Best way to start your day virtually anywhere on the Iberian peninsula? Churros and doughnuts for breakfast! In this, on a fine morning in Andorra, accompanied by chocolate dipping sauce for the churros. Breakfast of champions!
Our final day of driving – here’s our route from Andorra la Vella to Barthelona:
We bookended our visit to Andorra by passing through the seats of power ruled over by both of Andorra’s original co-princes. The day before, we stopped in the home to one of the co-princes, the Count of Foix, on the trip from Carcassonne to Andorra. Today, where our route makes an abrupt turn to the east just south of Andorra, we moseyed around in Seu d’Urgell, home to the Bishop of Urgell. Not too much to see, really – not nearly as charming a town as Foix. But, here’s a view of the 12th-century Tower of Solsona, one of the three fortresses guarding the city, on the outskirts of Urgell:
Lots of cool little hill towns on the way to Barthelona – here’s Belver de Cerdanya:
By far, though, the most dramatic landmark we encountered on the way down was Montserrat (literally “the saw” in Catalan), as we neared Barthelona proper:
The mountain range is home to the Benedictine Abbey of Santa Maria de Montserrat, founded in the 11th century and still functioning today. In 1493, Christopher Columbus named the Caribbean island of Montserrat after the Virgin of Montserrat, the sanctuary of which is at the abbey.
We’d been to Barthelona a couple of times before, so instead of walking around, we spent a decent amount of the afternoon on top of our hotel, which was located right on the waterfront at the end of Las Ramblas:
Obligatory pic of Barthelona’s Gothic cathedral during our visit. We’ve used this cathedral, in particular, to contrast Gothic architecture with what we consider to be the much cooler Romanesque style:
Las Ramblas and the Columbus Monument as night falls on the last night of our microstate road trip:
One final nightcap on the sweet ass hotel rooftop before heading home the next day . . .
Micronations road trip complete!
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