Sant Gothard Hotel La Massana

... 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 ...

... towards me?

As I ate, I saw a few people hobble by on crutches - what gives? I've seen 5-6 people on crutches today, do Andorrans all have weak ankles that leave them susceptible to sprains?

Did some aimless wandering to burn off some of that big meal before bed ... it's pretty dead here at night, and just wasn't very fun. Off to bed, with the hope that I won't be up all night coughing, and won't wake up with any more crusty pie eyes. ....

... the (one) driveway gave us the opportunity to escape, A trip that should have taken a couple of hours turned in to a full day by the time we were ready to stop. Then, for the second time on this trip, the hotel we had plugged in o PG turned out to be closed. No tourist information and nobody on the streets. Good thing the next hotel was open. Anyway, enough of that. The next day we woke to sunshine that just got better during the day. We checked out ...

... 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!

... a massive water park inside a massive silver church like structure, but that's literally all it has- that and ****** shops everywhere. Andorra considers itself one of the shopping capitals of the world, but its basically just the Potteries centre with a few fast food outlets and a national anthem. I ate my dinner at a combined KFC/Pizza Hutt outlet- basically this particularly **** idea consisted of setting up a joint franchise with a limited selection of both companies food ...

... know - so we get some nice comfy beds to sleep in. In the morning the children are up early making a fair bit of noise but most of us manage to keep ourselves in bed due to tiredness. When we all wake we find that Sian has been keeping the children occupied for the last hour or so - how nice of her. There is one obvious thing we want to do today, and that is go and play in the snow! Being from England we get minimal snow year round and when it comes ...

... couch still snoring. I find the kids can speak basic English so help teach them how to count and colours in English. They are bright kids. Today is the best day. Snow day, and what better way to start a snow day than a trip sledging. I keenly invite the kids to come along too and we find ourselves climbing a 100 metre long hill just behind their house. Perfect. I step forward first offering to take one of the kids down with me. A sledge with a ...

... it out in canoes and ribs in the bay. The town was sheltered from the wind and we were finally getting the weather we wanted. And it was time to go home! We stayed for a couple of hours, strolling the old streets and looking at paintings, and reluctantly made our departure. The first part of the journey was west through flat land and sleepy villages. We stopped at one for lunch, and found the clouds had moved in while we were ...