So that last post about me thinking that Barcelona young people party all night? Actually there was a holiday today therefore they did not have classes to attend so I guess it’s okay if they were up all night because they get to sleep in today.

My last post was written right as I was getting ready to go on my tour of Baga, Spain, Andorra, and Ax Les Thermas, France. We had one person who was like who happened to get lost. It’s good to know that if someone was late they would wait on them. This could have easily happened to me had I not been able to find my way there within the allotted amount of time.

I believe our tour guides name was Julia. She introduced herself to everyone and brought around the 9 passenger van which we would be traveling in.

It seemed to take forever to get out of Barcelona. I later found out that our tour guide who is also our driver was trying to give a synopsis of Catalan history while at the same time trying to navigate the confusing streets leading out of town. We eventually did make it out of town and started on the interstate type Road way on our way to Baga Spain.

She talked about Franco the fascist led Spain from the 1940s until his death in 1975. I’m ashamed to say that I know very little about Franco. It is only briefly mentioned in American history books. I will need to do some more research on Franco.

Our tour guide also mentioned Anarchist and communist which war against Franco. Our tour guide mentioned fascism communism and Anarchy in such a matter of fact I play that it seemed difficult for me to understand how these extremes could take root in a nation like Spain which I thought was Democratic for quite some time. She described her grandfather as being a fascist something Americans would never even admit to even if it were true.

Our tour guide had somewhat of a thick accent making it a bit difficult for me to listen to her. Also I was extremely tired from being awake at 2 a.m. so unfortunately I dozed a little bit during her discussion while driving to Baga Spain.

On the way to Baga we saw Montserrat, a mountain recreational area. He reminded me of Garden of the Gods in Colorado. It had a tan color to it  and some unusual Peaks.

We made it to Baga Spain and I was able to grab a chocolate donut and a juice box of orange juice. I discovered free Wi-Fi which helped me post some pictures online to social media while I was there.

Baga Spain is a quaint little town with a church and a few bars. It was very cold and foggy that morning.

On our way to France our tour guide asked us if we had any questions about Catalan Customs. Somebody in our group brought up the pooping log known as Tio de Natal. Seems that this is done in Catalan a rather than Santa Claus. Children feed a log and nurture it and hope that it will poop Christmas presents. We all had a good laugh about it.

Due to our conversation about the pooping log we missed our turnoff for France and instead decided that we should go to Andorra first and then catch France on the way out. As we were driving to Andorra we saw some spectacular views which I captured on my GoPro suction cup.

We did stop on the side of the road to get some great photos near and Andorra ski Resort.
We made it to Andorra de Vella. Since Andorra has relaxed tax systems much of the material being sold in the country is duty free. If you could imagine Gatlinburg with less redneck Style products with more European twist that would be Andorra de Vella. We were given an hour to shop around and eat lunch. S5 a Subway restaurant and figured this was the quickest and easiest way to get lunch and have enough time to explore Andorra briefly. The Subway restaurant was very unusual in that it was four stories with very limited seating. The fountain drink machine is actually away from the main order counter and it’s actually on the second floor. The bathroom is on the 3rd floor.

I used Subway’s Wi-Fi to post some pictures on social media before explore and more of Andorra de Vella. There are some old cars near a shop which I took a few pictures of. I really wanted to find a souvenir shop where I can buy a flag and patch but unfortunately the stores seemed to be sparse. Our tour guide said that really the only souvenir she could find was a magnet and a department store which I did by later on.

Andorra de Vella is a mess of cars and people. There aren’t enough parking spaces for everyone. Interesting Lee enough I had to pay dad about spending the day at Andorra and I’m glad I did not. I couldn’t imagine putting up with that many people for more than an hour or two. I was glad to be able to leave even though I could have stayed a little bit longer in order to obtain some good souvenirs.

We drove over to a small village called Ax Les Thermes in France.   this Village was known for its Hot Springs which we did manage to put our hands into. Previously we also stopped into a church and heard and organist practicing some very daunting heavy organ music.

After a while we decided to depart in order to make it home before too late. There was some heavy traffic on the way home which delayed our arrival. But we eventually did make it home at 8:15 p.m.

I found myself a bit confused as to what part of town I was in whenever I made it back. But eventually I did find myself back to the correct place. And with the help of Wi-Fi around my way to Domino’s Pizza where I had supper before returning to my room.

Tomorrow I’ll have an entire day to explore Barcelona. I’m looking forward to it.