The Log Dog Blog: March 2018

Today was quite the adventure! If you know us, you're well aware of our desire to see as much of the world as possible. And you're also familiar with our willingness to take crazy driving trips! We checked both of those boxes today because we drove to Andorra to add another country to our list of places we've visited!

We were up early to catch the metro to the main train station because the car rental place was just across the street. Before picking up the car, we stopped for a quick bite to eat at the train station because we knew we had a few hours of driving ahead of us.

Let me say this about the rental car experience: what a delight! Nothing like the rigmarole you have to go through in America. It took about five minutes. That's it! I've complained on several occasions in other posts about how ridiculous and antiquated renting a car is - particularly in Orlando, where we have had 40+ car rental experiences over the years, with most of them being unnecessarily complicated. Is it because of the fear of lawsuits in America? The worry that exists because is it easy for people to sue one another? I don't know, but what a breath of fresh air this was! The rental cars were parked under the hospital next door, and we found our assigned car, hopped in, and were on the road in less than five minutes. No joke! Why can't the car rental companies at the Orlando airport operate with such efficiency?!?

Please keep in mind that almost all of the photos in this next set of pictures were taken from a moving car, typically traveling between 80 and 110 km per hour (the last three were taken at a rest stop). As such, they are not as clear as I would like them to be, but they certainly capture the grandeur of the scenery! What a spectacular drive! In all, it was about 300 km! We planned on eating lunch in Andorra, but once we crossed the border (no customs or passport control!), the traffic was insane and it was a madhouse. I don't know if that was due to it being a Saturday or Easter weekend or what, but we decided to not be a part of it! We drove in to the country for a short distance, looked around, and then headed back to Barcelona. Not the most exciting of visits, but the drive was wonderful! And I didn't get a photo, but at one point it was snowing! Just little flakes in the air, but I was still excited!

It turned out to be the least amount of time we've ever rented a car - less than six hours! We returned the car (another quick and easy experience!) and had to go back to the train station to catch the metro. Before heading down to the track, we stopped at the restrooms. As you can see, you had to pay to use them (while this is not an entirely uncommon practice in Europe, it is the first time we've encountered it on this trip), using an automated system and turnstile. Then inside every stall was the photo below! Definitely the strangest bathroom experience of this trip!

We took the metro back across the city and grabbed some lunch that came with an amazing view of the Mediterranean Sea. Just lovely!

In case you couldn't tell from my hair in this photo,
it was a VERY windy day!

Given our early start, we went back to our room to rest for a while and also enjoy the amazing view we had for one more night! It's going to be difficult to return to reality after this!

Following a quick nap, we went for a walk and stopped for ice cream, catching some of the sunset before heading back up to our room to watch it from our window, where it was not as chilly and blustery as outdoors!

Finally, we ended our night at a nearby brewery called BlackLab. We figured with a name like that, it was worth a try because we can pretty much get on board with anything relating to dogs! It was fantastic! Not only was the beer so good, but we ordered fries as a snack, and as the picture shows, these were no ordinary fries! Delicious!