Walls in Spain: Amazing Andorra

Andorra, a tiny country located in the Pyrenees mountains between Spain and France, is the sixth smallest nation in Europe. Lucie's boyfriend, Clayton, is visiting from South Carolina and he loves hiking and the mountains, so on a whim, we decided to go to Andorra for the weekend. I found a great Airbnb apartment in a town called Canillo and we headed out of Barcelona on Friday afternoon for the drive to this unknown place. We were hoping for some pretty views, access to hiking trails in the mountains and just a cooler, quieter setting than the hustle and bustle of Barcelona. Our expectations were exceeded a thousand times over!

The drive itself to Canillo was spectacular. First, we drove by Montserrat which was amazing to see from the road. As we climbed further, the hills became lusher and larger. We passed waterfalls and deep blue lakes, snow on mountain tops and cows roaming the hills. I was pretty much humming the soundtrack from The Sound of Music the entire way.

Once we got to Canillo and settled into our cute Airbnb, we wandered around the town and had dinner. There is a river that runs through the town so we made sure to take the obligatory photos! The next day, we headed out for a hike in the mountains. We weren't totally sure about where we were going, so we worked together to find our way, and we, luckily, took all of the right turns and we ended up in a forest fantasy land. The surroundings were like something out of a movie. We were all astounded and took TONS of pictures. Our final destination was the town of Encamp, about 15km away from Canillo, where we immediately sought out a restaurant! After lunch, we got a taxi back to our apartment.

But the adventure did not stop there. We took the cable car up to Grandvalira which is a ski resort during the winter and an adventure park during the summer months. There, we all did the zip line which was amazing. It was my first zip line experience and definitely memorable. We then took the chairlift back up the mountain and the cable car back to Canillo. It was a very full day, and it was truly amazing.

On Sunday, after a leisurely breakfast, we drove up to the Mirador del Roc del Quer which is an amazing viewpoint over Andorra. We took lots of pictures of the spectacular view and sadly headed back to our apartment to pack up and leave Andorra. We took another route back to Barcelona and enjoyed a picnic lunch by a bubbly brook en route. We all agreed that it was an amazing weekend and that Andorra is an amazing place. We will definitely go back!