Husa Xalet Verdu Arinsal

Today was my last full day in Andorra. There wasn't a huge amount to do. It wasn't snowing, but the wind was so fierce that it seemed like a sand storm made out of snow. I had a great time watching a group of cows grazing in snow up to their stomachs. Other than that I had a walk around town and spent about an hour at a ...

<br> After a long night on a surprisingly jam packed night train, I arrived at a train station about 1km from the Andorra border. I was slightly worried about my transportation from the train station at l'Hospitalet to my destination 26km into Andorra. The cryptic information information I was able to find on the web about buses told me that there were 2 per day, one leaving at 7:30am and the other 7:30pm. This was a bit disconcerting as my train arrived ...

... village et quand on est arrivé, il avait le marché du matin. On a acheter du vin à environ 1 euro le litre (vin de pays) et du bon fromage bleu pour le déjeuner.<br><br>On avait pas le droit de prendre des photos dans la grotte pour pas faire de la pollution lumineuse (il y avait déja des ptites pousses de plante pres des lanternes...ils veulent pas en rajouté non plus). Aussi il faut pas déranger les chauve souris...pauve cocottes...<br>

... What it does mean, we're not quite sure of yet. Still dealing with the shock and going over a few different options. All while kicking myself for not realizing this sooner. Only one thing is for certain - I'm not going to let this spoil our trip, and we're going to have to get cycling! (o.k., two things). <br>

We&#8217;ve been staying in an area of the Pyrenees called Ariege which is often described as the &#8216;Pit&#8217; of France. Las Laous is the name of the farm we&#8217;ve been living and locals say it means &#8216;Landslide&#8217; because of it&#8217;s steep steep grade on the property. It has quite the reputation of wives running away and leaving their husbands because it&#8217;s just too harsh a living here. Hopefully this trend has ceased ...

... on toast it resembled scrambled eggs in both texture and taste. Won&#8217;t become my favourite dish, but it was interesting to try out. I can certainly appreciate the effort to use every part of an animal in respect for it giving it&#8217;s life, but I did feel a little like Hannibal Lectre. There&#8217;s just something in knowing you&#8217;re eating brain that doesn&#8217;t appeal over all the other organs on an animal.

... the time to see the final goal. Then the sweet feeling of triumph when you&#8217;re actually there!<br><br>Now it&#8217;s time to relax, but one of the most difficult parts is still to come: the descent. This is a relaxing &#8216;walk&#8217; down the rock face while to seat yourself into the harness low enough that your legs are at 90 degree angles to the rock. Your weight born by the belayer below you slowly step your way down more keeping ...

... br><br>Despite the dogs and the cold and wind, we did manage a little hike up past a waterfall up to a beautiful plateau area with mountains all around. Huddled behind a rock to provide some resistance from the wind, we scarfed down a bit of picnic lunch before running back to the truck for warmth. Then it was down into the town of Ax to soak our cold feet into some hot springs. <br>

... up late, go skiing, have an evening in, watch Eurosport, early night, get up early, go skiing, big night out, got to bed late etc etc....it worked really well!! Eurosport and CNN were the only channels in English so we didn't have much choice, so one evening in we watched snooker, then another night it was show-jumping, and then African Nations football. Chris also managed to find a fabulous German cooking show and German X factor....great ...

... A huge line of people with Spaninsh number plates leaving the country, all being searched as this was another duty free country. As we were very low on alcohol, and as there was a hypermarket as soon as we entered the country, we pulled over and stocked up. Cheap food and beer and of course, for the girls, sangria, but as a special surprise, I got them both a can of Sangria con gas. Sangria with gas. We drove into the centre of town, eyeing up some ...