Andora, Cardona, Mozerrat and Moya - North of Spain

Andorra the smallest independent country.

The city lies between 2 mountains, stretched out in the valley.

Andora beautiful in the valley

Andora hotel look at the narrow street

Narrow Streets and no parking. We checked in to a hotel, unload our luggage parked our car and walked 1 km to the hotel. Needles to say we walked the 2 days we were there.

We haven’t seen so many electronic shops in so many streets, at a 30% of the normal price. Hans and Stephanus were enjoying the beer at the same price as water. What is the question?

Look at the choice of beer, now what's the problem

Cardona Castles is our next stop.

Cardona Castle look at the view on the Village

Built in the 14 century, just amazing, the view down to the village is stunning. They could protected themselves, with a view 360 degrees.

Monzerrat, how do you describe this?! We stopped at the foot of the mountain. Park the car and buy tickets to go with the train.

Mariana en Elisme  in the train on our way to Monzerrat.High up the mountain.

Monzerrat in the mountain

I was checking where this Monastery is. Bending my head right back I realised what we are going to experience. 



The best I can describe it is I thought the train will fall right back, but it didn’t.

Never in my life have I seen such a beautiful church. So many Christians, all lighting a candle to devote their life to God.
 

Beautiful stained window

The coloured glass windows, hundreds of them, you can’t think it was done by people.

We were so lucky, just as we came there they had a choir singing; the sound drove people to tears.

All the chandeliers.

There must be a thousand of different lamps in Monzerrat. We didnt know which one to choose

We left feeling the presence of God, knowing he is looking after us.


Entrance to Monzerrat

Have you ever seen a Pulpit luck this of a church

Setting our GPS for the North coast of Spain, it took us through lovely little towns. I will always remember the high mountains and the little villages right on top. 

One of the many village high up in the mountains on our to North of Spain

Castles looking from the height. All for their own protection.

We reach Moya, a village with Narrow Streets like the rest of Spain.

We will remember this as the HANS'S chicken Restuarant

Booked into a hotel, next walk was finding a place for supper. We found one at 7pm. Just to find out it will only open at 9pm. Hans was desperate to have chicken. His Spanish was not good enough to explain; He started flapping his arms like wings and croaking like a cock. The girl serving us nearly killed herself with laughter. Hans ended up with a half loaf of bread cut length wise, packed with bacon and an egg on top. We had such fun with him.

Cambrils where we struggled to get a hotel

He never tried to explain what he wants to eat in Spain again.

Flight to Doha, arriving Barcelona

Oops, sorry, too much happening. We forgot to post this. This is where the trip really starts.

20 May 2011
Let's hope we can keep up with the dates now.

Blog Elisme

O R Tambo

Here we are after all the planning

Doha 9 hour flight from O R Tambo

Barcelona

We arrived at Barcelona, after an 18 hour flight.

Amazing how quickly we got our rental car for 30 days, a beautiful Citroen C4. 

Here comes the test: Hans the driver and Stephanus the navigator, GPS set and map in the hand.

Oh my, it’s a left hand drive car and traffic keeps right. Hans and Stephanus managed very quickly.

Mariana and I were on the  ‘oooh look there’ mode.

Got our hotel Catalona Athlone, and slept for 2 hours.

The streets of Barcelona were so clean, you don't want to drop a peach pip there.

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The buildings of the architect Gaudi were just a picture never to forget.

Gaudi is the most famous architect. His de familia palicion is still up to today not complete. I couldn't believe my eyes. You cannot dream of such a beautiful building.

      

Elisme always dreamt of Barcelona stadium where the Olympic games was held in 1998.

The Picasso museum was on our list, sad to say we didn't know it was closed on a Monday, all we saw was the sign.

Gaudi at the back of Hans and Elisme

Hans, Elisme, Stephanus and Mariana took a bus tour of barcelona. words can’t decribe the neatness, beauty and well organised city. 

I alway dreamt about tne famous BARCELONA STADUIM, never thought I set eyes on it, it gave me goose pimples.

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Our next destination was the Spanish rivera

We stopped at a nice beach to have coffee and something to eat. The beach was crowed with topless girls. 

I must say it was a feast for the eye and Hans and Stephanus, coming from South Africa enjoyed every moment.

The riviera, scenic wise you can not describe look at the pictures.

Looking for a place to sleep, the GPS came to the rescue.

Palamos: a breath-taking camping and lodging site, beautiful new cottages, with a view for ever.

We went for a long walk along the beach front; there were high cliffs and rocks with the sea far below. We got to a jetty deep in the sea, Mariana and Stephanus got the feeling of the Titanic (the movie).

In a small little bar we tried to read the Spanish news paper, lots of fun to the locals. We try to read their Spanish news paper, they were enjoying our attempt, clearly not understanding a word.

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Cadaquest our next stop still on the Spanish riviera. We stayed in a small village hotel. Hans in front of the hotel.

This little town has the most beautiful church. Picasso and many other artists painted this church.

Andorra is the smallest independent country in the world. Everything here is tax free. We stopped at a small restaurant, and had the best meal we had in Spain.

Pyrenees mountains with lots of ski resorts, now closed. We still see snow on the mountains

Our first view in Andorra is on this church with its 3 bells

Viva Espana!!!

Since my last post, we experienced more headaches with our visas not being ready, etc, etc. We eventually got all our things in order and got on the plane, on our way to Spain.  What a relief, I tell you!!  We really thought that we were going to miss our flight on the 20th of May...

We arrived and travelled to a town in Spain, called Pontedeume. The old district of Pontedeume, which is quite picturesque, is built into the hill leading from the river, with greenery above and a small, but attractive little port area below. The streets and walkways that meander up the hill, into which the old town is cut, are mostly narrow and paved.  People sit in the streets and mingle, with cars driving past...it's quite frightening, with the streets being so narrow.  Beaches are popular areas for families to come together and enjoy the great weather and some quality time!  During our stay, we saw the most beautiful and interesting bridges that devide the different towns.  Sadly the recession has taken its toll on this beautiful town, too, as there are a lot of empty houses...

From here we travelled to the North West of Spain.  The landscape and views were absolutely jawdropping!  High cliffs, land and sea entertwine and surround each other.  Here, it seems that the people are doing better under cirmamstances.  We went from the town, Ferrol in the Spanish west coast, to Santiago, to Biona, where we stayed 2 nights at a campismo, in a beautiful little cottage.  Everything is spotless and we soon saw why - local spanish ladies were doing all the cleaning and hard work.  The most memorable thing for us was the amasing sunsets!
From here, we packed our belongings again and set off to Portugal.  But more about that tomorrow!

Wish you were here!!

Elisme and Hans

 

Bridge over river, Picos de Europe National Park





 



Peadestrian bridge or walkway

Very narrow roads, we were astonished when we saw busses
pass through here, Picos de Europa National Park



Santinalla del Mar, a historic town with beautiful cobble stone roads

















Balconies with red cranium flowers

Stephanus in action, trying one of Picos Luanco's
beer drinking traditions