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Fri Aug 3 2007: More Shopping & Ski Resorts |
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This was a bit of rest day, as we really wanted to hit all the motorcycle stores we had seen on the way up. Got up very late. 10:45AM! Didn't get out to the town until noon. The weather in the ski town was slighly chilly, around 17C. We decided to only do the motorcycle stores in Pas de la Casa only. There are about 10 stores in town, but in the main city Andorra de la Vella, I'd estimate there are over 50! It's very weird, the motorcycle stores are only open probably 4-5 months out of the year, but while they are open, hundreds of motorcyclists roam the streets, sporting their leathers or textiles, helmets in hand. We saw the same folks follow us (or we were following them) from store to store, shopping bags growing larger and heavier each time we met up again! :)
This one motorcycle store near our hotel carried nothing but Alpinestars!
This one looked like it was several stories tall, but it was just the basement. Neda picked up a nice pair of waterproof overboots here
Another one!
This one is where I blew most of my money
Another one. All of these are within 5 minutes walking distance of each other! There are only 5 streets in the town!
This one was dedicated to Motocross stuff
Loot! And now is time on Sprockets when we sing karaoke!
Spent from shopping we had a quick lunch at a restaurant near the hotel. It was nice having a home base as we could leave our jackets and helmets at the front desk while we shopped, and dump our goodies in the topcases while we ate.
So that's what this road looks like when it's not covered in cloud! Um... is that a cow in the middle of the hairpin?
You can tell it's a British cow, it's in the wrong lane!
The road from Pas de la Casa to Andorra de la Vella
Andorra de la Velle
Quite an unusal country, every store tried to sell the broadest range of goods.
"Where do you stock the CD-ROMs?"
"Where else? Next to the liquor!"
We headed back the same way we came from, bypassing the tunnel again and doing the staircase of roads back down to Andorra de la Vella. It was so tempting to drop into the Ducati store, but we had spent enough money earlier on in the day! When we got to the customs line-up, we did the local thing and lane-filtered all the way past customs. Apparently they don't stop motorcycles as the big ticket items don't seem to fit in the sidecases. I think they're looking for new cars and the like. We were now back in Spain! Just can't seem to get out of this country!
Doesn't this road look so inviting?
Just wow.
The rest of the roads threaded their way up and down the Pyrenees. Part of the route followed the L'Escrita river and when it opened up into a lake, a water camp had been set up for kids, with kayaks, a big inflatable jumping castle-type thing, and a large tent for the parents to watch over their children. That tent looked very appealing to hot and tired motorcyclists, so we dropped in for a drink. Kicked off the boots and socks and relaxed in the shade for a while.
Winding road next to L'Escrita River
Tent
Who let the dogs out?
We then lazily made our way towards Vielha and stopped for the night in a tiny ski resort called Baqueira. The hotel's name was Le Petit Lecreu, which was a sister hotel of Hotel Lecreu just opposite the street. If we were coming from the other direction, we would have stayed there! It was styled like a French-style hotel, but the staff was entirely Spanish. So confusing, we didn't know if we were still in Spain or crossed over to France!
Another wow!
Our hotel for the night
The Hotel Lecreu had an amazing buffet dinner, which once again started at 9PM. I am of the opinion that this late start to dinner is artifically imposed by the restaurants, as there were lots of people waiting in the bar around 8-8:30PM waiting for the restaurant to open. People just weren't meant to eat that late at night! No sangria for us tonight! The place filled up fast, and it was only later that we figured out this was a Friday night, so all the locals filed in for a weekend feast.
It was such a nice relaxing day, shopping in the morning, some nice roads in the afternoon, lazing about the lake in between. I don't even want to think about leaving Europe...
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