Sunday, May 17, 2026
We got up at 5:45 so we could get to our excursion bus before 6:45. We are really really really not used to getting up early. Our guide, Pablo, promised that he would keep it quiet so we could all sleep a little bit. He lied. About every 10 minutes he would say something over the microphone- mostly useless things. He turned out to be a really good guy, though, so I forgive him. The scenery was just beautiful.
Our first stop was in the medieval town of Bagà. He recommended that we try a pastry called a coca. I wasn’t very hungry, but I was sure Keith would like to try a pastry. They look like croissants with each end dipped in chocolate. I was concerned the chocolate might be a little dark for me. Keith took a bite and said it was a thing. The chocolate was not too dark, the pastry was fantastic, and it was filled with luscious soft chocolate filling. I wish I had one right now.
We had a short walking tour and saw some bits of old. As we came through a short plaza, Pablo pointed out the four people sitting out on their deck. He said they were there playing Uno every time he came and that he was sure they were stuck to their seats. One gentleman demonstrated by partially standing up with his chair coming with him. It’s fun to interact with locals.
I really really really like a painted door in a rock wall.
The bus stopped on a pullout on the side of the road for us to take pictures. There were little patches of snow here and there, so I made a snowman. Everyone was delighted like it was the most clever thing anyone ever thought of. It’s snow, people. The group of five German young men really liked it, so I put him in front of them for their group picture. We met a very outgoing young woman from Utah named Sabrina. She came to Barcelona to volunteer scuba diving to help clean up wet wipe waste outside of Barcelona. She said she had no idea they had a wipe issue. I agreed, I had no idea they have a wet wipe issue. Pablo told us it was 57° at our first stop, but it was actually only 41°. Sabrina was very cold while we were walking around. I dressed her up in my extra sweatshirt and my scarf to get her cozy warm. I always have a lot of things in my backpack, for just in case.
The point of the excursion was to visit the country of Andorra. We passed the border from France to Andorra, then we went through a very long tunnel, then started going downhill. We drove downhill for about 15 minutes. I know we had been at about 8,000 ft elevation and it felt like we dropped all of those 8,000 ft. While we were in town, whenever you looked down a street you could see a wall of green at the end. We were definitely in a valley. This was our first time in the Pyrenees.
I found a couch while walking uphill. Win!
When we got to the bridge with the sign a lovely man from London (and also from our tour) asked to take our picture. Yay. He took at least 15 pictures. They are all good, but none of them have the whole sign and the whole bridge. Our feet are in all of them. I chose sign over bridge to share.
We walked to the old town and there was a gathering outside the church. I think one of their statues had come to life.
These McDonald’s items look really good to us. I did not have black pepper and garlic chicken nuggets in Japan (or here). Are the chicken nuggets made out of chicken feet? Are they made out of chicken stubble? Black pepper and garlic sounds really good.
There was a street that had about 4 blocks of pinwheels over it. I loved it so much. I said to one of our co-travelers that I wanted it just like that in my own backyard. She started asking how I was going to do it. She didn’t seem to understand that I am a thinker, not a do-er. I could still be there taking pictures.
On the way home we were on the right side of the bus to get a picture of Montserrat – the serrated mountains.
