22 August '05, Monday
Can it be true that everyone in France and Spain head for Andorra on Mondays??? It has to be true. When we left our campground this morning the weather looked a little overcast, but that didn't disturb us one iota. We were in to seeing one more "Principality" and Andorra we were going to see. The roads didn't disappoint us, as they were one switchback after another just as we had anticipated. one thing we did't anticipate was that Andorra was the destination for half of France and Spain. We hadn't but made it halfway up the mountain and the traffic got so bogged down it came to a total stop. From that point on we would go a car length or two and then stop again and again. The handwriting was on the wall...if we continued doing this, we would be over heating very soon and overheating was something we diffently didn't want. So, on the narrow road, on a curve, traffic stopped (going up hill annyway), we made a decision...we go back down and go all the way around the mountain and come in fromn the other side. So down the mountain we went, found the road to Barcelona, went through a very long tunnel, paid the toll of $10.20, and made it around to the otherside. All this took us about another hour and a half, but we thought it would be worth it. Now we headed off to find the road from the otherside. Finding the right road was no trouble. This time up it wasn't near as twisting or as steep. But on the other hand, there were many more heavy trucks and just about as much other traffic. We stayed with it though and finally made it at Saint Julia, Andorra, which was about 6 km away from our determined distination. In finally getting there and seeing what we had in front of us, we looked at each other and said "we've been and we've seen, let's get the heck out of here"...
Back down to Pugcerda and from there onto Perpignan and the Mediterranean.
Can it be true that everyone in France and Spain head for Andorra on Mondays??? It has to be true. When we left our campground this morning the weather looked a little overcast, but that didn't disturb us one iota. We were in to seeing one more "Principality" and Andorra we were going to see. The roads didn't disappoint us, as they were one switchback after another just as we had anticipated. one thing we did't anticipate was that Andorra was the destination for half of France and Spain. We hadn't but made it halfway up the mountain and the traffic got so bogged down it came to a total stop. From that point on we would go a car length or two and then stop again and again. The handwriting was on the wall...if we continued doing this, we would be over heating very soon and overheating was something we diffently didn't want. So, on the narrow road, on a curve, traffic stopped (going up hill annyway), we made a decision...we go back down and go all the way around the mountain and come in fromn the other side. So down the mountain we went, found the road to Barcelona, went through a very long tunnel, paid the toll of $10.20, and made it around to the otherside. All this took us about another hour and a half, but we thought it would be worth it. Now we headed off to find the road from the otherside. Finding the right road was no trouble. This time up it wasn't near as twisting or as steep. But on the other hand, there were many more heavy trucks and just about as much other traffic. We stayed with it though and finally made it at Saint Julia, Andorra, which was about 6 km away from our determined distination. In finally getting there and seeing what we had in front of us, we looked at each other and said "we've been and we've seen, let's get the heck out of here"...
Back down to Pugcerda and from there onto Perpignan and the Mediterranean.