Having arrived in the capital of Catalonia on a British Airways flight from Heathrow (read about that here), I had two nights in Barcelona before returning to the UK. However, whilst I would be spending plenty of time exploring the city, the main purpose of my trip was to leave the city, and in fact the country, to visit the one remaining European mainland microstate that I needed to tick off. That country, nestled in the Pyrenees between Spain and France, is Andorra. Without a car, the best way to reach the country and its capital, Andorra la Vella, is to take a coach from Barcelona and so, at a slightly too early time in the morning, I was at Barcelona Sants Coach Station, ready to head to another new country.
From Barcelona there are a couple of coach connections to Andorra, Andbus and Directbus, with at both also serving the airport, although their city ‘centre’ stops are different. I went with Directbus as it departed Sants Coach Station closer to the centre of the city, rather than a random bus stop further out of town like Andbus does. The coach I was taking arrived at Sants from the airport around 0810 and departed on time at 0815. When booking I’d had the option to pay an additional €1 to reserve a seat, however when boarding there were no seat numbers displayed. However, I did thankfully get the seat I wanted behind the emergency exit, and with the coach only half full, I had the pair of seats to myself.
The journey out of the city was initially a bit stop start as we wound our way out of the centre in the morning rush hour traffic to the motorway. After taking the A2 north-west to Cervera, we left the motorways behind and began following the local roads to Andorra. Approaching the town of Ponts, the journey went a bit awry as a vehicle fire ahead of us meant we were stuck on a country road until our driver was able to do a 3-point turn assisted by the police into a farm track. The road closure meant we took a diversion across to Biosca, up to Solsona and then heading back to the C14, with the overall delay being around an hour.
We eventually reached the Andorran border around 1150 and whilst there were no passport checks, a police/customs dog did come in for a quick check as Andorra is not part of the European Union, or European Economic Area. From the border it was about a 15-minute drive to Andorra la Vella bus station, with us arriving at 1207, 52 minutes late. Located in the bottom of the valley next to the La Valira river, the bus station is a short walk to the historic centre via public lifts. It’s also about a 10-minute walk along the river to the newer part of the city and the shopping district.
Whilst there is plenty to do in Andorra if you want to enjoy winter sports, go on hikes or do some shopping, its not really the place to visit if you just want to wander around a city centre and see the sights. The ‘old town’ took me less than an hour to wander around, including popping into St Esteve of Andorra Church, although there was also Casa de la Vall, one of Andorra’s oldest buildings and the country’s parliament building until 2011, however it had just closed for lunch when I tried to visit. After my wander of the centre, I decided on Restaurant EXIMI for lunch, starting with some Mountain Paté, followed by the steak and finished off with some apple pie. All in all, the set lunch menu and a glass of wine came to €33.96.
It was after lunch that I tried to visit Casa de la Vall and with them having just closed for an hour’s lunch, there wasn’t really anything else for me to do or anywhere to waste an hour. As such I made the decision to catch an earlier coach back to Barcelona, with the reservations being easily changeable via the website. As with the journey out, you have to check in at the bus counter, where they check your passport, and provide you with your actual ticket to board the coach. The journey back was uneventful, with the road re-opened from the earlier fire, and after arriving back in Barcelona Sants all there was to do was to catch the metro back to my hotel. As I mentioned above, Andorra has lots to do if you visit for specific reasons, such as a winter sports or hiking holiday, or duty-free shopping, however its probably not worth a specific trip to the country unless you’re wanting to tick it off like I was.
Flights & Times 