What is more superlative than an epiphany?

That's a rhetorical question, because I'm not sure there really is a word for today, it was so bloody freaking amazing, I am completely kerfluffled. At breakfast I learned that a few people were going up to Montserrat on this perfectly glorious sunshiny day. Did I want to go too? WELL YEAH! I ran upstairs, threw on some clothes, grabbed the camera and freshly charged battery, zoomed out the door and away we went. It's about a half hour drive, and we could see the odd stone formations of the Montserrat mountain range from every angle along the way. A windy road, views for miles every which way, and too many ohmygods to count! (And a few holy craps too!!)

After a bit of moseying around, we opted for the museum first. GOOD PICK. It's quite a wonderful collection, including Sisley, Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, John Singer Sargent (that was a surprise!), a couple of early Picasso's--very classical in style--and many many many wonderful modernist Spanish painters. I scribbled the names of the Spanish artists whose work I especially liked in the margins of the guide map; 18 of them, I won't list them all here. Well......... drumroll please....... already duly impressed, I went down the stairs to the next level and KA-POW!!! An enormous Joaquim Mir, that baby must be 10' x 12' and it is so spectacular, it truly stopped me in my tracks. I will be returning as soon as possible to spend the whole day in that museum, because there is a whole section of Mir's paintings there. Ha. And here I had been scouring the web for where to find some Mir paintings! They are right "in my back yard"!!

[aside: my novel writing teacher would be giving me a LOT of flack for all of these exclamation points, which are verbotten in real writing!!!! ]

The museum was cut short in order to dash over to the Basilica (monestery) to hear the boy's choir at 1pm. The singing began as we inched along in a line to see the "black Madonna". Along the way, we had the best views in the house, overlooking the parishioners in the pews below, and overseeing the whole interior, which is just painfully exquisite--ohmygosh, it puts the Vatican and Notre Dame and any other ol' run-of-the-mill cathedral to shame.

The only bad news is that my camera crapped out on me. But never fear, m'dears, Greg has a contraband photo of the Mir painting on his camera, which I hope to get hold of tomorrow, and Jackie has several shots of the interior of the Basilica promised to me, so I am forever indebted to them for saving the day, photographically.

In the meantime, for you impatient sorts who want to google it, here's the info: Joaquim Mir, "Cala Sant Vicenç-Mallorca", 1902, 280 x 400 cm. I find no reprodutions on the web that even remotely look like the painting, tho'. My "thumb drive" impatiently awaits the morning. And this stupid picture of me--which is the one that broke my camera!!!!!!!!!!--will have to stand in. Hasta manaña!