Garrett Fisher

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Flight: Spain: Montserrat!

March 5, 2017 by Garrett

For anyone who actually reads my blog and happens to be in possession of decent cognition and a functioning hippocampus, it would be well known that I have wanted to go to Montserrat since moving to Spain, and every single time I have schemed to do so, that pesky inversion has thwarted any attempt to do so. As for the hippocampus/cognition part, I have been ranting about sunny days on this side of the ridge turning into sheer crap on the other side the entire time.

Well, I decided that weather forecasts can shove it, and I am just going to have to fly to the ridge, and if I can see Montserrat, I’m going. A few days after the last flight, I went up, climbed over La Molina, and there she was! Even better, the inversion was in full force, though smashed down near the ground, creating quite a bit of resplendent beauty. It did take some visiting Dutch folks who walked into the hangar to propose the idea that the inversion “can be beautiful,” as I spat my venomous rancor about it to them in conversation some weeks prior to this flight. It turns out they were correct….

Montserrat, from La Molina, with the inversion that “can be beautiful.”
IMG_2771 (12 of 53)

La Molina ski tracks.
IMG_2781 (22 of 53)

Grazing terraces.
IMG_2801 (42 of 53)

Puigllançada
IMG_2806 (47 of 53)

Pre-Pyrenees
IMG_2821 (9 of 1597)

Pre-Pyrenees, with El Pedraforca, symbol of Catalonia.
IMG_2843 (31 of 1597)

Bergueda – The name is a “comarca,” which is the Catalonian equivalent (though not equal) of a county. Don’t forget my Landkreis rant from last year in Germany on the subject of regional naming subdivisions and taxonomy.
IMG_2905 (93 of 1597) IMG_2976 (164 of 1597)

Avinyó. I can practically smell the desire for Catalonian independence…..
IMG_2982 (170 of 1597)

And the inversion. I suppose there is some beauty….maybe….
IMG_2996 (184 of 1597)

I count 4 parachutes.
IMG_3000 (188 of 1597)

Manresa – There are some real assholes that do not understand the concept of merging lanes here.
IMG_3074 (262 of 1597)

Hill north of Terrassa.
IMG_3096 (284 of 1597)

Montserrat!
IMG_3177 (365 of 1597) IMG_3231 (419 of 1597) IMG_3417 (605 of 1597)

Can you see the climbers?
IMG_3430 (618 of 1597) IMG_3458 (646 of 1597) IMG_3470 (658 of 1597) IMG_3494 (682 of 1597) IMG_3514 (702 of 1597)

Inversion, smashed down near the ground. I find the thought of flying into a windmill, in Spain, quite quixotic.
IMG_3544 (732 of 1597)

If a blog reader could explain the proliferation of abandoned and collapsing stone houses in Spain within reasonable range of expensive houses, jobs, infrastructure, and cities, I’d be grateful.
IMG_3698 (886 of 1597) IMG_3802 (990 of 1597) IMG_3814 (1002 of 1597) IMG_3831 (1019 of 1597) IMG_3866 (1054 of 1597) IMG_3880 (1068 of 1597)

This is what happens when it rains on tilled soil. 
IMG_4000 (1188 of 1597)

Foothills of the Pre-Pyrenees.
IMG_4064 (1252 of 1597) IMG_4082 (1270 of 1597) IMG_4095 (1283 of 1597)

Serra d’Ensija-els Rasos de Peguera. I am not that sophisticated…yet. I copied it from Google Maps.
IMG_4167 (1355 of 1597)

El Pedraforca
IMG_4198 (1386 of 1597)

Cadí-Moixeró
IMG_4257 (1445 of 1597) IMG_4292 (1480 of 1597)

La Cerdanya – another comarca, though the name shows up for centuries as its own political subdivision in the eternal blood-filled historical ebb and flow of European governance.
IMG_4354 (1542 of 1597)

Fields – had to do it.
IMG_4378 (1566 of 1597) IMG_4396 (1584 of 1597)

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