Great walk to the monastery

I'm sure the purists out there would turn up their noses, because though I walked 33 km, I called a taxi to take me into Vic. It was all in my game plan, though, everything is fine. 

Today's camino from L'Esquirol to Vic was listed as an easy 19 km. I knew I wanted to spend the night in Vic because of its museum of Romanesque and gothic art. And I also wanted to visit the 11C monastery Sant Pere de Casserres, which is about 22 km from Vic. Being the whiz that I am with my GPS, I combined a few trails to get me from where I had slept to the monastery, and then I would take a taxi into Vic. 

Well it was a brilliant idea if I do say so myself. I stayed on the Camino till about 10 km before Vic, and then turned onto the local trail, PR-C 40, out to the monastery. It was much tougher than the first part of the day. Lots of steep ups and downs. And though it is certainly a trail in the sense that there are occasional yellow blazes on the trees, it was completely overgrown in parts. I was totally soaked by the dripping overgrowth.  And then when it warmed up, my clothes started to dry but I started to sweat, so basically I was wet the whole day.  

Stuck in the middle of nowhere were a couple of Neolithic graves and a sacrificial altar (they think). This grave had a human figure carved in the side, estimated to have been done 3,000 BC  

The monastery was so worth all the rocky ups and downs. It is perched on a promontory on a cliff over a sharp bend (actually it's a loop) in the Ter River. I enjoyed walking around it so much. It's built in an absolutely gorgeous place. 

Legend has it that some royal baby started talking when he was 3 days old and told the amazed family that he was going to die on 30 days. As he requested, the family promised to put his body on a horse and to build a church at the precise spot where the horse stopped. Then a few years later, they brought in the monks and the monastery was built next to the church. Whatever its origin, someone (or some horse) had excellent taste. 

Vic is a pretty city, the museum had lots of very nice things,

 and Vic even has a Roman temple! 

There's also s nice plaza mayor. 

Somehow my jerry-rigged walk came out to another day of 33 km (20 miles).  I think I'll finally have a short day tomorrow, but I think there is nothing to do in the place where I'm going but to visit the monastery. Happy to do that, but a restaurant or two would be nice too.