W-F

Wednesday
Today was beach day. I slept in late and did absolutely nothing productive all day. After breakfast I went out to the sand to tan, in full local attire. That's right, I'm way more Euro than you ;)

Had a bratwurst for lunch, then siesta. Dinner was spent hanging out at one of the German pub-type spots, watching Stuttgart get absolutely ripped by FC Barcelona 4-1.

Thursday
I said my goodbyes to the Balearics and flew back to Barcelona. Even though it is still the low season in Mallorca it isn't hard to believe it when they say Palma's airport is the busiest in Spain. The plane landed a little early, so I had time to catch an earlier bus to Andorra, though that meant skipping lunch. The ride out from Barcelona was spectacular, the Pyrenees create an environment unlike any other mountain range I've ever seen. I arrived at Sant Julia de Loria, the little hamlet I was basing the Andorran leg of the trip around, at about 6:00. Too early for any dinner places to be open, so I went into the capital to see what this tiny country was all about.

Andorra is a unique country in several ways. It is the only country with Catalan as the official language, even though it is not the native tongue of a majority of its citizens. It is also the only nation in the world with two separate heads of state, one from Spain and one from France. Not sure what this does as far as affecting the whole legislative process, but I'm not sure any of the Andorrans really notice (or care). There are only three state maintained roads in the whole country, and they run through the valleys between the mountain giants all around, connecting the seven different villages that make up the principality.

Andorra may be small, but it is big on two things: skiing and shopping. The skiing is obvious, as Andorra's geography gives it the best skiing in the Pyrenees. The shopping is due to some crafty marketing on behalf of the government. Since the country has such a small population (≈85,000), over 60% of the country's GDP is created by tourism and finance. The lawmakers decided to play that up even further my making Andorra a tax haven. This gives the nation the lowest prices in Europe on just about everything, and both retailers and shoppers take full advantage. There is one store in Andorra for every 40 people, a staggeringly high number. French and Spanish citizens pop in and out for all manner of designer goods and trendy electronics. The shops are so concentrated that the capital, Andorra la Vella, is really more like an incorporated outlet mall than a center of government. They also probably have the nicest soccer stadium of any country to never win an international match, it's some of the only flat land in the whole nation.

Friday
This is the day I made the only big boo-boo of the trip. My whole purpose for coming to Andorra was to try out nordic skiing at La Rabbassa, the only ski resort I've seen that just does cross-country skiing. Unfortunately, it is at the very top of a windy 17km road with no municipal transportation or accommodations closer than the bottom of the mountain in Sant Julia. The only way to get up there if you don't have your own car is to take an expensive taxi or use the van provided by the resort. This wouldn't be so bad if there was someone who could actually tell me when this elusive bus was running!

Even so, I regrouped and decided that a few hours of skiing was better than no skiing at all. A lady finally told me when the next bus was heading up, so I went out there 10 minutes early and rode to the top. There was probably only one or two weeks of the season left, so no snow in the valley and not much at the top except for on the trails. I was fortunate in that I asked for a lesson in English, so that really meant a private lesson because everyone else’s lessons would be in Spanish or Catalan. My instructor was great, and it turns out Nordic skiing comes pretty natural for me. I picked up classic style in about 20 minutes and skating in less than an hour. By the time I had to leave to go back down the mountain, I had all the skiing I wanted. People aren’t kidding when they say it’s the most physically demanding sport there is. The bus ride to Girona was about 3 hours, and I just wandered around the city a little while to get my bearings.