October 23, 2026

Friday

Andorra la Vella, Parròquia d'Andorra la Vella, Principat d'Andorra

Good morning. A Good night’s sleep. Even though we ate late and way too much food, we both slept relatively well. About 09:00 we went downstairs for breakfast in the bar/restaurant called Instants here in the hotel. We eat had a cappuccio and we shared a croissant.

We have been checking out the various tour options on Viator, GetYourGuide, and TripAdvisor and there just aren’t any “local” options. You can take a day tour from Barcelona for several hundred euros, or some somewhere in France. Many of them are three countries, Andorra, Spain & France, in one day. The rest are shopping tours in Andorra. So, we decided to go to the Tourist office which is a couple blocks from the hotel.

The tourist office is on corner of Avenida Meritxell & Carrer Prat de la Creu. This is right next to the river. Easy to find, but once there more difficult. Not because it is small or hidden, but because of the construction at that intersection. We made it, but it was because we followed some locals ignoring the construction and traffic.

Once in the tourist office we were greeted by a nice woman who spoke impeccable English. She pulled out a map and circled the old down and said the two things to see in Andorra la Vella were Museum of Casa De La Vall, the former seat of political and judicial life, and Església de Sant Esteve. She also noted that there are several other museums and churches of interest, but they were outside of Andorra la Vella. We told her we didn’t have a car, so she gave us some bus routes. If we were here longer, we might do that, but with only the full day today and tomorrow, it simply can’t fit into the schedule.

So, with a second map in hand, and a brochure of the museums of Andorra, we headed to old town. It is really clear that this is a shopping destination because of the tax-free status. We know, however, that tax free doesn’t necessarily mean cheaper. We walked up the main shopping street, Avenida Meritxell, to get to old town.

We decided to stop into a pharmacy to look for some hair gel more me and just to check out the prices. Didn’t find any hair gel, but did find my Voltaren Gel. We inquired about the price to find out it was about 70% less expensive than in California, and about 40% less expensive than Barcelona. We bought two large tubes.

Fortunately, we had to walk past The Cigar Shop. We just had to stop. I asked if he managed to get another box of the Padrón 2000. He did, so we bought another box. It isn’t really a whole lot less expensive than in California, but he had them. We looked a little in Barcelona but everyone was trying to sell Cuban cigars which I don’t particularly like. Mary had done some research and found we can take a lighter on the ship, so we bought two.

We continued towards old town after making our purchases. We stopped into an Aveda shop, where Mary was able to get some things, she uses for about 50% less than she could have in California. We continued up the hill and as we approached Plaça Rebés we spotted a Starbucks. Now normally we avoid these when traveling but it is the pumpkin time of the year and Mary was missing her pumpkin spiced latte.

Mary got her pumpkin spiced latte; I got a cappuccino. The young man saw me eyeing the goodies in the case and informed us that there is currently a special with the purchase of a cappuccino; a free croissant. I quickly decided to skip the cookies and go with the free croissant. Unlike American Starbucks the drinks were served in ceramic cups, and the croissant on a ceramic plate. It just feels more civilized this way. The interesting part is that it was less than €8. Which makes it a deal – for a Starbucks.

After we finished our drinks we walked across the square and found the Església de Sant Esteve (aka, The Church of Saint Stephen). This Roman Catholic Church is located on Plaça del Princes Benlloch and is a cultural heritage property in Andorra. The church was built in the 11th – 12th centuries in a Romanesque style. It has been restored a number of times with the most recent in the 1940s and again in the 1960s. However, the church still has its original Romanesque semi-circular apse and two baroque altarpieces of Saint John the Baptist and Saint Lucy, but of which display the skillful use of baroque wood carving and depict a number of scenes from Christian theology.

The outside of the church.

The front entrance to the church.

The original aspe.

 Altarpiece of St. Joan

Altarpiece of John the Baptist

Stained glass window and organ.

Baristi al Font

We continued walking through old town until we got to the Casa de la Vall. This historical house was the seat of the General Council of Andorra until 2011. The government has now moved into a modern structure next door. The existing rectangular two-story house was built as a manor house and defensive towner by the Busquets family in 1580. The Consell de la Terra acquired the building as the seat of the government in 1702.

The ground floor was for the administration of justice and contained the court room. The first floor, which had been the main floor of the family home, was the Council Chamber, a chapel dedicated to St. Ermengol, a kitchen and the “closet of the seven keys” in which were stored historical documents such as the Manual Digest de las Valls neutras de Andorra and Politar Andorrà. There are seven keys, one for each of the parishes of Andorra.

The stone work on the ground floor

The kitchen

From the outside

The original counsel chamber

This is the front entrance

The Manual Digest de las Valls neutras de Andorra is a famous 1748 handwritten compilation documenting the history, government, laws, customs, and privileges of Andorra. The Politar Andorrà is a historic 1763 work written by the priest Antoni Puig that complies the customs, laws, history, and political privileges of the Valleys of Andorra.

We didn’t get to visit the second floor as it was closed, but apparently until the 1990s housed the Postal Museum of Andorra before it was dismantled to provide meeting space for the Comissió Tripartida to draft the Consittution of Andorra in 1993. The ground floor also housed the oldest flag in Andorra, the Busquets coast of arms along with the coat of arms of Andorra.

There is a tower in the shape of a dovecote which stands at the corner of the building, apparently along with a creu de terme (a stone cross on a pillar) which is typical of the region. Both were at least partially obscured by on going restoration efforts. There is also a garden attached to the building with a contemporary sculpture designed by Francesc Viladomat called La Danse, which we couldn’t access, again due to the restoration efforts. It is only brought up because the Casa de la Vall is depicted on the Andorran 1 euro coin.

It was now going on noon, and we wanted to be back at the hotel by 13:00 to make spa reservations. We made a beeline down the hill and ended up at the bus station. This was right near the restaurant we had dinner at and Mary remembered passing a Carrefour Market on the way back to the hotel last night. So, we decided to trace the taxi route so we could stop at the market and maybe get some English Breakfast tea and something for either lunch or dinner.

We found the market without too much trouble. It is a really large market. We bought some salami, cheese, English Breakfast tea, crackers, batteries, among a few other things. The we headed on to the hotel. We dropped our purchases in the room and went down to the spa. We made reservations for a massage at 17:00. We get an hour a free spa time included in the room, so we’ll go down at 16:00 and enjoy the pool, sauna, and jacuzzi before our massage.

We decided we needed some protein for lunch. We looked on TripAdvisor for a nearby steakhouse and found Blòt. We asked at the front desk if this was a good place for a steak for lunch and they said yes. We asked them to make us a reservation, stating we would be there in ten minutes. With the reservation secured we headed to the restaurant.

Well….. it isn’t exactly what you think of when you think about steakhouse. It turns our it was a Viking themed restaurant that did serve steak.We didn’t need reservations as there was only one other couple in the restaurant. It is only 13:00 and although lunch starts at 13:00 people here don’t usually go to lunch until 14:00.

The Viking theme on the napkin!

Heinz - mustard, ketchup, and mayonnaise

My Ribs

Mary’s steak

Mary ordered the OjodeOdin; a 350 g beef skirt steak with roasted potatoes, cheese sauce and herb butter. I ordered the BjornRibs; “juicy pork ribs slow-cooked until they fall off the bone, glazed with an intense smoky barbecue sauce. Served with Owen-roasted golden potatoes seasoned with Nordic Spices. A feast worthy of the fall of the fallen”. There was nothing different about our potatoes except for the description. Mary’s steak was very good, and my ribs were as advertised. After lunch we headed back to the hotel to rest before our spa treatments.

We woke up from from our rest period just as it was going 16:00. We got into our things and headed down to the spa. Mary didn’t bring a bathing suit on this trip, so she just rested in the one of the lounges. I did the pool, jacuzzi, hot and cold showers, and the sauna before they called us into the treatment rooms. The next sixty minutes were spent getting very good, relaxing massages.

We went back to the room and took showers to wash off the oils from the massages. I had a cigar while Mary showered. We had our salami & cheese for dinner in our room. Just before it went 20:00 we decided we we still a little short on our step count for the day and decided to take a walk. We headed up towards the “mall”. The number of people out and about was staggering. It was 14° C (58° F) so the temperature was actually quite nice.

We went up to the mall known as Centre Comerical Illa Carlemany. Given the shops in the mall, which included a Burger King, we could have been in any mall in the US. Perhaps not at 20:00 in the evening in the US; this place was full of people. They even had a Starbucks in the mall.

We left the mall  and walked across the street to Centre Júlia a large beauty supply store. By large I mean a store of probably 750 square meters (8,000 square feet). We actually found some good deals on things here. Not much, just little things we will need in the next six weeks before we return to California.

Afterwards we walked back to the hotel and called it a night.

Buonanotte e ciao,

Enrico e Maria