2020 • Catalonia & Andorra
January 1, 2020 to January 3, 2020
For my final stop on my Winter Break trip to Europe, I decided to return to Catalonia after visiting Barcelona back in 2017. This time, however, I would spend a fair amount of time outside of the city and would head up to the Pyrenees Mountains between Spain and France while also visiting the microstate of Andorra. High in the Pyrenees, Andorra is an interesting place—an independent country with roots in Charlemagne’s empire. As a principality, the country is nominally ruled by two princes who just so happens to be a Catholic bishop from Spain and the President of France. Needless to say, it is a fascinating political situation. During my drive through the Pyrenees, I stopped at a couple of sites along the way, then stopped a few times in Andorra itself before driving through a tunnel and emerging on the other side in France. Before driving back to Barcelona, I made a quick pit stop in Llívia, which is an exclave of Spain that is entirely surrounded by France. To get to the rest of Spain from Llívia, you must drive around a mile through France. After returning to Barcelona, I visited the Sagrada Família Basilica and went inside (something I was unable to do in 2017) and walked around the city, taking in the site. It was also nice being able to take in some pleasant weather after some of the frigid temperatures that I endured in Austria and Switzerland. After spending some time in Barcelona, I boarded my flight back to California—another great European trip in the books!
