Do you know that feeling when you have made an awesome experience in one place and you still dream about it? And when somebody ask you about that place you cannot stop talking about it? Do you know that feeling when you made special experiences in one place and you want to share them with […]
Do you know that feeling when you have made an awesome experience in one place and you still dream about it? And when somebody ask you about that place you cannot stop talking about it? Do you know that feeling when you made special experiences in one place and you want to share them with important people in your life? Do you know that feeling when you just wish to live those moments again?
1. Why did we go to Andorra?
In February 2014 I went to Andorra for almost 2 months to work for Google. I?ve never done snowboarding in my life before but for that job I had to learn it and I had so fucking much fun surfing down hills full of snow. I combine many special feelings with Andorra because I have never seen a city built between mountains before! Who built a country between and on mountains? So crazy!
Because of those great experiences and impressions of Andorra I wanted to share that special place with my girlfriend. So I took her to the little country in-between France and Spain.
2. Let’s take a walk
Our motto to discover a new place is? Yes, walking! Sometimes not the best motto when you decided to visit a mountain country. But there?s always a positive aspect: We?ve done some exercises walking the hills up and down and we can tell you, that was just the beginning. Those hilly streets in the main city are just a warm up in comparison to the ski station hills (more about that immediately).
And because it was not the famous view Gonzalo wanted to show his girlfriend, she told him: Follow me down the hills again!
https://instagram.com/p/sIsqSNJD5C/?taken-by=gochiestrella
We had amazing views anyway!
3. But why should you go to a skiing place in summer?
Simply because you can do things you never would do in Winter!
Who would walk through a city looking for the perfect view?for hours in Winter? I guess nobody. In Winter it’s cold and wet outside and we better prefer to go up hills by ski lifts and surf them down with a speed that you forget to enjoy the views…?(By the way the other day we went to Andorra for skiing and we had so much fun!)
Do you dream sometimes about being a kid again, playing with insects and having a lot of fun with small things? We love to act like kids and do stuff kids love to do! Being a kid means like forgetting all other things around you and focus on the real belonging things..!
Let’s cruise through the forest on toboggan run
Have you ever heart about the longest toboggan run in the world? No?! It?s in Europe, only a short hop! Andorra wants you to go back in time and feel like a kid again. Andorra wants you to test your adrenaline and if your laugh muscles still work well. Andorra wants you to have fun even in Summer!
The World’s longest Alpine Coaster makes you wanna go to Andorra! The Toboggan is about 5,3 kilometers long and it takes about 15 minutes to get up to the top. On the top you can get off the coasters and have a walk in the nature ? here you can find the wild animals – or enjoy the height and the view! But if you prefer to just speed down with your coaster, just keep your seat and wait until you can push the handholds to the front to release the breaks and find yourself screaming out loud of happiness. Let?s see if you can laugh and scream about 10 minutes until you?re down again! 😛 You have to go there definitely. It’s so so much fun and you feel like a little kid playing with the smallest things but being the happiest person on earth.
Naturlandia is a wonderful playground for small and tall people
You can find the toboggan in?Naturlandia?close to the city St. Juli? de L?ria there you take a bus that takes you up the hills – you will have amazing views – and then here you are! Naturlandia doesn’t just have the longest toboggan the world, Naturlandia even offers you the longest sky trail – called?Airtrekk?- in Europe with 10 towers and 13,5 meters height. On the Airtrekk you gonna get tested if your balance is good enough, if fear of height attacks you or if you’re a prof already. On the highest level of the sky path we noticed again?that we still have enough adrenaline coming out of our bodies – by the way if your up there you shouldn’t forget to enjoy that stunning view – WOW! After getting the adrenaline kicks walking ?at a height of 13,5 meters the easiest and most enjoyable way down on earth is the 180 meters long?Zip Wire. You hook up on a line jump of a platform and wuuum with some speed you’re going to feel the ground soon again.
Naturlandia has many offers even for real kids (Just by the way families with kids will have an amazing time there it?s like a big big playing ground.) But even the older kids like you and me will find more than just those two options I just told you about. People who love Minigolf or who love to get painted with Paintball are ?on the right place in Naturlandia. Go there check it out by yourself and make your own resume!
4. In Andorra you don’t need a car
People want to experience new things nobody has done before and sometimes people just want to stand out in the crowd and then there are people like Jess and Gonzalo who just want to try subnormal things, meeting new strange people and saving money! Those reasons made us not taking the bus to Andorra la Vella! ?I had the perfect plan for my girlfriend to help us getting a free ride: People like seeing beautiful persons asking for things that?s why I put her on the street sticking her thumb out with a pretty smile. And like I guessed my plan worked out so well! Few minutes later a Belgium family stopped and offered us to jump in. It was a minivan and after adding two more seats the five-persons-family was ready to drive ? quite uncomplicated! I still remember one amazing question one boy of the family asked us: ?How can you have a relationship when she lives in Germany and you in Spain?? hahaha.? In the time of new and fast developing technology a relationship in distance should get declared as a norm. It can work so well ? How FaceTime enriches a distance relationship.
5. “To the second floor please”
Did you know that in Andorra la Vella are two floors and they are connected with an elevator? Hahaha! That city is so hilly nevertheless they built houses and streets everywhere. And for walking people like us they built an elevator ? lazy people 😛 For that we haven?t had to walk around along the street we simply just took the elevator and booom we were up with another awesome view. As an insider tip, if you?re wanna know where that elevator is, close to the skate park! Follow me!
https://instagram.com/p/q987UnpD7U/?taken-by=gochiestrella
6. Hiking on ski slopes in summer
After the laziness we had one day full of exercises! Have you ever seen ski slopes without snow? ? Ok, probably not that unusual! But have you ever hiked in the mountains, which are actually ski slopes? We don?t mean like really hiking paths, no! We mean the real slopes, no way, no path, nothing just a big hill in front of you that you walk up in summer! Exactly that was what we?ve done! ?I wanted to show my girlfriend the amazing slopes I learned snowboarding! But the lifts were closed of course, so we took a walk ? we love to get lost!? Up up up? no end? up up up? those hills can be so steep! But nothing stopped us walking, no steepness, no rain, no wind, no coldness, no exhaustion ? ?We went up the hills, which I?ve surfed down in winter. Nature can be so different in summer and in winter with snow!? We don?t remember anymore how long it took to walk up. We couldn?t stop walking because we waited for that one amazing spot on the top of everything and everybody, the top where the sky is closer than at any other place! The views up the mountains amazed us ? like in heaven when you feel nothing than peace and freedom!
On the top after relaxing and enjoying we wondered how to get down again ? walking?! Walking down a steep slope should be more difficult than walking up. From a distance we noticed some buggies driving around in the mountains.
The wind got stronger and we felt colder and colder. To survive that trip the only possibility was to ask for a lift in one of those buggies. ?Jess, let?s hitchhike again in the mountains!? Thank you Andorra for being so open minded and giving tourists the chance to discover your country in their own personal way, wuhuhuhu! Free buggy drive down the hills by coincidence ? speed! (By the way Andorra offer plenty of cool things for enjoying the mountains in summer, incredible! They always find new things to make their country interesting in summer as well as in winter!)
7. Enjoy Cirque du Soleil for free
Cirque du Soleil – one of the most famous high-quality entertainments in the world – visits Andorra every year to present an one hour show for free! (If you don?t trust us, have a look here.)
Just ask for a ticket online and without paying anything you will have a wonderful evening with a stunning open-air performance with beautiful costumes, breathtaking acrobatics, perfect sounds and lighting! For those who don?t plan much and just get to know too late about that special free event in Andorra la Vella shouldn?t give up. Do it like we did: Go there more or less one hour before and ask for the line where people without tickets wait. You have to be patient, put on your best smile, talk to the workers there, make friends with them and last but not least be lucky! 😛 They smuggle in people without (free) tickets but no worries, everything is so fucking legal ? legal smugglers! But if you?re unlucky like us you even don?t get a place in the open-air show of Cirque du Soleil with the ?Without-(Free)-Ticket-Line?! L If the place is full no more people get in so even the ?Without-(Free)-Ticket-Line? doesn?t help you anymore? JUST if you?re a bit lucky like us: One woman who worked there saw us begging to get in and had compassion for us? suddenly we were IN!
8. Catch your own shootingstar
Do you know how we love to travel? ? With a local! A friend of Gonzalo took us up a mountain – Porte de la botella. The perfect spot for the Perseids ? a meteor shower ? because Porte de la Botella is more than 40 km away from the next village which makes the light contamination perfect for watching meteor showers at night! (When you?re with a photographer and at one place there are two of them you have to sacrifice your beauty sleep sometimes ? I was so fucking tired and after seeing several of shooting stars I hoped to sleep soon, what a freezing night!) Gonzalo and his photographer friend took amazing pictures anyway! WOW!