Rutllan La Massana

... ve got to give some credit to a city that gave Gaudi license. They might have lost that gamble, but no, tourists come in by the busloads to take pictures of the cherubim and seraphim and… themselves. The Arc is interesting, too, made out of brick, so not a copy of the French model like every other one I’ve seen. That’s something Spain has in common with Poland, I guess, the copious use of brick. They also have a ...

... 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:

... Almost as sweet as angel hair" http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-en tries/pwong/canaries-2007/1199575320/tp od.html ) The smell convinced me to go with the pizza, though I had earlier considered the pasta and asked the waiter if the pizza or pasta was better here. His brusque response was "Buddy, we specialize in both here, so how can I answer that?" Have I somehow unwittingly insulted all the waitstaff in Andorra, so that they all act like d ...

... in to bed. Did I mention that we tried to take a couple of mountain passes only to be turned back by snow on one and bad roads on the other. Yep.... snow. Now when you are travelling on a narrow road in the fog with no guard rails, straight down and straight up and with opposing traffic....and it starts to snow.... well, the biggest question in our minds was how were we even going to turn around. Fortunately there are actually people living up there ...

... 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 ...

... for a follow up, but there wasn't one, he just stared at me until I left..a little odd. No beer eh?, Andorra had already made itself onto my enemies list (along with those kids from the Cadburys advert, The Earl Grey pub and that fat kid who sometimes comes into Morrisons who I don't like the look of). I went for a walk around the "city" to see what exactly it had. Nothing really. There was a giant **** off model snowman in the middle of the street for no discernable reason ...

Andorra to Perpignan So Luis takes myself and Florin up to his apartment and he introduces us to his 2 lovely daughters and his friend and her daughter also. Before long we get a message from the two girls saying they are in town but cannot find the apartment so we agree to go and find them. The four of us spend the evening playing cards until quite late before retiring to bed. Luckily for us Luis daughters have given up their room - willingly or not I do ...

... 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 ...

... sooooooo apparent. Now a little bit about the geography of Andorra is that it is basically a country built between a narrow valley of the Pyrenees. The once little individual towns built through this valley are now joining together to make one long urban area, not helped by the ever increasing building of apartments, hotels etc to accommadate the millions of skiers that flock to its mountains each winter. So add ...