Aeri de Montserrat Cable Car, Spain

Danger is sometimes a matter of perception or opinion. What seems dangerous to one person, might not to another.

Cable cars are a great example of this (the aerial kind, not the ones on tracks). Statistically, I’m sure they’re one of the safest modes of transport in existence. But for those afraid of heights, hanging from a wire in the sky high above the ground can be pretty scary.

At the end of March (on Rich’s birthday, in fact), we rode the Aeri de Montserrat cable car, up to the precariously perched Montserrat Monastery, just outside Barcelona in Spain. We’d been up the mountain the day before (blog to follow), but we really wanted to ride the cable car.

Montserrat and its monastery on our approach to Barcelona

Montserrat Monastery from the funicular heading even higher up the mountain

Over its 0.8 mile length, the 87-year-old Montserrat cable car climbs nearly 1800 feet. At first, we thought we’d picked a bad day to go, as the cloud base sat low in the valley in which the base station is located.

Low cloud in the El Llobregat Valley

Our chariot arrives

Less than two minutes after leaving the station, our cable car was enveloped in cloud, reducing the visibility to zero.

About to enter the clouds

Not the best view in the World

But another two minutes later, we broke through the ceiling of the cloud layer into a bright sunny sky!

Breaking out into sunny skies

Now that’s a view!

Approaching the top of the Aeri de Montserrat

The upper station

As we took in the vista from the monastery, the cloud below us burnt up and disappeared.

The view from the top is spectactular

Another car of passengers arriving at the upper station

The monastery perched high on the side of Montserrat (the Serrated Mountain)

The clouds breaking up

So the views were spectacular all the way back down.

One of the two towers that support the cable, on the way back down

Passing the other car

Over half way down

Approaching the lower station

The view up the mountain’s a little clearer now!

The two cars passing below the monastery

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This post was inspired by this photo themes of Danger from the Daily Post and Sky from Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge.