Duty free Andorra!

Friday 2nd June

Decided on a drive to Andorra today - main reason is for fuel. I've had a few issues with my debit card being accepted at some 'automatic' fuel places, some of the places attached to supermarkets, so we were looking for either a manned service station, or a branded servo. Visited the tourist information centre and it was either 30k back north where we had come from, or Andorra (50k). Big selling point was fuel is 50c litre cheaper in Andorra than here in France. 

It was a nice drive on a good road; all up, up, up until we crossed into Andorra. There's actually a border crossing where we all had to slow and pass through the 'gates', and though we didn't have to stop and have passports checked, there was a man taking photos of all the cars. The road through Andorra is a great road, wide corners, plenty of room for trucks, buses and all other manner of vehicles.

Not a lot of snow at this time of year, but to see the vastness of the ski fields is amazing to us skiing ignoramuses. Seemingly thousands of ski lodges, hundreds of ski slopes. What must this be like in winter? 

Looking across to the range of peaks - at least 4 over 2700m.

Hard work on the way up -

- and cruising down at a much greater rate of knots!

Just over the border is the first major town in Andorra. So many shops. And just out of town the first of half a dozen petrol stations within about 200m. There were a lot more as we continued on. We headed all the way in to Andorra la Vella (the capital) but it's just a huge city and not our thing. 

Headed back to France via lunch at a restaurant along the way (which was beautiful). Decided to stop for a supermarket shop before leaving Andorra. What an eye opener. Couldn't get the food we wanted (microwave meals) but could buy all manner of alcohol and cigarettes at really cheap prices. I splurged on a bottle of Bailey's and Rob bought a bottle of Spanish wine but we didn't go nuts. Lots of French cars around and we watched a few people wheeling huge trolleys of alcohol out to their cars. Are they stocking up on grog, and filling their cars with petrol, ready for a big weekend?

For a price comparison, divide by 2 and multiply by 3. So around $20.

This was our haul from Andorra. I'll enjoy a Bailey's with my dinner. 

Some of the mountains in Andorra.

2 litres of vodka! Around $15.

Back to France and we visited the supermarket where we could buy food!