Andorra, again

It’s a marvel of a country, landlocked and surrounded by France and Spain but not part of Europe. It’s all steep mountains and deep valleys. Old towns and history. So much modern engineering to build roads, tunnels, power lines and commercial centers that snake throughout the tiny country. Its duty free shopping lends itself to glitz, lights, art and flashy stores. Vegas meets Vail says our friend. So true, though no photos of the Vegas bits here. We’ ve come for five days to literally pause our time in Europe so Justin doesn’t hit the 90 days in 180 cap. Need passport stamps to pause the time!! The border is so easy to zip through that we missed the stamp on our first attempt ;) so we hit two roundabouts (one to leave Andorra and go back to Spain, another to re-enter Andorra) and caught it on our second try. Even funnier, I had to chase someone down to actually give us the stamps. He asked “are you entering or leaving?” and stamped our stack of passports without even asking to see the rest of the family!!

Andorra is also home to many professional cyclists and car racers. Great training ground. I told the family I hoped to randomly run into a pro cyclist this week. I think 3 pro cyclists passed me on a climb on my first bike ride :) that was easy.

We stayed in a tiny town, Ordino. We love tiny towns. Ordino has a great playground, a few stores, restaurants, and a gym that came from the heavens. Oh the gym!! I’ve been keeping up with my strength and agility program from Park City. In Bellver I workout with some gear we brought plus weights from Amazon España. In Ordino I worked out with Andorran mountain gods and goddesses. With the gear of my dreams. With views that just didn’t quit. And a sauna!! And a pool!! As we left town I tried to snap a photo of the gym. Will said “Mum, there will be much better pictures on the internet”. True, so wise. Between the gym, the trails, and the roads I told Justin I could live in Ordino for a while :) not right now, but someday. Unbeknownst to me he had just finished the ‘best recovery ride of his life’ when I made the comment. Hmm. Here are some gym photos from the internet, thanks Will :)

Ordino was beautifully quiet. I’m starting to wonder if the blog should be called Chasing the Offseason.

Best of all were family outings. We hiked and drove around this magical mountain kingdom (or not kingdom? But governed by two princes!!). Almost everyone got a cold so there was also a lot of downtime in our cozy mountain airbnb. Patient zero will not be named on the blog but we know who you are, ha ha. Much lemon ginger honey tea was consumed.

Oh Andorra!!