Andorra
May 18 - 20

Again no links. We're in a rustic  but friendly hotel near Nimes, France and they never heard of the internet. Looked for dinner at 8pm and ended up with some goat cheese from a gas station and added that to our stash of bread, dried sausage (Spanish, not Mishawakan), and olives. We're happy and hope to eat that well and that cheaply all summer.

Picked up our car on Wednesday. It's a Renault Menage. The Saturn sized and our three enormous suitcases just fit with the computer/camera case, book suitcase, cooler, etc. The car has some neat features like for instance, it's keyless. There's a thick card which fits in a wallet. When you're standing near a door you can unlock it by passing your hand over a sensor. Once inside you push a start/stop button and off you go. To lock the car, just push a button on the door handle. Also a tire pressure monitor. It's a 1.8 diesel 6-speed and drives like a slightly underpowered gas engine under 2500rpm but revs freely.

It's 55€ ($71) to fill up but has a 770km (470mile) range. That's 15¢ per mile for fuel.

Sights in Spain on the way from Barcelona to Andorra.

Our first look at the Pyrenees.

The last town in Spain.

Andorra is truly a small country. Look it up in your atlas. It's stuck between France and Spain. While largely a democracy it's really a dual principality. One Prince is something like the Bishop of Catalonia and the other is the President of France (inherited from Louis XVI). Weird.

The main city, Andorra de Ville, is a mess. One traffic jam from west to east. And this is the off season. We ventured in twice from the west and backed out again to take the bypass road. No pictures there - we only saw taillights.

Our hotel, though, was grand. Up a dead-end road about 20km in El Serrat. Just short of the Arcalas sky resort. Good hotel and a marvelous view.

Looking back south.

THIS was the view out the window of our room. Cold rushing snow-melt water.
The sound was almost deafening with the window open. Slept like babies.

The sky resort is one of many in the country (winter and July/August are the high seasons). Even though the place was closed we saw fresh slalom tracks and even saw one lonely person climbing up a big hill with skis on his back.

There's the lonely climber in the center of this picture.

On Thursday we came across one leg of the Tour de Catalonia and watched some cyclists come right past the hotel.

Although there's a lot of museums, old houses, we didn't visit very many. One we missed was the Andorra postal museum. We did get to the Andorra Automobile Museum in Encamp but they didn't allow photography. They had 70 cars, hundreds of bicycles, and 100+ motorcycles including a DKW Wankel motorcycle.

This church outside of Encamp was built in 1163.

The Rull house (below) was interesting. A 4-level house of a fairly prosperous 1800s family. Most of the "industry" then was stockbreeding - raising animals (mainly horses) and selling them to the French. After WWI much of Andorra fell on rough times until tourism developed. More than half of the population moved away between the wars. There just isn't much land flat enough for cultivation.

Can anyone tell us what the metal tabs on the slate roofs are for?

The town of Ordino quickly became our favorite. It's down the road from the hotel and there's a 17km mountain pass road to the east that lets you bypass Andorra de Ville completely. The whole town (actually everything north of Andorra de Ville) seems to be very new construction and quite well off. Tourism and skiing seem to by working.

When in Ordino, stop at the Pizzeria Restaurant Col D'Ordino for a cheap, friendly Italian meal served and cooked by a perky French woman. The plate of french fries, pork loin, egg, and salad (all piled on top of each other) is a serious meal at 7€. Or substitute a big beef steak for 8€.

Did we mention all sandwiches in Spain, Andorra, and at least southern France are served on half a loaf of French bread but only have one slice of meat or cheese (except bacon sandwiches which are quite thick)?

Most of what we did for 3 days was drive up dead-end roads (there are only 3 ways in or out of Andorra) and look at the scenery. So sit back and scroll through the slide show.

OK, so the sun is a bit enhanced.

The town of Ordino.

The mandatory panorama photo. Of course there's a bigger one.

Bob finally figured out that a "cerveseria" has more selection than a "bar". Now he has to figure out if there's a French equivalent. There's one cerveseria in Ordino that had some lambics, Chimay, etc. Probably 12 beers altogether.

Had a Leffe Blonde on tap - Dark copper. Aroma evokes a new flannel baby blanket. 1/2 litre: 4.30€.

We're now in Wine country and Kronenbourg seems to be the most exotic beer around. In fact I have a can of it open beside the mouse pad right now.

Oh, alcohol free beer in Spanish is "sin". How appropriate.