Andorra la Vella; Saturday, 20 June, 2015

Another early start and back to the old town (although this time a significantly shorter walk since I’d found out that the hotel had an entrance onto the main street in the old town on the 5th floor – that my room was on – rather than having to go all the way down to the ground floor and then hike back up to the old town further down the road), to pick up the tour bus – today a minibus rather than a full coach as the roads we would be travelling were going to be a bit bendy.

The journey was going to take us all the way up the Norther valley for as far as the road goes (the Northern valley having no road access out to France, just mountains and a cable car over the border), and after the short tour round town picking up the passengers for the tour, we headed up the valley to our first stop the village of La Cortinada to visit it’s church and mill

The church was originally of similar design to the one we’d visited the previous day – but as the area became richer from Iron mining the villagers extended the church resulting in a small Romanesque church with a much larger baroque extension tacked on the back. After looking round the church we crossed over the road to the mills that sit over the river at this point. One a saw mill was used for cutting tree trunks into usable planks and then neighbouring mill used the same water source of the powerful mountain stream to grind cereals for flower.

From La Cortinada we headed further up the valley and after a brief stop and walk through the National Park at Vall de Sortney we headed on up the final, and very winding road to the mountain resort of d'Arcalís. During the summer season (July to late August – very short up here) the chairlifts are open to take in the scenery – with one taking you over the lakes and into France. However during late May and June they were closed whilst they did their maintenance works after the long skiing season (late October to early May) so we were only able to walk around to take in the stunning scenery.

Back onto the bus and we headed back down the hill to the village of El Serrat where we stopped for an incredible lunch that was included in the cost of the trip, but must have cost close to 90% of the ticket price.

From El Serrat we continued down the valley to Llorts stopping off to have a quick look at the Iron mines that helped to turn this part of the valley into an economic powerhouse with its own industrial revolution transforming the valley. From the mines we drove the few hundred yards down into the centre of the Village to have a look at the traditional houses passed down from family to family.

From Llorts we drove back down the valley to the main town of the parish – Ordino and had a long walk around taking in the main sights.

Then it was back onto the bus, stopping off at one final viewpoint to take in the stunning views up the Northern Valley, before heading back into Andorra la Vella.

Despite having had a very filling lunch and still feeling full when I left the hotel for an evening stroll, by the time I’d passed about three restaurants with glorious smells emanating from them I was starving again so I found a nice tapas restaurant near the centre of the old town and had dinner there, before heading back to the hotel slightly bloated for a good nights sleep.