Dec. 26, 2014
Glad we got an early start as we headed north out of Barcelona to Andorra. We had no trouble getting out of the city as it was the day after Christmas and seem to be no one was working today. We headed north and hit a lot of fog to start with however it cleared and the views became beautiful. Once we reached Andorra we thought we had to possibly clear customs or something, but we simply just crossed the border into a new country, guess that’s the European Nations way!
We stopped in the first little town center St Julia, for some breakfast and coffee and enjoy just walking around town for a bit. The town of Andorra is very reminiscent of an Aspen or Vail, a typical resort/ ski town. Andorra is in the heart of the Pyrenees mountains, sandwiched between France and Spain. It is only 180 square miles and a majority of that is forests, lakes, rivers and mountains only 8% is urbanized. Just over 75,000 people live in the country and Today tourism is it’s leading economy however agriculture was its traditional economy.
We learned that Andorra did not even become a country enjoying the UN until 1993. No wonder many are unaware it is a country.
Our visit was only about an hour and a half however on our way out of the country line to enter had extended to at least a mile to a mile and a half, Spaniards were heading to Andorra for a winter weekend getaway. We lucked out!
We had debated whether to take the highway through the mountains or the straight highway below! We decided start on a mountain route ~ for about 1 mile, until we discovered while driving a stick shift on those curvy, curvy, curvy, slow roads I’d probably kill myself or Harry before the trip was done. Backtracked the miler so and headed out on the highway we were still blessed with amazing views of the scenery around Northern Spain and the Pyrenees mountains.
Another town we stopped in was Jaca, as we noticed a beautiful fort surrounding a hillside. Upon inspection we discovered it was Castillo de San Pedro.
But I do have to say that the highlight of the day after being on the road for about 10 hours was pulling into our sweet little town up in the mountains called Sos del Rey Catoilico. The sun was setting as we drove towards it which made it even more magical. We easily found her hotel and we’re delighted when we walked in and saw the beauty of this quaint little town. The family that owns the hotel and mentioned to us that there was a concert starting at 7 PM in the church down the way. We opted to go be one with the community and enjoy the show tremendously.
No pictures of the community to add to the blog yet but I’ll try to add some tomorrow. All the other shots from today are either from Andorra for the road trip.
timistravels 