Hotel Comtes D'Urgell Escaldes-Engordany

... never French. As in Barcelona, though, the main language is Catalan, one of Andorra’s few claims to fame. For me, though, it has another claim to fame. THIS IS MY 100TH COUNTRY!!! WHOOPPEE!! BREAK OUT THE CHAMPAGNE!!! As it is, I’ll settle for a decent meal and a decent night’s sleep. At least I have a decent room for a decent price, so better than the last night in Barcelona and no small consideration for any ...

... 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:

... and serrano, I made a few sandwiches for the road, chatting with a Kiwi in town for a poker tournament. I think the buy-in was $10,000 euros or so, but he won a qualifying tournament late last night and won a spot in the tourney. You never know if people are ever telling the truth about themselves when they travel, as there is no incentive, since you'll probably never again see that person again. He mentioned that he doesn't work any more, because he ...

... in days of old. We had intended to spend the night near Lourdes but it was still sunny and the Pyrenees were beckoning us. After a great meal at an Italian restaurant near the main Tourist Info booth, we set PG for Andorra da Ville. The only word that came to mind, again, was Sugoi (the Japanese word for fantastic). Where yesterday we had no view of the mountains today they were all around us. The highway PG chose took us in to Spain through an amazing ...

... Festa Brava hotel. I seriously considered going snowboarding, but it was just too late in the season and the snow, though plentiful, was just too wet for my tastes. So I wandered about town, dodging the hourly rainfall and taking in the sights. Not too much to be seen here, but nice to look around a place I had no idea even existed!

... hoping for a bar to magically appear before me. It just didn't happen. I ended up drinking a can of Portuguese Sagres in a small café just up from the bus station. That was it for Andorra really. There's not a great deal to say about the place, the only vaguely interesting thing about it is that it's a joint Principality governed, technically, by the President of France and a Spanish bishop. That's the only thing of note about Andorra- and it's not even that entertaining. I ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... to sing in Spanish, so I got annoyed with him. Plus I just didn´t think he sang well. Makes sense if he couldn´t make it out in America. The next morning I didn't wake up until noon. So nice to wake up late for once. Plus we were up late last night celebrating Spain's win over Russia. That day we went to Llavorsí which is a town where three rivers meet. It was neat to see the different colored water join up. At that point, I had no idea how I was going to leave ...