Andorra la Vella

 Visiting Andorra reminded me of a funny conversation I had with my brother once on the phone. I was in San Marino, and had rung him. He collected football team t-shirts, and so I thought I'd ring and ask if he had a San Marino one. So I called him, and the first thing I said was "I'm in everyone's favourite European Microstate, do you want a football shirt?" to which he replied "Oh so you're in Andorra. Yes please. Weren't you in Italy yesterday?"

Maybe I'm wrong for having San Marino as my favourite European Microstate. Maybe we should do a poll and see what everyone thinks. Vote in the comments your favourite. You can choose between: San Marino, Andorra, Vatican City, Liechtenstein, Malta or Monaco.

Makes me realise that I've got two left to visit, Monaco and Liechtenstein. Might have to be my next travel plans!

Anyway, so the prime reason people visit Andorra is for the extreme sports, skiing, snowboarding that sort of thing. I'm a bit of a klutz, and accidents follow me around like the rain, so I played it safe and just had a day about in the city centre of Andorra la Vella.

It's a cute little place, with some old buildings, art and flowers dotted about the place, but what took me by surprise was the atmosphere. Its weird, its sort of like calm quiet almost village esque, but at the same time it feels like you're in duty free at a big airport. As the Spanish woman told me on the coach there, lots of people go there because all the shopping is cheaper because it's tax free. Which explained the vibe. people were coming out of the shops with bagful's of stuff, it was quite a sight to see! I got caught up with it all and ended up buying a t-shirt and a new wallet from the pull & bear there. Do as the Romans do and all that!

The really beautiful thing about Andorra la Vella is that it is surrounded by lush forested mountains, and has this lovely coolness too it. The winds blows down and it just sort of lifts you. If you can find the Rec del Sola trail, it will give you some phenomenal views of the valley, and physically its not too taxing too!

It was only a fleeting visit, and next I was heading to one of the two places I was most excited to visit, Tarragona (the other is Grenada) Stay tuned to hear all about one of my favourite Spanish cities!

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