Andorra la Vella

---

We left early Monday morning for what should have been a 6 hour journey to Andorra’s capital, Andorra la Vella. As it turns out, online directions in Europe are just as crap as they are in America & we ended up relying on my map reading skills to get us there. Needless to say, we made some wrong turns and added a couple of hours onto our trip...The drive was lovely though. Andorra reminded me of Switzerland in that the entire trip was spent winding around snow covered mountains.

We arrived in Andorra, found our hotel and grabbed some food. We were both exhausted from the long day in the car so we just wandered the streets for a bit and then headed back for a good night’s sleep. Most shops were closed, so we spent our time gazing at the sparkles. Andorra la Vella must give Vegas a run for its money with electricity bills…every part of this town is decorated to the extreme for Christmas. The country is also duty-free so it’s like one big airport…liquor, jewelry, perfume and expensive cars everywhere! They also had a Harley shop, Dad & we saw some pretty blinged out ones on the streets!

We spent Tuesday at Caldea…the largest spa in all of Europe. Oh. My. Gosh. That’s how I can explain it. The place is magical. There is a huge swimming area, inside and outside hot tubs that they call lagoons, Indo-Roman baths, steam rooms, hammams, sirocco air rooms, infra red rooms, a wood lighting room and many many more areas for ultimate relaxation. We spent several hours checking out the different rooms and then ate a light lunch at the café on site. I don’t think I’ve been so clean and relaxed in my whole life!

Tuesday night we enjoyed a pizza at a restaurant near our hotel. When ordering food, we both remembered how frustrating it is to not speak the language! Andorra’s primary language is Catalan and most people also speak Spanish. A few speak French and even less speak English. We basically spent three days communicating in some kind of broken French, English or Spanish…hand gestures and pointing become the primary means of communication!

Immigration and customs was a joke…we didn’t get stopped, we weren’t asked for our passports and nobody even seemed to care that we were coming or going. That’s the third time I’ve entered France without anyone checking my documents! There was a customs van a few miles into France trying to catch smugglers (remember, duty free Andorra) and Will thinks they were trying to wave him down, but he didn’t feel like pulling over so he continued on. I was sleeping through all of this, and when I woke up I found out I was a fugitive on the run! Okay, that’s a bit extreme, because let’s face it, France doesn’t really care!

We got back yesterday afternoon and today we’re going to go into Limoges to get some groceries. I’m going to spend tomorrow making cookies! Will’s never had peanut butter cookies or ginger snaps so we’ll see if I can find the necessary ingredients to make that happen…other than that, we’re just laying low. Hope everyone is well at home! xo

---

Photos

Pyrenes Mountains
on our drive back to France

Comments

[Dad]

harley
I expect you'll be boxing up one of those duty-free Harley's you found in Andorra and sending it to your dear old dad!