Andorra squeezes its 468 km2 ad nauseam
1) Cross the border believing to be an illegal He is a George Clooney in From Dusk Till Dawn, a contemporary outlaw in search of the honeys of Tijuana. Finding yourself with a different reality: passing the control is a mere formality.
two) Realize that the so-called Tijuana is more of a winding road lined with shopping malls in their gutters.
3) Appear in Sant Julià de Lòria between tobacco fields today come to less by the tax measures of France and Spain. End up learning more about the business that made the country prosper in the last century in its Museu del Tabac.
4) Looking up the hill and finding on the slope of the solano… vines! Yes, wine is also made in the Pyrenees , and with good results, so it deserves a good Gastro Rally.
5) Trace the curves that lead to small towns like Fontaneda or Bixessarri . Make a stop to observe the whole country face to face, discovering its particular Y-shape and the valleys traced by the Valira River.
Fontaneda, a rural paradise
6) Back to childhood descending the Tobotronc, the longest alpine slide in the world (with more than 5km!!) . Continue on the crest of the wave enjoying the rest of the Naturlandia park.
7) Walk through the valley of Madriu-Perafita-Claror from hut to hut while enjoying the only space declared a World Heritage Site in the Principality. Check under those slate roofs that one is nobody before the natural immensity.
8) Prelude the capital stopping at the coqueto Margineda Bridge , the largest Romanesque civil building of its entire heritage.
9)Haggle over offers and the consumerist stimuli of the streets of Andorra la Vella to discover beautiful corners like the Church of Sant Esteve or Plaza Guillemó.
10) Learning that 'La Vella' is not that it is misspelled by a vain surveyor, but that it means 'La Vieja' in Catalan.
Andorra La Vella, essential
eleven) Worship meat in the restaurant The Crostó.
12) Succumb to the shopping centers that overcrowd the Meritxell Avenue. Go in during the day and go out at night to be dazzled by the neon lights that make it a Pyrenean Las Vegas.
13) Resist leaving the holy waters of Chaldea.
14) Voluntarily getting lost along the kilometer-long tracks of the winter resort GrandValira.
fifteen) Bet a few beers playing some holes in the Grandvalira Golf Soldeu , the highest golf course in Europe.
The best course for golfers
16) Overtake dozens of cyclists (who knows if also Purito Rodríguez) going up to Pas de la Casa. Play the superhero by renting a bike. Lose yourself in reality.
17) Give in to the religiosity that is breathed in the sanctuary of meritxell and spend some time admiring its curious architecture and noble materials.
18)Feel Mario Kart driving on the ice of the Palau de Gel de Canillo.
19) Starting with that inevitable idyll with the Pyrenean Romanesque under the bell tower of Sant Joan de Caselles.
twenty) Sunday and tapas through the slate streets of Ordino.
21) Complete the curious iron route admiring contemporary art sculptures, testing ferrous water and sticking your head in an abandoned mine.
Feel like Mario Kart
22) Start at climbing in any of the different via ferratas that populate the Andorran cliffs.
23) Taste the alpha beer -the only genuinely Andorran- directly at its factory, in La Cortinada.
24) trace the Valira del Nord River overcoming its touching stone bridges and its dabbling through small towns. Make a stop, at least, in Llorts and in the Serrat.
25) Pose before the big 'O' that says goodbye to the port of Ordino.
Ordino, perfect for a day of tapas
26) Savor the caloric and succulent mountain cuisine in one of the typical traditional huts converted into restaurants such as the Borda de les Pubilles or Borda Vella.
27) Feel fulfilled by completing the route on foot that separates the ski resort from the precious Tristaina Lakes . Dare to go deep-sea diving in its glacial waters in winter, when the ice cap covers the surface.
28) Leave the car and go to hike the tens of kilometers of trails marked that populate the country.
29) Do not make an ugly Vallnord station down their tracks.
30) Definitely sponsor the Romanesque strolling through the idyllic rural paradise of Pal.
Pal, a charming little town
31) Jogging through the Pla de l'Estany on the back of a four-legged steed.
32) Become a mountaineer for a day, treading on the peak of Comapedrosa, the roof of this country.
33) Cross the border again fearing that a police control puts hits on your purchases . Watch out! Do not pass. Here smuggling continues to exist and is persecuted.
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- The seven village wonders of Andorra
- All articles by Javier Zori del Amo
One of the terraces of Grandvalira