We visited Andorra fifteen years ago, shortly after we'd arrived in Spain. We had bought a rail pass giving unlimited travel throughout Spain and although we'd not expected to go so far north, we found ourselves on a train heading up to the border with France to a place called Puigcerda. We asked at the station what time the train went to Andorra, which wasn't too far away and the stationmaster told us that there was no train, but a bus left from the square outside the railway station at 5.30 later that afternoon. We had a few hours to kill and we found out that the local train we had just got off went into France and turned round there, one kilometre further on, in French territory, so we though it would be a good idea to catch the next one and get our passports stamped to say we had been to France on what was a short six day trip.
We caught the next train, got off a few minutes later, had a quick coffee and went to get on again as it was about to leave 20 minutes later. They had a customs post and the customs officer asked us how long we had been in France? Oh, about ten minutes or so, I said. That was it - they went through all our bags...EVERYTHING...looking for evidence that we had either sold or bought drugs. Why else they said, would we just go over the border, unless it was to meet someone illicitly?
Anyway, we managed to get back to this one horse border town, which seemed to be teeming with dodgy characters and waited twenty minutes or so, until the bus arrived at 5.30. As I was about to get on I asked the driver "Do you go to Andorra?" - "No!" came the gruff reply, so we stepped aside and let a few locals get on, the door closed and it drove off and we waited for the right bus to come along. Nothing happened and after an hour or so the stationmaster told us that the next one, if the 5.30 hadn't turned up, wasn't until 7.30 the next morning, so we had to look for some accomodation. It was really cold (February in the mountains) and nowhere looked tempting, but we found a small hostal and got a room for the night, with no hot water. We made sure we were at the bus stop the next morning, shivering and freezing to death at 7am, just in case it came early.
7.30 on the dot, the same bus as the evening before came along and all the locals piled on. As I was boarding I saw it was the same driver. The exchanges went like this..."Do you go to Andorra?" - "No!" - "Okay, how do we get to Andorra, then?" - "You get this bus and change at La Seu d'Urgell" - "So why didn't you tell us this last night?" - "You didn't ask!"
I paid for the tickets and it took about five minutes before I could actually speak when I opened my mouth. I must have looked like a goldfish! So we went into Andorra, had coffee and cakes in a French style cafe, whilst looking out the window at snow falling. I couldn't help wondering if my wife's feet were cold in her open-toed sandals she had on when we left temperatures of 70º on the Costa del Sol a few days earlier! Did a bit of tax free shopping too, as it is a bit of a haven for that and left after spending just 4 hours in the principality and about 18 hours to get into it from a few kilometres away!
Back home via Barcelona, Valencia and Cordoba. Six days of hard work! It was worth it though for the memories and the
it gave us, once we were back home.
