Portugal to France to Andorra

Leaving Porto and Arriving in France

The sun shines brightly as we exit our apartment in Porto to catch an Uber to the airport.

The Uber app changes the pick up point and sends us up a long flight of stairs (with suitcases, backpacks and my neck pillow), up a long flight of stairs and steep incline. As we arrive breathless, the Uber app says to go back to the original pick up point in front of our apartment??!!!???!

We find our Uber and get to the airport for our 1.5 hour Ryanair flight to Toulouse, France. We pre-booked a two day car rental through Europcar. I mention that we are driving to Andorra (its own tiny country nestled between France & Spain). This is big news as suddenly there are new fees… a mandatory insurance premium for cars going to Andorra and our vehicle must have snow tires. The compact car we booked does not come with snow tires so we must upgrade to a Jeep SUV. I point out that it is 20 degrees Celsius and sunny in Andorra. They reply that it snowed there recently and within 7 days of snow they won’t send their rental cars to Andorra without snow tires. It all adds up to almost $200 more over the original two day rental fee. Ughhhh!

Driving to Andorra

It is supposed to be a two hour and 45 minute drive to Andorra. It is sunny and 20 degrees. Soon the fields of brilliant yellow rapeseed transforms to the mountainous Pyrenees. The serpentine road is narrow but at least it is two lanes.

We pass waterfalls running down rock faces, streams, stone bridges, tiny villages and snowcapped mountains beaming in the afternoon sunlight. But no snow on the roads!

The higher we go the more hairpin turns we encounter. John is in his glory driving these roads but I’m a bit anxious as I look down the steep drops.

I am not quite sure when we actually pass the border from France into Andorra. There is one point where we drive through what looks like a border crossing but according to the GPS we are still in France and the guy in the booth waves us through without stopping.

The mountains look like the Rockies but not quite as dramatic. The buildings are mostly rectangular box shaped with not a lot of charm. In some parts they are built into the side of the mountain and look like they are clutching on for dear life.

In Andorra

We book into our small rectangular hotel. It’s rather bland but has a nice view.

We go into the downtown for something really light to eat because we had lunch so late. We finally order a pizza and smoked salmon salad but are told we can’t sit at the tables because the restaurant area is closed and they don’t have any forks or napkins…???… So we head back to our hotel where the owner gives us cutlery and we eat in front of our big window.

I must admit that I am a little disappointed and underwhelmed with Andorra so far. Maybe tomorrow will improve my outlook.