Two great rest days in the capital of the small principality of Andorra - staying at the **** Crown Plaza Hotel. This place exists solely for the purpose of duty-free shopping and it is jam-packed with French and Spanish citizens cramming their cars with cigarettes and liquor (mainly) - but also other electrical/electronic and household items. A carton of cigarettes costs about the same as a single packet in Australia, and EVERYONE is smoking. What is it about 'SMOKING KILLS' that these people don't get. A meal in a restaurant or even a walk up the street subjects you to clouds of smoke.
Anyway, we don't venture out too far, rest a lot, and have some nice meals with the other in the group. Lorraine and some of the others go to the most elegant spa/bath house for an afternoon (a bit too gay for me) and claim it is an amazing experience. Andorra is known for its healing 'waters' almost as much as tobacco smoke - perhaps there's a symbiotic link? I manage to find a bike shop and acquire a new carbon seatpost as mine had developed a serious problem. The bike shop owner tells me that Saturday evening over 5 cms of snow fell on the Port d'Anvilera - the high pass we had ridden over that afternoon on our ride into Andorra. That may explain the ice pellets I felt!
Tuesday we depart Andorra for our 2nd last stage , and one that promises to be the most difficult. We must re-trace our route back over the 2,400m Port d'Anvilera (hoping for better weather) all the way back to Ax-les-Thermes (our lunch spot on Saturday), then head east back up into the high Pyrenees and some nasty cols to our hotel in Molitg-les-Bains! We have 140km to travel, and over 4,000m/13,000ft to climb - YIKES!!!!
Allez!!!
