Hotel Carlton Plaza Andorra la Vella

... cheap. What you save in duty you’d make up in European rent, easy. The US is cheap, pure if not simple. Still Andorra is okay, easily dissed without cause. The only thing I can’t handle is the smoke, the man-made kind. The new regs haven’t reached here yet, so Andorra may soon become the place where smokers flock to light up in public, the anti-Amsterdam. That’s a claim to fame they can probably do without.

... 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:

... centre) to confirm my reservation for tonight, as per the owner's instructions, but had a heck of a time connecting. Turns out the attendant thought I was trying to call Honduras, and not Andorra, and had given me the wrong calling code. Has my Spanish really gotten that bad they he couldn't tell the difference?

Off to the bus station - as I got off the metro, I gave away my remaining metro tickets, since I don't know when I'll be back to ...

It seems prayer has become a part of my life again. It really never left but when you are faced with hotels still closed for the season, chambres d'hotes not easy to find and nasty cold wet weather then, well, it is good to have prayer in your life. Our journey from St. Palais towards Lourdes found us happily ensconced in a hotel (with wifi) mid way along the route in Oloron Ste. Marie. It was so wet and Shane was so tired from driving that we fell ...

... 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 ...

... an hour of no luck it's gone 3 and we need to make a decision on what to do. So we decide to walk to the nearby town of Bram as we can see a train line that runs close to it. After walking through the while of Bram and seeing that it pretty much has nothing to offer we see a sign for the train station and our eyes light up. The lady behind the counter tells us there is a train in 40 minutes and we will have to change once to get to Perpignan. Even ...

... Romanesque portal and portal sculptures are considered as masterpieces of Provence, the Church and Bishop's Palace were built and continually added to until 18th century; the Grand Priory of the Knights of Malta, now Musee Reattu, named after Jaques Reattu, a painter from Arles (1760-1833), who acquired the building to be his studio and to live in (Picasso donated a number of sketches and paintings); Hotel Dieu, the 16th-century hospital to which Van Gogh was taken when ...

... and we move onwards to France this evening, but first a final indulgence in the land of temptation. Around Andorra there is only one word for unrelenting pleasure, it is Caldea. Perhaps it is not a word my loyal readers are familiar with? I shall illuminate. Caldea is an 80 million dollar extravagence, fed by the products of the local spring. More exactly, it is a futuristic hedonic experience with water. Inside the main room are four half spheres bubbling melodicly. A small ...