of our tour we tried to grab some lunch from the restaurant across the road, but they weren't serving food on the terrace and Schnitzel wasn't allowed inside. We decided to put him back in the car with the windows wide open (it was a warm day and I'd moved the car out of the shade it was in previously), thinking he'd be fine if we had a quick lunch. But of course the waitress went to every other table in the restaurant first before taking our order, so we ended up just walking out.

Drove into the closest town and found an open restaurant, where for the first time I encountered someone who had no idea what I was saying in Spanish. I think he only spoke Catalan, as another man at the bar could understand me. Managed to get out an order, so we ate our food and left with no problems!

Onwards to our accommodation for the evening, a farmhouse about 40 minutes away to the south. Our host Ricard was super chatty and had good English, so we spoke with him for quite a while. Unfortunately no wifi as the system was getting replaced, but he activated tethering on his phone for us to use for a while. He busied himself around the farm (he grows chillis, lavender, lettuces and other things) while we relaxed and did a few things.

In the evening he offered to help us cook paella, which we readily accepted. Drove into the nearby town to get the ingredients, but not before stopping at a large aqueduct known as Punt Del Diablo (Devil's Bridge), a Roman-era relic that was part of the world heritage site we'd be visiting tomorrow (albeit well out of town). This aqueduct is unique in that you can actually walk across the top of it! We walked partway out onto the span, but there were a couple of unsavoury looking characters hanging around the centre so we turned back.

Picked up supplies at the supermarket before heading home, where Ricard said the paella would take about an hour or so. He obviously operated on Spanish time though, since we started the BBQ fire at about 8pm, and didn't eat until after midnight! Funny how that works. It was absolutely delicious though, a huge serve and a shame that we couldn't take any of it away with us.Read more