Andorra

The first time that I ever heard of Andorra was in the early 1960’s during the folk song era.  Pete Seeger, sang about a little country in the Pyrenees whose entire defense spending was less than $5. The song was cute and the message was clever. 

https://youtu.be/cOCWTRJCnf0 

I’ve been intrigued ever since and not disappointed in what I’ve found here. 

Andorra is all mountains. It’s hard to find any level space. They speak Catalan, Spanish, and French, but English isn’t as prevalent as it is in other European countries. What has surprised me is the lack of any signs of poverty. Andorra’s  prosperity comes from a favorable tax system, income from tourism and banking. All of the houses and commercial buildings that we’ve seen are modern, in great condition and are very attractive. Winter sports are prevalent and each small town looks like a high end ski resort. The picture of our hotel is an example of the architecture and design that is common. 

One of the major tourist attractions is the Tibetan Bridge, at the top of one of the mountains, and accessible by a bus ride. We knew that there was a 900 meter “walk” from the bus stop to the bridge but I didn’t dream that it was 900 very steep meters all uphill. As tired as we were after that climb, we still wanted to do a little shopping and investigate the casino. 

And that’s when we ran into trouble with the parking lot exit machine. When we were at Pont du Gard and accidentally payed for a year’s worth of parking, we never imagined it would get worse. But of course it did. This afternoon, Brian inadvertently paid $65 (3 full days) for 15 minutes which would likely have cost 50 cents.

That might have put a real damper on the day, however, I played blackjack for about 15 or 20 minutes and doubled the €100 euros that I bought in with. That took care of the overpaid parking fees, and we can leave Andorra much less stressed.