Andorra: Where the Journey is greater than the Destination

As I said in my last post, the point of the weekend trip out of Marseille was to go to Andorra, a small country tucked in the Pyrenees mountains between Spain and France.  It is the 16th smallest country in the world and 6th smallest in Europe.  (I only have San Marino left to see of all the micro states of Europe...).  Kind of like Lichtenstein, there's not much to see there, but the journey through the mountains to it is spectacular.  We got up Saturday morning, plugged in the TomTom and headed to the first town across the border--about a 3 hour drive from Perpignan.  

Note two things from the photo below: (1) When we set out, it was a gorgeous southern France day with beautiful blue skies and (2) the clouds above those mountains were our destination.

As we got closer to the mountains, the clouds got thicker.  Gone was the blue sky.  And the warm temperatures!  We went from 75 to 55...

I think this was right before the border crossing.  Dark, luminous, and glorious.  Gulliver is from Colorado and lives in North Africa.  She was so happy to see mountains and breathe cold, mountain air.  I live in a concrete jungle.  I was happy for the green, for the snow, for the clean air, for the crisp cold air, and the mountains.  Oh how I love everything about the photo below!

When I noticed this sign, it actually read 3 degrees Celsius, but by the time I got my camera out to take the photo it had warmed up just a tad to 4 degrees (39.2F).  When we got out of the car, it started to flurry!  Call it what you will, but this Alabama girl called it flat out snowing!  Since Marseille never even saw temps below 50 this winter, I was ecstatic to get to see that precious powder falling from the sky.

Andorra is only known for three things: being one of the small micro states of Europe, for being duty free, and for some skiing.  (Although I've never heard of anyone going there for it...)  The buildings in Pas de la Casa were not pretty.  As we approached it, I remarked that it looked like a city made entirely of Lego blocks.  We didn't go any further into the country than that, but from all I'd heard--there was no reason to.  And we figured the snow would get thicker as we headed further north up the mountain, so we were content to say "been there, done that" with the first town across the border.

I have three rules when it comes to saying you've been to a country: (1) You must leave your mode of transportation--and that includes leaving the airport, not just the airplane, (2) you must do/see something touristy, and (3) you must eat something.  So, we had lunch there (some heart-warming French tartiflette, yum), took a few looks at some duty free shops and bought a couple of postcards, and took a few pictures of the ski slopes and mountains.

I have officially been to Andorra.

On the way out, we noticed the Kandahar Hotel and Spa.  Seriously?  So.many.questions...

Look at those clouds framing the mountain in!  So awesome!

Love those clouds contrasting the green!  This city girl was so happy to see so much green!

Love those clouds and all that LIGHT.

This double-decker bridge was just awesome!  I was working really hard to not freak out from my fear of heights, and so these pictures are all grace a Gulliver.

Check out that bridge down there!  We'd seen signs all day about "the little yellow train" and wondered what in the world that was about.  Then, we saw a yellow train go across that bridge.  Once we got to Villefranche-de-Conflent (post to come), we learned about the Yellow Train.  It was built in 1909, and remains a major tourist attraction.  Who knew?!  It is now on my French bucket list to ride the Yellow Train...if I can conquer my fear of heights.

All in all, we all three agreed that we enjoyed the journey TO Andorra more than Andorra itself.  Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Life is a journey, not a destination."  In this case, it certainly proved true.  But still glad to count my country list up to 33.