24 hours in Andorra

 

We wanted to explore the Pyrenees on this trip and spend more time in the mountains between France and Spain. But it looks like we might have to come back another time, either in the winter to ski or in July/August to hike. In April and May, it's "mud season" and there is beauty and awesomeness, but the weather is unpredictable (as we already saw with the snow during Jason's race above Ribes de Freser). 

But when my neice came, she wanted to go to France, so we decided to travel between Spain and France via Andorra, the beautiful mountainous micro-nation in the Pyrenees. The official language is Catalan, which is what we have been hearing for the last month throughout the Catalonian region of Spain. It's about a 2.5 hour drive North of Barcelona. Jason ran to the airport to pick up our rental car, then picked us up from our lodging, and off we went.

We spent the night in Andorra la Vella, the highest capital city in Europe at 1023m / 3356ft. The city has a local population of 22,000 people, but is a popular ski resort town with mountains all around. It has plenty of hiking and road cycling all around. It wasn't cheap to stay there, and our options were limited. The city itself reminded us of Vail, Colorado. Lots of built up accommodations, lots of construction trying to pack infrastructure into the valley below the mountains, and lots of high end shopping and fancy people. But also beautiful things all around. We enjoyed a stroll around town in the evening and we did enjoy seeing many large ski shops and outdoor stores as well as the Rolex, Prada, Louis Vuitton, etc.

The melting clock of Dali

The next morning we drove just a few minutes North into the town of Ordino. This felt more like our style: more charming, very beautiful, less pretentious. We went for a short but steep hike (to get an old geocache, of course!) and had a lovely view of the valley below and the snow-covered peaks above. It was clouding up, so we continued our drive East toward the French border.

We had some snow falling on us when we drove higher up in elevation, and we could see ski resorts here and there in each little village. We liked the look of the village Canillo, and also the infrastructure for skiing in Soldeau looked like fun. And then we descended into France. There were a LOT of people coming into Andorra from the France side because it was the start of a long weekend in France. Shopping in Andorra is a big deal with lower taxes. Strangely enough, there was also some kind of video game tournament in Andorra, so some of the cars we saw coming in were decorated in fun and creative ways (star wars, bright colours, cartoon characters, etc all over the outside), so that was entertaining to drive by.

Our highest pass on the drive

We found a cache up on the highest pass.

The last shopping area in Andorra before crossing the border into France

And then we entered France!

We didn't get stopped at either border (Spain to Andorra or Andorra to France), and everything in the country felt just like the rest of Catalonia to us. But it's a beautiful place and it was still really fun to go to this little country that isn't particularly easy to get to from North America.

Thanks, Andorra! Gracias!Adeu!