Woke up early and packed up, another bright sunny morning. Got the metro to the train station, just one stop. Loaded up with rolls from Paul then I found the Starbucks for coffee. The station had a first class lounge which we could use, so we did, and they had complimentary pain au chocolate and croissants so I took a couple. Had about 50 minutes to the train but it was comfortable in the lounge. Our train to Toulouse was direct so no mad rushing at another station between platforms, and our bus left 30 minutes after we arrived, the bus station outside the train station so if the train was on time we would be ok.
Train was nice, plugged the laptop in and watched some downloads, the 4 hours went quickly. The train was 5 minutes late but we had 30 minutes to walk round the corner to the bus station. It was a minibus, which took me by surprise, I was expecting a coach, but it was a new Mercedes with wifi and only one other passenger. No toilet though so I had to dash to the station one before we left.
Sat down for another 4 hour journey. Watched a movie (Spectre), the weather turned rotten, very cloudy and rainy, and the scenery was flat and a bit industrial for a while, but as we got closer to Andorra we came across huge granite hills covered in cloud, we were in the Pyrenees mountains. The temperature outside started to drop as we went higher, and the roads twisting around alongside streams and we saw several small waterfalls. As we got closer still, the ground was covered in snow. Soon we were in the clouds, couldn’t see much except snow and cloud.
There were quite a few cars around which surprised me, didn’t think there would be many reasons to go to Andorra.
Got to the border, the driver asked if we wanted a passport stamp but we couldn’t be bothered, then the other passenger said Andorra is not part of the EU. I did not know that.
We passed through a town called Soldeu, which had a lot of hotels and we saw cable cars and some people skiing, obviously a popular destination, and the other passenger got off and we had the bus to ourselves.
The cloud cleared a bit and we were treated to some nice views of the mountains and valleys, and the sun even came out and there were patches of blue sky.
Andorra was bigger than I expected, some quite large towns and the capital, Andorra La Vella was quite big. The hotel was a 15 minute walk from the bus station, and although a bit cold, was fine. Song had booked a nice hotel, 4 stars, and the room was large with a king size bed and a jacuzzi, and right on the main shopping street. We still had some food from Paul so ate that instead of going out, plus Song was a bit queasy from the bus ride.
Went out to get some stuff from the supermarket. We’ve never seen so much alcohol for sale in a supermarket. They had the biggest bottle of vodka I’ve ever seen – 4.5 litres. We also discovered that Spanish is the main language in Andorra. I did not know that.
Dumped the shopping and went for a walk up the shopping street, Song was looking for some lipstick. The first shop it was 37 Euro, we walked up the hill a bit and the next shop was 35, carried on a bit more and the next shop was 30. I said by the time we get to the top they’ll be giving it away. Still cheaper than back home. Another thing I didn’t know, lipstick is expensive. Couldn’t get any decent photos today because we were on the train and bus.
Went back to the hotel and used the jacuzzi, because, why not?
Another day of travel tomorrow – bus to Lleida (2.5 hours) then a 4 hour train ride to San Sebastian. But the bus leaves at 12:00 so no hurry, and we have nearly 2 hours in Lleida so we can get lunch.