Tour de France: Andorra

The Principality of Andorra in located in the eastern Pyrenees bordered by France and Spain with a population of 77,000. Interestingly, although Andorra has its own government, it is headed by two Co-Princes the Bishop of Urgell in Spain and the President of France. Andorra is tiny and the capital is the highest in Europe. The official language is Catalan although Spanish, Portuguese and French are also commonly spoken. The people of Andorra have the highest life expectancy in the world at 81 years.

Andorra is a beautiful country and tourism is the biggest industry with

skiing in winter and hearty outdoor activities like cycling and trekking/climbing in summer. It is a duty free country so lots of tourists come for this. They say that Andorra has no crime, no tax and no unemployment – that is a little bit of an exaggeration but mostly true. There is a funny mix of wild beauty, perfect looking towns and duty free shops.

When we arrived at our hotel, Tomy at reception was so amazed that we had come from Australia that he upgraded us from the most basic room to the best room in the hotel – 2 bedrooms, 2 balconies, spa bath and so on. Then later on a bottle of Cava was delivered to our room. Whatever the reason (surely they have had other Australian guests) we were happy to accept everything.

On our first day we drove up the valley and into the mountains north of Ordino, the village we were staying in. We were going to the lift at

Como d’Arcalis to look over the mountains into France. The 15 minute trip took much longer as we had somehow got mixed up in an uphill mountain race. Normally this may not be too bad but we had to go up multiple switchback roads so all attention needed to be on the road - not crazy people in lycra.

I was surprised to find the lift was not an enclosed unit but a totally open ski lift – not good for one with a heights issue. Regardless, the views were pretty impressive.

Meanwhile, back at the resort, the cyclists were receiving their trophies and many of them were starting to go back to town. After considering our exit plan over a beer or two we decided we may as well join the cyclists on the way down as well and we would use the “I’m from Australia; I can’t read Catalan” line but we didn’t have to.

We had a quiet night as Tomy didn’t drop off anymore Cava for us. Maybe he realised that he knows lots of Australian?

On the last day we went to Caldea Thermal Spa – one of the most

bizarre experiences we have had. There has multiple pools and spas inside and out. There are bars, restaurants, massages and a fitness club. It looks like something out of a space movie and on the half hour there is a musical water spouting event (hard to describe it). It was very soothing and we spent a few hours there finally getting out of the water so relaxed we didn’t know whether we could sit upright to drive home. Unfortunately we were not able to get photos but you can check out their website.

On the way out of town on our way home we decided to check out the duty free prices and they really were fantastic. We decided that our resort loving daughter would enjoy a visit to Caldea when she came to Europe in November.

Next: Andorra to Limoux