But really, before you come here, what do you know about Andorra?
It is somewhere in... Africa I think?
Try to find a Lonely Planet or Rick Steeves guide to Andorra.
Even using Google you mostly come up with stuff about Andorra on the Andorra Tourism web sites, written by... you guessed it: Andorrans themselves.
Andorra is an isolated little country on the Spanish-French border. To get here we came over two high, winding passes through the Pyrenees Mountains, from Spain. When we left, we had to go out over two high, winding mountain passes into France.
From Lourdes on, this Pyrenees country is beautiful. Green mountains, covered with trees rise up from fertile valleys.
On purpose we are taking more of the side roads. We jumped off the A64 and headed into Spain on the N125 and N230 through funny-named towns like Sort and Err. It adds an hour to our trip, but we get to see more.
So we wind around on the road and switchback higher and higher, into the fog.
Cows with their bells are ghosts, invisible in the fog. When it lifts we are high above treeline and there are traces of snow.
Villages have a “Swiss” feel to them; more chalet type, more modern houses, but still there is always an old church, an old stone building or two.
I am getting hungry, and just my luck we find a local food store. I have been craving chicken lately, and there are chickens slowly cooking in every market and grocery stores, but the problem is, as a tourist, how and where do I eat it? I am pretty loose about things, but sitting on the curb with an entire chicken and no paper towels is just a bit much.
But here, I am in luck. I order an entire rotisserie chicken because he had tables we could sit at, silverware we could use. And by god, I ate that whole damn chicken along with a glass of good red Burgandy wine.
Our last Burgandy for a few days, as we have now crossed into the land of Spanish wines.
We got into Andorra from the south; Spain. There are three ways into the country, through Spain to the south, through France on the East, or by climbing up and over one of the high mountain passes. They have an actual border check where you have to slow down and weave between cones and get looked at. But they didn’t stop us.
We came from the south on the CG1 which goes to the capital city, Andorra la Vella. There it changes to the CG2 and runs out the French side, to the right. So this is the main set up of the country; you wind up, up and over two mountain passes to get in one way, travel across the bottom half in a wider valley with three large cities, and then up and over two high passes to get out the other side.
But, that is the bottom half.
So, just imagine now, when you are halfway across, in Andorra la Vella, if you bored a long long tunnel straight north. Perhaps three, four kilometers right through a mountain to another valley.
In that valley is a good-sized town, and the valley splits in two, like a Y.
To the left is the CG4 heading North-West to end near the French border.
To the right is the CG3, which heads North-East then curls back like a question mark, again ending near the French border.
That is the basic road system of Andorra.
This simple map sort of shows it.
We never did get out on the CG4, so we missed one-third of the country. But we took the CG3 to the little ski town of Ordino, where we spent two nights and days, and explored that third of the country. We spent one day on a great hike, at the very end of the road, which I will cover in the next blog post.
Andorra.
Had I known more, we would have spent more days here. As it is, I think we will return.
The countryside is beautiful, mountains rising sheer from the narrow valleys, rivers rushing along. The peaks are above tree line, which I am estimating must be about 7000 feet here.
The little towns are made of varied, colorful brown rock. The houses and condos (mostly condos and apartments in the towns) are crammed in, tucked right up against sheer rock walls. Very fine, dark stained wood frames the windows and makes the doors, and all the patios are lined with flowers.
It is beautiful, really. Most of it looks newer, though there are some older places here and there, and the occasional church. The entire place: every village as we work our way up the mountain, has a ski resort feel to it. In fact, sports are really huge here. Skiing is the hot season, but now there is hiking, climbing, via-ferrata, canyoneering, cycling and more. Trees everywhere, marching up the hills to rocky bare summits, and in the valley bottoms gardens and crops are planted in the open spaces between buildings.
Back down on the main CG1-2 route, the main city is long and narrow, filling in the comparatively wide valley, with a few tall buildings, the usual shopping, crowds and traffic jams. There is a lot of construction going on, which at first blush has a sort of off-putting aspect to it, making the main road seem “shabby." Somehow it does not seem as old and historic as say Luxembourg, or as prosperous as Monaco. (Two of the other three “micro-countries” we have visited, including Vatican City. We will go to Lichtenstein later this trip, leaving San Marino as the only one we have not been to.)
Andorra has a different feel to it.
Our town, Ordino, has an old church and small core of buildings around a small square, but some "special celebration," involving a way-too-loud-band that spends three hours sound checking for a two hour concert has taken over this charming little area, so we do not spend much time here.
I had a room booked here in what turns out to be a charming old hotel, with balcony overlooking the square and church. But when the concert was scheduled, she emailed me and booked us in another place out of town.
We ate dinner in town that night. Music blaring so loud we could not talk. Headache. Might be different if the band was any good. But they played on and on, till 5:00 the next morning, murdering popular American songs as we slept.
Meanwhile, it is quiet up at our hotel; we can hear the birds.
So where we ended up staying in Ordino was the La Cabana Hotel. It was OK, with huge windows, a big view. Shafts of sunlight cutting in through the mountains in the morning, the lights of Ordino below at night. We wanted to stay (and I would recommend staying there, unless there is another “concert” going on) at the Hotel Santa Barbara.
My sense of timing was off, obviously, because next week the Tour de France comes through Andorra, racing right up through our village of Ordino to the summit at the very end of the road.
In fact, our second day here, there was an “amateur” bike race over the same route. I use the word amateur in a real loose sense, as even the slowest of these riders would kick my ass. The road up to the end (where we are going for our hike) switchbacks up and up, so steep in places that you pass the lower level of a house, then switch and pass the third story of the same house on your way back.
Anyway, this fine Sunday there are hundreds of bikers grunting their way up, up the road. Later, after our hike, they will pass me as they cruise down the same road, leaning around the switchbacks at over 50KMH!
I think it would be easier, and a lot more fun, to take a taxi up, swagger around a while at the ski area acting sweaty and studly, and then coasting down.
We ate a fantastic meal at a little, local restaurant we happened upon in the small village of Llorts, after our mountain trek. I will note that in the next blog post, as it was part of “The Perfect Day In Andorra.”
Andorra.
Who knew?