Andorra..........this place is different

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The Fasthotel might be cheap and the room small(the shower/toilet)is like a cubicle they added after the room was built,a bit like what you would buy at Mitre 10 and have installed except a bit bigger because it has a toilet and washbasin as well.The cubicle obviously wasn’t completely and firmly attached as it rocks a bit when you walk or should I say step in there because there isn’t much room to do anything else.However we must say the water pressure in the shower head is very good and we have tried out a few showers over the past 7 months!!
It is time to bring out the long sleeve shirts and put them on top of the shirt pile in the Kathmandu shirt bag and relegate the short sleeve shirts to the bottom probably not to be worn again until we get back to the NZ summer(if you are guys are having a spring/summer because from what we have seen and heard it ain’t been that great to date).We are expecting the temperature to cool off rapidly as the day progresses as today we are heading for Andorra,a small country of 464 sq km in the Pyrenees and the road to access it climbs to 2408 metres above sea level.At that height and given that it is November we are expecting there will be some snow around somewhere although hopefully not on the road.
We took the D119 out of Carcassonne heading west with the sun shining brightly and the rain clouds of the past two days gone,at least for now.
It is pleasant countryside to drive through and being undulating it is rather more interesting than the drive from Avignon to Carcassonne the other day.Here too the grapevines are going through the last phase of the leaves turning a vivid yellow,red or a tan before they fall off as an autumn wind or a frost finishes them off for the season.
About 15km from Carcassonne and just after the hilltop town of Fanjeaux we came around a bend in the road and revealed before us were the snow capped Pyrenees in all their grandeur.It was such a sudden arrival on the scene as before we had no idea that we were that close to the mountain range and the sight sort of took our breath away.As usual there was nowhere to stop straight away and when there was finally a picnic area it was located down a short hill where the view wasn’t as good.
Eventually though we found a place to pull off to take photos and to admire the view.
We were a bit surprised to see so much snow although perhaps we hadn’t realised that the Pyrenees is a range as high as it is with peaks of over 3500mtrs and with the cooler wet weather the moisture would be falling as snow at those levels.We then started to wonder whether there would be snow on the road to Andorra.Had we been driving RR rather than OO,who we are yet to get to really know,then we might not have had thoses thoughts.
However if things look a bit dicey as we get closer to Andorra then we can always carry on to Perpignan which is near the coast and take the coastal route to Barcelona without adding too much to the distance.We would of course have to cancel the hotel in Andorra but can do that free of charge up until 6pm.
The D119 kept on a course heading directly for the mountain range which seemed to be getting closer by the minute although in reality it was still about 20kn away as the crow flies and about 30km by road.
We had been going for about 90 minutes when we reached the town of Mirepoix and although we wern’t expecting too much to see in the town itself,as it wasn’t underlined in the atlas/road map,we could see there was a high church tower poking above the buildings so thought we would take a break and have a look inside the church.
What we found first quite astounded us!!In the centre of the town a short walk from where we parked OO was a market square surrounded with a type and construction of building we had not seen before en masse.The ground level of each building was a shop,cafe or bar and the next story or two up looked like accommodation.The construction was mainly of timber,which is quite different to the stone which many of the buildings in Europe are built of.The accommodation floors were built out over the shops and the beams holding the upper levels up were exposed and looked very old in their rough hewn state.This created a covered walkway around the large square.
The buildings in the square had distracted us from the church which we had originally decided to stop here but we went inside for a look and although it was very large for the relatively small town it wasn’t particularly ornate.
We also found a boulangerie and brought croissants including one with a chocolate filling for lunch which we will have on the road somewhere ahead of us.
We were glad we had taken the stop and if we hadn’t we would not have been able to add the little bit of sightseeing to our adventure and discovered the unique buildings in the market square.
Back on the road we continued towards the mountains with the outside temperature on the car dropping as the snow caps got closer.
As we got near Foix the road swung south to run parallel with the Pyrenees and we started to notice that we were climbing steadily.
Near Ax-les-Thermes we took another break at a picnic spot for our lunch of croissants.We were joined by a local cat who looked well fed even though the car park was a couple of hundred metres from the closest building.It may have been that the cat simply liked to try his luck down the road the picnic spot and actually lived with the owners of the building nearby.
We sat in the car as the temperature had dropped to mid single digits although the weather overhead was still clear.
With lunch over it was back on the road still climbing all the time.We hadn’t really taken much notice about where the road carried onto Perpignan if we decided that snow could be a problem crossing into Andorra.Now we realised that the road actually turned off the one to Andorra and went through a tunnel while the Andorra road continued to climb even higher.
We had passed the tunnel turnoff when light snow started to fall on the windscreen but the overhead conditions didn’t seem too bad so we carried on heading for Casa de la Pasa and Andorra.The scenery all around us was quite spectacular with snow hanging in the pine trees making it all look like a Christmas scene.
As we crossed into Andorra we were again disappointed that no one wanted to give us a stamp in our passport nor even stop us to check where we were from and where we were going!!
We had a choice of a tunnel at €9.40 to travel through or take on the pass itself for free.This being the BBA we of course chose the pass.The scene all around us now was of snow.An odd thing though was that the snow machines were going making more snow probably to satisfy those that were turning up early for the ski season.There was plenty of accommodation up at the pass although it looked like it was yet to gear up for the coming season.
We knew we had entered Andorra,not by just passing through the old customs area or noticing the change in the flag flying from buildings,but also because the price of diesel had dropped to €0.84 per litre up to €0.25 cheaper than in France.Shame we didn’t need any at the moment although we are sure we will fill up before we leave tomorrow for Spain.
We got a bit worried when we stopped half way up the last few zigzags to the top of the pass as OO wouldn’t start on the slope we were on.However,a bit of patience and hard out in first gear and we were on our way.
What a difference when we crossed the top of the pass at 2400mtrs above sea level.On the French side was snow but on the Andorra side it was free of snow although snow was visible on higher altitudes above the road.
We carried on down further into Andorra following our Google Maps instructions.
Andorra is quite different from anywhere else we have been in Europe.There is a lot of new construction of apartments and tourist accommodation going on with cranes everywhere in sight.Not that there is any real flat land to build on as you enter Andorra as the countryside is just steep mountainsides and deep valleys so the building is going on next to the road with sites levelled out of just enough size to accommodate the building.
Our instructions took us off the one and only main road through the country and we climbed another zigzag road that seemed to be taking us away from inhabitation.However,after a few kilometres the road levelled out for a couple of hundred metres along a ridge and then dropped down into another valley.
Our first attempt to find our hotel took us up the wrong valley and it was only after we got a few kilometres up the road with snow falling again that we decided that we were in the wrong valley.
We retraced our steps and found an information office and got put on the right track taking us to the next valley over where we drove up through a couple of villages full of either new apartments for locals and hotels for tourists.The we spotted the Solana Hotel which is to be our overnight stay.
It’s a 3 star hotel and the room is very comfortable and a bit of a flash affair for the BBA but at €65 including dinner and breakfast it was a great price.We even have access to the indoor swimming pool and although the pool temperature said it was 30c it was more like 25c or was it that it was still snowing lightly outside!!!We had thought about trying the sauna after the dip in the pool but at 45C it was just too hot!!!
We wanted a coffee so took a walk in temperatures just above zero to a cafe up the road.It might have been unbearable except that there wasn’t any wind so the chill factor wasn’t affecting us.While we were sitting having coffee we noticed the supermarket next door had liquor and the prices looked real cheap.And so it turned out to be with Gin at €5 a litre bottle and Brandy for €3.30 for a 750ml bottle.It will be doubles all round until we clean the booze off over the next week or three!!!!
We did run into a bit of a problem at dinner when the guy running the restaurant didn’t have us on the list for the set menu and it took a trip down to reception to get it sorted out.It was all done in good humour and not really a problem in the end.
It is cold outside and snowing lightly still as we head for bed in a cosy warm room.

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