Travel Andorra
The Church of Sant Esteve, in Andorra la Vella, has Romanesque elements from the 12th century; it was restored in 1940.
The Long Road to Andorra Best-known for its duty-free shopping, the tiny co-principality has a rich history
W By Tim Johnson
58 I N S I G H T December 10 – 16, 2021
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FROM TOP LEFT: LEONID ANDRONOV/SHUTTERSTOCK, PUBLIC DOMAIN, THE EPOCH TIMES, AVIV PERETS/PEXELS, MARCIN JUCHA/SHUTTERSTOCK
hen i landed in barcelona, Spain, the whole plan was just a vague idea—a notion, something fluttering in the back of my mind without an actual framework. Soon, I was behind the wheel of a small Volkswagen SUV and headed for the Pyrenees mountains. While I’ve been to almost every country in Europe, Andorra had always eluded me. This microstate (Europe’s sixth smallest country, with less than 200 square miles of territory) has a population of about 80,000 people and is tucked into the mountains between Spain and France. They’ve enjoyed independence since A.D. 1287, its population settled into a narrow, Y-shaped valley backed on all sides by sharp cliffs and soaring summits. It’s all relatively difficult to get to—the train doesn’t run there, and this tiny country isn’t an easy stop on the way to anywhere else. You might visit Monaco during a trip across the Cote d’Azur
and San Marino on a trip down the Italian coast. To get to Andorra? You have to really want to go there. And I did. Having visited all of the other European microstates, I had talked about visiting Andorra for a long time, including just a couple of weeks prior with a friend from Barcelona. “You should do it!” she said. “It’s not too long to drive—about three hours. We used to go there for the weekend all the time.” I slowly freed myself from heavy traffic in Barcelona. As I climbed higher and higher, my GPS took me off the expressway on a scattered route, rolling through tiny villages and, at one point, down a one-lane road almost completely overgrown on both sides by heavy vegetation. As I made one disheartening turn after another across an arid, nondescript landscape, it started to feel as though I would never get there. But soon, the scenery started to change. The mountains rose up ahead. While often overshadowed by the Alps and their glamorous ski resorts, the Pyrenees have a beauty all their own, running more than 300 miles and reaching altitudes of
