Roc Blanc Les Escaldes

... of smokers. At least we’re definitively out of the Commie-toilet-paper-zone now. I was starting to miss pre-Nafta Mexican recycled newspaper, all cut up into nice little rectangles.

The ride up to Andorra is nice, finally arriving up in a high mountain ****** that somehow managed to remain independent all these years. As I suspected, though, they lean heavily toward Spain, and you hear Castellano frequently, though ...

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 ...

... the terrace, but was told I'd have to go inside to get the set menu - no problem, I went inside and sat out on the second floor terrace. I sat around for about 20 minutes, with a group of waiters seemingly on a break, sitting and chatting at a table inside.

I decided to go down to the main floor to get a menu and get some service. The original waitress came back up a few minutes later, informing me that the restaurant was closed. WTF??? Shoddy ...

... 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 ...

... go to school. Today I'm hitching with Andre, who took an extra day to get to Andorra but I figure it can't happen twice in a row. Our first ride takes us only 5km to the next village but it's good enough to get us started. Next we wait almost another hour for our next ride to take us 20km over the mountain pass to Pas de le Casa, where we were a few days prior. We can't remember exactly how far it was from here to the border so we decide to start ...

Lisa and I leave the bus in sub zero temperatures hoping we are able to find the next host's house quickly. Alas, nothing is ever simple when im involved. We find the sign that will lead us to the campsite which is supposedly near by, no luck, we end up miles away. A quick text to Neil and he kindly agrees to come and find us, no effort on our part required, perfect. We return to the house to find the host also has two kids, shy at first they soon ...

... INFILTRATION STEP 10 - Dine at a French restaurant, was employed on my last night. In the delicious Kamikaze Surf Bar, Klara and black-haired Martina ordered turkey breasts bathed in a mushroom sauce. I ordered medium-cooked beef, which was a bit of a mistake. And Irish Brian ate a tender, brown-meat duck roast seasoned awesomely with garlic and lemon. Martina's boyfriend, Brian, taught me to "Always Keep it Real." I'm really going to miss Klara. I hope she does okay ...