We began what is going to be a long trek north back to the Netherlands with a short in distance drive to Andorra, a new country for us. Andorra is one of the mini-countries in Europe with a population of about 87,000. Like Monaco it is a principality though it has two heads of state, the President of France and the Bishop of Urgell in Catalonia, it is a long story.
The drive was relatively short in distance, but took a little over 3 hours to cover as it was almost all two lane roads instead of the Autovias we have been spoiled with on this trip. the final hour was on a mountainous but well built and maintained road. Our trip was extended a bit because there were three semis delivering large concrete blocks to Andorra and they were frequently down to about 50 kph on the steep grades, by the end there was quite a parade of impatient drivers behind them.
Andorra is not in Schengen so we were expecting a border crossing and had our documents ready, but when we arrived at the border the Spanish side was unmanned, and the Andorran side was manned but they were not checking every vehicle or any vehicle as near as we could tell, so in the end the documents went unused.
What Andorra is really known for is cheap fuel and no sales tax shopping. As soon as you cross the border there are about 8 fuel stations in the first 5 kilometers and two big malls. We took advantage of the fuel to get our second cheapest fuel of the trip at €1.17, another good day for the budget.
We arrived at our campground in the capital of Andorra which is a small town packed into a narrow valley. The mountains above the town are quite striking, but the town didn’t make much of an impression on us. Ton wisely sent me out to take a look at the town, and after a 45 minute trek I returned to tell her that it may be the least charming town I have seen in Europe. She laughed and said that is what she had read. So we settled in to plan our next stop for tomorrow, and a nice home cooked dinner.