Road Trip Part 2 - Andorra and back

After a great few days we said farewell and headed off back towards Alicante.  We decide to cross the Pyrenees via Andorra as we’ve never been.  Fabulous mountain passes and snow fields glistening under a blue sky - we are very lucky people! Again awesome, dramatic, scenery as we crossed the coll from France into Andorra and then dropped sharply down the main valley into the tax free shopping city of Andorra la Ville.  the main bargains seem to be on alcohol and cigarettes which is a bit odd as you can only, legally, take 1.5 litres of spirits out of the country into Spain.

Lovely Andora

They sell some very strange things in Andora!

We carried on and stopped in a tiny village called Bellver de Cerdanya, another medieval town that could have been a film set.  The local hotel had fab views across the town and to the mountains beyond, all for 42€ B&B.  After an enormous, silver service, breakfast we crushed the little Fiats suspension and set off again.  Avoiding the bigger, toll, roads as much as possible, except for a 6km long tunnel under the Pyrenees.

View from our verandah

As we slid down the slopes into the foot hills in the distance we saw an amazing rocky outcrop ahead of us, all spikes and rock chimneys.  It turned out to be the huge limestone massif of Montserrat.  We headed off towards a sign for a mountain railway and found a rack railway that crawled most of the way up the massif to the monastery situated just below the peak of the rocks, some 500m up.  We caught the train to the monastery .  Its an amazing place, still has 80 monks but also an enormous hostel for todays pilgrims, and a 3 star hotel for those slightly less “pilgrimy” pilgrims.  Its a big tourist attraction now but still a religious community, complete with one of the oldest boys choirs in Europe - we heard them sing in the Basilica, impressive to say the least.

Our first view of Montserrat

Inside the monastery - listening to the choir

Montserrat has themes amazing rock formations

A funicular train took us nearly to the top of the massif and we were able to walk to the top of the outcrop and see the views from a disused hermitage built into  a large crack in the bedding plane of the rock.  Apparently the retired bishops used to live here and look out over Catalunya towards the Balearics.

Amazing place

A funicular took us to the top

Time was pressing so with the wonders of internet and booking.com we found a Habitacione in another medieval village - this time on the coast though, at Peniscola. For €30 we got a small, quirky but cute and comfortable room above a restaurant in the heart of this heavily fortified rock outcrop that sticks out into the Med. A sand spit and road joins it to the mainland and a host of modern hotels and restaurants!  Peniscola was one of the Templar strongholds and briefly the seat of the Pope when he fled Rome. 

Peniscola is very pretty

We had to ring the bar owner to find the place in the tiny streets, he turned up on a moped and we shot off after him through the stone walls and into streets only just wide enough for the Fiat 500 to get through - to a free parking spot outside his place.  It was normally used for tables and chairs for the bar but at this time of year just about all the restaurants and bars were closed for renovation and prepping for the summer season.  The owner guessed we were english (can’t think why) and lent us a kettle to make tea in our rooms - he assumed we had tea with us - we did!  He then left us to it - the only occupants of the place.

Our little hostal was brilliant

We wandered around for a while and then had to walk across to the modern mainland part to find a cheap restaurant that was open.

The cannon was missing.

We’d sailed past here a couple of months ago and said then that we wanted to visit - it didn’t disappoint, although again I suspect in August it will be wall to wall tourists.  This is a great time of year to go touring around here - the weather is pretty good and the prices are better.

Today we’ve made it back to the boat and have crashed out for a while - its been a fabulous week away and now time to get back on with the jobs list and then go sailing for a while.  The weather looks like it may go off for a couple of days but then pick up again so probably a good time to do some work.

Just seen fog for the first time since we sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar, it gave us chance to take some great photos - even the replica galleon in the harbour looked almost real!

 And England have won the Six Nations Rugby, with a match in hand, what a great way to end a fabulous week!  Watched most of this weekends matches in a Irish bar in Alicante with friends - great stuff! Looking forward to the final match against Ireland next week.