Panorama Escaldes-Engordany

... major city in the world and streets would be packed with rush-hour throngs, but not here. Spaniards like to stay up late and get up late, but what does it mean when the sun does the same? Not much I reckon except that Spaniards have the satisfaction of feeling like late-night sophisticates. Jo jum…

They DO have an Arc de Triomf close by and that gaudy temple to La Sagrada Familia not far from the bus station either. You ...

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 ...

... it's not really the waitresses fault since she obviously didn't know, but the waiters sitting inside knew I was out on the terrace and made no effort, and the bartenders that saw me first go in and upstairs also said nothing. Garbage! And I really don't understand how a restaurant could be closed on a Friday night! This was unfortunate, as the menu looked pretty good.

I wandered around, looking for a place to eat - I found a modern Italian ...

... We have booked for two nights. This is off season so, for 50E a night we get a four star hotel with pool, sauna & gym right in the middle of town. Great! Today we walked from one end of the town to the other on a very nice stone path elevated above the city with a few farms between us and the chaos. Wandered around the city a bit and are now enjoying a kick back. Plan to go for a swim this afternoon, rest a bit and go on the town later for ...

... 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 ...

... from Dan Johnson (the message title was the stunningly accurate "**** hole") that explained the best drinking was to be found in a village called Soldeu about 40-50 minutes north of the capital. ****ing Andorra. I was finding it hard to like this country at all. No nightlife in the capital for ****s sake- even Skopje, the grey **** that serves as the Macedonian capital, can muster up a decent Irish boozer (and an English one as well). I wandered back towards the bus ...

... it is cheating slightly we pay the 40 Euros - slightly more than the others will be spending - and catch the train to Perpignan. On the train we decide this must have been a blessing in disguise as we read in Andre's book that Salvidor Dali actually said that Perpignan train station was the centre of the universe - what a privilege to visit such a place. When we disembark the train we find the others walking into the train station to meet us...........

... The group is finally back to all together. As the kids were no longer around having gone out for the afternoon we decided to head up one of the hills for a panoramic view of the area. After Florin and Lisa were unable to negotiate a 6 euro trip for free we decide to walk. I say walk, by the top we were on hands and knees so maybe more scrambling, but the views are worth every step. We had the view of the town as well as the snow capped mountains ...

... del hotel. La cena estuvo muy bien, tranquila y diferente, y luego nos salimos por la noche andorrana que fue muy pobre :) Basicamente era como salir en un boliche en BA. De cualquier manera la pase bien. Espero que año nuevo estemos en otro lado (donde estoy ahora - tambien Andorra pero otro pueblo) asi podemos salir por aca que hay una movida totalmente diferente. Consegui trabajo, asi que me voy a quedar unos meses aca. Trabajo en una de las empresas de pistas ...