Ahotels Patagonia Arinsal

... the ‘hostel’ guy- calls me up- again- on my emergency world phone.

"Where were you? You were supposed to be here at nine o’clock!"

“Where was I? Where were you? I was there- at eight o’clock! And where’s this so-called ‘Barcelona City House? Your neighbors said you left!”

“Where are you now? We can still meet up.”

“I’m in a ...

we've had some problems getting to this stage, and so haven't been able to keep the blog up to date. So far everything is now working out fine, and we have arrived on site to be able to set up in the light, and the campsite has electricity, so we are ok to get written up today. Hopefully ...

WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID: The Col de Port (1249m) is a beautiful climb and has a great descent to Tarascon.

Unfortunately the rest of the days route is on fairly major roads filed with cars heading for
Andorra to do some tax free shopping. Soaking your feet in thermal waters in Ax is highly
recommended, before taking on the seemingly endless Col de Puymorens (1915m).

We are now ...

... atmosphere, and seems like a giant, tacky duty free shop - exactly as described by guidebooks. Truthfully, I'm only here to get a fridge magnet, which almost seems pointless, now that I have a stainless steel fridge and have no place to put them!

A wander around town didn't turn up much of interest ... people come here to shop and apparently, for little else. There isn't an internet cafe in town, only a very expensive coin-operated ...

... this holy place. There is a profound respect here. Hundreds of volunteers make it all work. I must say, though I was appalled at the commercialism, I was touched by the spirit of this place. My prayers were said and I avoided the push to buy plastic 'Mary' water bottles and 100E candles but I was tempted by the Lourdes corkscrew. Why do we do such things as humans? It is a place where I suspect Jesus would turn over the tables and storm out in a rage ...

... s ski resorts and as a summer mountain getaway for Europeans. Taking a minibus from Toulouse to Andorra, I literally had to go through rain, hail, and a snowstorm to get there! Arriving at Pas de la Casa, it was 0 degrees and snowing hard. Thirty minutes later we made it to Andorra la Vella, the capital city, where I would stay at ...

... microstates though, I wouldn't have bothered visiting any of them if they weren't independent states and I wasn't on some bizarre quest to visit as many countries as possible. San Marino for example, it knows that it's a load of **** but people will still visit for the novelty factor of it, that's why the streets of San Marino are lined with tourist **** (there was beer with Hitlers picture on it but I didn't buy it because it looked expensive). I dosed off every now and ...

Andorra to Perpignan So Luis takes myself and Florin up to his apartment and he introduces us to his 2 lovely daughters and his friend and her daughter also. Before long we get a message from the two girls saying they are in town but cannot find the apartment so we agree to go and find them. The four of us spend the evening playing cards until quite late before retiring to bed. Luckily for us Luis daughters have given up their room - willingly or not I do ...

Lisa and I leave the bus in sub zero temperatures hoping we are able to find the next host's house quickly. Alas, nothing is ever simple when im involved. We find the sign that will lead us to the campsite which is supposedly near by, no luck, we end up miles away. A quick text to Neil and he kindly agrees to come and find us, no effort on our part required, perfect. We return to the house to find the host also has two kids, shy at first they soon ...

... and its a different story. The snow is white and it stays white. It falls in meters. Meters! That never happens here. We didn't even have meters until the 60s and I bet its because we never had snow worth measuring. Or mountains. I mean, I know we have some, but to paraphrase my friend Lou: They're not very big are they? The nearest thing we have have down here in the south is Leith Hill. It's oooh, that close to the ...