Travelling Hopefully - Up Hill and Down Dale Edition

The time came more quickly than I hoped.  The next day after breakfast we gathered in sensible shoes and various other walking accoutrements and with varying degrees of enthusiasm set off for the bus stop.  The bus took us part way down the valley before abandoning us by the side of the road.  Our guide pointed at a narrow path clinging to the side of the hill that loomed over the road and indicated we should proceed.

I reminded myself that I had chosen this holiday and set forth without complaint.  A portion of that previous sentence is almost certainly a lie.  The up went on for quite a way, was replaced by down before circling back to up again.  Our guide assured us that this was simply an introductory walk and we wouldn’t always be gazing down onto the main road.  My only problem with the main road was that it seemed a long way down and we needed to get back there at some stage.

Our walk skirted the central valley which is the most built up area in Andorra largely because it’s the only place with a certain amount of semi flat land.  Still we managed to pass some pleasant villages and a small Romanesque church which received more photographic attention than it probably deserved.

We eventually plodded back to our hotel which was situated in the village of Soldeu which essentially caters for the ski season and as such appeared to be largely closed.  Apparently walking in the Summer is a tourist activity the Andorrans haven’t quite figured out.

The next day we did our first “proper” walk which took us around some of the more rural and picturesque parts of Andorra which, central valley not withstanding, is most of it.  There was climbing, descending and more climbing plus scenery.  For a small country Andorra is vastly overburdened with scenery.  The Pyrenees rise all around and crammed onto the slopes are forests, meadows, villages, the occasional tobacco field and cranes.

Yes cranes, Andorra seems to be largely under construction as builders attempt to insert hotels, apartments and other structures onto land that appears close to vertical.  Still it is very easy to forget that as you walk through a dripping forest, pass by a mountain stream and debouch into an unexpected meadow.  I got quite obsessed with the possibility of seeing cows, not normally an animal that excites my interest except in a restaurant, but for the first few days cows were noticeable by their absence (except in restaurants).

We visited Meritxell the religious centre of Andorra where  at a time sufficiently far removed from today as to make effective fact checking difficult villagers found a wooden statue of the Virgin and Child.  After a couple of false starts a church was built on the site to house the statue and Meritxell became the place to be religiously speaking in Andorra.  Tragically both church and statue were burnt to the ground in a fire a couple of decades ago (you can fact check that if you want).  A handsome new church has been built on the site but the statue is gone and the people of Andorra are bereft, apparently.

New church at Meritxell but no statue