Jordan and I went on his "10-year-old trip" last weekend. It was a great time with just the two of us and I have to say he's a great travel buddy.
First we flew to Carcassonne, France. (Jordan wants me to mention the nice French man we sat with who shared his package of malted milk balls with Jordan.) We hopped in our rental car and headed toward the Pyranees mountains and Andorra. We had Google directions that didn't always match the road signs, and my GPS charger was nowhere to be found before we left home, so we made a few wrong turns. But we managed to find our way with help from an old man out to walk his dog and smoke a cigarette at night. It was a long and very winding road up into the mountains and we kept wondering what we would have been able to see if the sun hadn't gone down already! At the end of our loooong drive, we crossed from France into Pas de la Casa, Andorra. We pulled over to get a picture of Jordan by the Andorra sign, then continued into the area. I told Jordan we needed to find our hotel. He asked "Is it the Hotel Centrale?" And I said, "No, I don't think so, it's the (grabbed my notes) Hotel Centrale! What made you guess that?" And Jordan said "Because we just passed it, it's right back there!" Jordan would prove to be an excellent co-pilot and navigator throughout the trip.
Friday morning we woke up to blue skies and powder! We were on the hill before 9 (after renting equipment and getting lift tickets) and started on the easy slope. Jordan had only skied a couple of times before and had a lesson 2 years ago. He got his "ski legs" back quickly and by the time the chair lift was open he was eager to ride further up the mountain. He was tentative at first (the top of the run was the steepest part) but finished the first run with no problems. We skied for 5 hours, with a short lunch break, and Jordan got more confident through the day. By the time we stopped he'd even tried a jump. I was proud of his daring and great attitude! We spent the rest of the late afternoon driving further into Andorra. We tried to get to the "Iglu Dorf" - igloo village - in Grau Roig but found out too late you had to ski into it. Oh well.
Saturday morning we walked around Pas de la Casa looking for some things to take back for the brothers. Because Andorra is a duty free country, there were perfumeries, tobacco shops and designer clothing stores where tourists stock up on goods, but we couldn't find any fun t-shirts! We did finally find a few things to bring back and headed out of town mid-morning.
The drive back to Carcassonne was more interesting in daylight. We passed some old, small French towns, saw castle ruins in the hills and beautiful countryside. We only got off track once on the return drive. Well, we also didn't have directions to our hotel, just to Carcassonne in general, so we made some circles while figuring out where our hotel would be. I was pretty sure the hotel description said it was in the small medieval city, so we parked near there. After going through the gate we were surrounded with the cobbled streets, old-style shops and medieval atmosphere. Within 5 minutes walk we noticed the sign for our hotel - only 2 blocks from the Count's Castle entrance! It was cool to be able to stay within the walls. We spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday wandering through the city, cathedral and castle, and checking out all the little shops. Jordan thought the audio tour of the Count's Castle was great. And the chocolate chaud (hot chocolate).
All in all it was such a fun 4 days and went by too fast. Jordan and I had a lot of fun and he was a great companion. Enthusiastic, interested and easy going. We both have great memories from our trip.
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