Hotel Carlemany Escaldes-Engordany

... and I’m reporting you to HostelBookers tomorrow as a fraud! That’s all there is to say, except that you better not charge my credit card, or then I’ll report you to the police! Y puedo hablar espanol tambien.”



It would just be nice if the $100 room were nice, not just four walls and a boob tube. The phrase ‘boob tube’ has meaning here, too. Late-night Spanish TV has sex ads that ...

... days will get some entries soon.

Today, we started from France, and drove a few miles into Andorra. So we have now done 10 of the 11 countires!!

Photos to follow, I'll just go back and put some news on the other days, then get photos loaded up. That takes ages.

... the watershed and we drop into the Spanish frontier town of Bourg Madame. We continue east across a wide plane undulating over the Col De Llous (1345m) and the Col De la Perche (1570m). From here a unbelievably long descent takes us nearly al the way to our
hotel. Prades has a reassuringly Mediterranean feel about it, with lots of courtyard cafe's and
clay tiled roofs.

WHAT I EXPERIENCED:

... 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 ...

... for a follow up, but there wasn't one, he just stared at me until I left..a little odd. No beer eh?, Andorra had already made itself onto my enemies list (along with those kids from the Cadburys advert, The Earl Grey pub and that fat kid who sometimes comes into Morrisons who I don't like the look of). I went for a walk around the "city" to see what exactly it had. Nothing really. There was a giant **** off model snowman in the middle of the street for no discernable reason ...

... down the hill - bad idea. The visibility was very low and the snow was coming down cold and fast and the wind didn't help also. We walk for roughly half an hour before finding a lay by to stop in and it takes a matter of minutes to get a lift from a French guy. One the way down the mountain there is a T junction where one way heads towards Perpignan and the other back to France the way we came. Our driver is adamant that going with him back to ...

... and start communicating with us, I would use talk, but I unfortunately I don't speak French, Spanish or Italian. They go to bed pretty early so we spend the evening playing cards. Brits such at cheat, or the Romanians and Germans are good liars, im not sure which. The next morning leads to an early kid shouting wake up call, fantastic, what more do you want to wake up to, maybe French shouting kids. I join them for breakfast whilst Florin lay on ...

... un sonat (en paraules seves). Alguna mena de complexe, o la pròpia solitud d'aquest pais tancat a les muntanyes, fa que es reivindiqui com a ciutadà global. Diu que aquest és un pais de serveis, que per l'increment de la poblacio amb estudis ha de crear ocupacions ficticies; situacio no gens excepcional en el mon occidental, despres del desplassament ( a aprtir d'aqui s'aboleix la c trencada) de la industria productiva cap a les regions de l'homo Sacer.