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Thursday, December 30, 2021

Ski Centres and Sights in Andorra, near Spain and France



Map of Andorra, sandwiched between Spain to the South and France to the North.


You can take a one day guided tour to Andorra from Barcelona, or drive there for a longer stay. My family drove all the way from near Gibraltar in the far south of Spain in December 2021 in order to go skiing.

As you can see, it is quite small. The capital and largest city is Andorra La Vella, slightly nearer Spain in the south by road. En route you pass Sant Julia de Loria, and Santa Coloma, on the CG-1 road, which runs along the river.

Continuing on north to the east on the CG-2 road, you pass les Bons Encamp, Canillo, Soldeu and Pas de la Case.

Flag of Andorra. Blue, yellow and red. With a lozenge in the middle containing stripes and two animals.

Compare with the flags of Spain and France. Spain also has a motif in the middle. The French flag is red, white and blue.

Flag of France.
Flag of Spain.

Flag of Portugal.



Flag of Catalonia, Spain.

Now let's take a quick look at each place.


1 Santa Julia (accent on the a) de Loria
On the Valera river.

Sant Julià de Lòria


Museum of Tobacco


L'església de Sant Ivo d'Auvinyà ha estat beneïda per l'Arquebisbe d'Urgell i Copríncep d'Andorra Mons. Joan Enric Vives i Sicília el 10 de desembre de 2011


Gran Valira, the largest river in Andorra, flowing through Sant Julià de Lòria in the south.


2 Santa Coloma

Just south of the capital is Santa Coloma.

Notice how high the mountains are above the city.

From Santa Coloma you are only about 2 kilometres from the major city.


3 Andorra La Vella

The capital and largest city.

Sites include

La Casa de la Val

Historic old house and government building.


See 1 monuments in the garden, sculptures and a tower dovecote, the Criminal Court with carved wood panel walls and carved ceiling, the wooden doors of the cupboard of the seven keys, the modern auditorium upstairs.

River Gran Valira flowing under the triangular Pont de Paris in the capital of Andorra, Andorra la Vella.


Skiing

Ski resorts

Most of these resorts were once small mountain villages which have grown due to skiing. The resorts have joined together so that your ski pass covers neighbouring areas. As a result there are now two large alpine skiing areas known as Vallnord and Grandvalira.

Vallnord covers Arcalis and the Arinsal-Pal ski area. Arcalis is quite distant away from Arinsal-Pal but the latter have been joined up by a cable car connecting the two ski areas. The Arisnal-Pal ski area is directly accessible from La Massana right from the middle of the town. 93 km (58 mi) of trails.

Grandvalira covers Soldeu and Pas de la Casa

The Soldeu ski area is also accessible from Encamp and Canillo. It has 193 km of ski slopes between 1710–2640 m. The surface of grandvalira is about 1.926 H, and it's divided into 6 different areas:

  • Pas de la Casa — skiing resort right on the French border, north east of the capital.

  • Pas de la Case ski resort on the French border in the north of Andorra. Notice the white snow on the left. The buildings are colourful, black, brown, white, orange, yellow, pink, green and blue, beige. The green hotel on the front, far right, is the Hotel Kandahar.







  • Soldeu—skiing resort
  • Arcalis—ski area at the head of the valley from El Serrat
  • Arinsal—skiing resort part of the Arinsal Pal ski area. Also known as Vallnord which means Valley North in English
  • Pal—skiing resort part of the Arinsal Pal ski area.



  • I eventually found a photo of the Storm in a Teacup sculpture on the website of a UK travel company called Absolutely Travel Company.

  • Arinsal-Pal -- which is two skiing areas connected by cable car. See Arinsal and Pal. North, slightly north west of the capital city.


Church of St Climent de Pal. 11the century building with later 16th century murals.

Arinsal cable car and looking down at cable car station below.

La Rabassa is a cross-country (Nordic) skiing area in southern Andorra above the town of Sant Julia de Loria.


Websites

Historic House and government building

http://www.casadelavall.ad/en/the-consell-general

Postal Museum

https://visitandorra.com/en/culture/postal-museum/

Museum Pass

https://visitandorra.com/ca/cultura/passmuseu-d-andorra/

Holidays booked from the UK and website showing the teacup sculpture

https://www.absolutelytravel.co.uk/andorra/mountain-walks-coll-de-la-botella.aspx


More to see in Ordino, in my later post.

 About the Author Angela Lansbury

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

 Please share links to your favourite posts.



Books by Angela Lansbury
How to be the best man. (Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Wedding Speeches and Toasts.(Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Unforgettable British Weekends.
Poetry Workshop Workbook.
The Tailor and the Spy. (Lulu.)
Larry The Talking Labrador. (Lulu.)
Writing Poetry for fun.

Quick Quotations

Who Said What When



 



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