Blogs from La Vella, Andorra, Europe
June 26th 2011
We woke up in plenty of time for breakfast before catching the first bus down to Andorra La Vela at 9:40. Breakfast was the usual coffee, juice, cereal, toast and spreads, and some fruit. Although the driver was a bit reckless, the ride down was nearly as scary as the ride up had been yesterday. We spent most of the morning shopping for gifts to bring to Manoli's brothers and nephew. For lunch, we almost ate at the same place in the Pyrenees store, but changed our minds when we saw the buffet style layout in another store called Escale. Although most of the restaurants and cafes we'd seen wanted what seemed like ridiculous prices (from 9 Euros and up for a single plate!), this store also had food at much more reasonable prices. We all ... read more
March 10th 2011
Nestled high in the Pyrenees is a tiny country that you may not have heard of…Andorra. By a quirk of fate, this country, which is the size of a small county in the US and the population of a small city, is still a country. Andorra is basically one main, sometimes very narrow, mountain valley nestled on the border between Spain and France and is jointly controlled by both. There are a few side roads but the country is only 50 km across at the widest. It is one big ski resort in the winter and in the summer it specializes in mountain sports. Ninety percent of its national product is tourism and employment is 100%. Since we were so close, we could not resist a visit in order to put another country on our list. ... read more
September 6th 2010
Anne: We got to Andorra and the 1st stop was a petrol station where fuel was under a euro a litre! We then went to a campsite recommended from the Rough Guide and took a walk into the shopping area. Jody was looking to get a nice Nixon watch and I was up for a new dress or two! In the end we haggled with this dude for Jody's watch and got a good discount and I got 60% off my Quiksilver dress and Nikita top! Honestly at these prices you can't afford not to buy! The next day we got some info on the place and realised that there was a bike park in the mountains nearby and there was a 4X track for Jody to ride. We went the the bottom of the cable ... read more
July 13th 2010
Off to Andorra-la-vella in Andorra. Andorra is its own country - on the border of southern France and northern Spain. After staying at the party until 2 am, we had a late start to Andorre. We stopped to fill up with gas on a Sunday. There are no attended stations on Sundays and none of our credit cards would work at the gas pump. In addition, the gas cap was locked and we couldn't get it open with our key. Many thanks to the nice frenchman who unlocked the gas cap and filled up our car with gas on his credit card so we could just pay him cash! We made the hotel reservation the night before but are not attached to a printer and did not write it down. So we stopped at an Internet ... read more
June 26th 2010
16/06/10 Once through the near non-exictent checkpoint to Andorra, being that the entire country is less than 500sq km it didnt take long to reach our destination Andorra la Vella, Andorras only city. On the way we passed cute little villages and resort towns all packed into narrow valleys. Andorra la Vella was also packed into a valley with a river raging through the middle. Our campground was very nice with a view of the city and oppisite mountains, it also had an indoor pool and spa, we were beginning to learn though, that no matter how flash the campground they just didnt have kitchens and it is really hard to find a shop that sells campstoves so we had to throw out some of our food. 17/06/10 Last night was freezing, being higher in the ... read more
April 22nd 2010
Sunday 18/4/10 So where was I? Ah yes, Andorra. Think Colorado meets Queenstown meets Kuala Lumpur. The scenery is stunning. Andorra is at the top of Spain and bottom of France and appears to be nestled in the base of a valley. It´s surrounded by big fuck-off mountains about 2500 - 3000 metres high so is a major skiing capital. Also it´s a tax haven so lots of cheap electronic goods and impenetrable (not to mention discrete banks - I know where my money´s stashed!) Major construction going on here with big roads and huge hotels being built so obviously the recession has done Andorra some favours. I drove around the very narrow windy roads for an hour trying to find a hotel as it was getting late and dark. I finally came acroos the Bates ... read more
April 21st 2010
Hooley dooley! OK, so I finally made it out alive out of Barcelona. What an awesome place - could easily spend another 6 months there. A friend of a friend gave me her friend´s (Pep) number here in BCN. Pep is a company director here and took me out to his fave place in BCN - La Cabana de Parque. (If you´re reading this, Brenda, Pep said you´d be jealous!) He also took me to another great place - Cafe Velodrome - where only the cool kids like me can hang out. Very classy. And the man paid for everything! He only just met me so very impressed - Muchas gracias, Pep! 16/4/10 It´s now been a year since my wee bus, Kitty, was stolen so am now spending the insurance money! Would rather have Kitty ... read more
February 16th 2010
The end of Friday's classes marked the beginning of the first of many spring vacation periods for me - Carnival! As luck would have it Boston Public Schools has their February break, so some time ago Chris and I planned his visit to Andorra for a few days followed by somewhere more festive. Give that all my roommates left for their own Carnival excursions Friday night and Saturday morning, it was somewhat painful waiting all day alone until 4:30pm for Chris' bus to get in from Barcelona. Seeing as I had purchased his tickets it was no surprise that his connecting flight from Madrid to Barcelona was delayed 1.5 hours (on the runway of course) and that he subsequently missed his bus to Andorra. Oh well, he eventually made it. That first night was pretty low ... read more
January 17th 2010
Today, on the Feast of St. Anthony, all of Andorra gathers together in various plazas throughout the country to celebrate what is called L'escudella. Escudella, itself, it the name given to a traditional Catalan stew full of delicious things like Catalan sausages, beans, and various vegetables. Apparently in the early 70s some friends in Andorra got together and prepared plates of escudella for their neighbors and the shopkeepers in the area. They were essentially reviving the centuries-old tradition of distributing food among the poorest in the parish on St. Anthony's day, January 17th. As you might have guessed, this became quite popular and now the entire country participates. Lucky for us, in Andorra la Vella the festivities were taking place just a 5 minute walk from our apartment in the Plaça de Les Arcades. Basically the ... read more
October 16th 2009
My apologies for the lack of update in recent weeks, its just that I haven had anything overly exciting to report, nor have I traveled anywhere fun. Nonetheless Ill attempt to highlight some of the things that have been going on in my Andorran life for the past few weeks. Life in the Palau continues to go very well, and weve all very much adjusted to living here in the Ciutat de Valls. I really look forward to seeing the change in seasons via our wondrous view - theyve forecasted snow for Thursday! Our location really is ideal for getting all the buses, going to the butcher or baker, etc. The other day Alex and I decided to explore what was up behind our apartment building, and what do you know there was basically a trail ... read more
