Chinese food, buddhist temple and the rice fields of Catalunya. May 17th 2011

So here we are with our rental Renault provided to us by the norwegian automobile federation NAF with the help from RACC (catalonian one), or something like this. The point is that we´re having this car with the plates of Principality of Andorra. Having the car we have to drive it until TTT is done (remember, it´s on the break-service in Andorra). So here we´re driving it, to the well known places of Barcelona district.

Pretty much idilic camping spot on the beach in Malgrat de Mar

A little tour to the memory lane....My old balcony on the third floor of the building where i used to live once. It´s going to be demolished soon.

And our favorite chinese tapas bar with the best patatas bravas and almondigas in the world. Just across the road from the old house.

The beach of Casteldefels is full of kite surfers this time of the year

Castelldefels

So here we´re driving this Renault car just to kill some time waiting for TTT to be ready there in Andorra. We thought we knew the places all around Barcelona area so well. Surprisingly enough, we always manage to find some new ones. And this is exactly why we love Catalunya so much. You never get tired of it, keeping discovering the new spots. Like this time - we had no idea there was a beautiful buddhist temple well hidden between the hills over Sitges. Just one sign from the main road and the kilometres through the mountain road and you find peace and ....a buddhist temple, just like in Thailand.

And then we´re driving along the coast line towards Valencia, means south on autopista A7. We have been here before. A beautiful delta de l´Ebre area, the national park. As it says in its name, it´s a delta of the Ebre river. However we had no idea they had the whole area full of the rice plantations here. We should have guessed it before, given all this water around. But frankly, i had no idea they grew rice in Spain. Shame. No we know it. Pictures of the beautiful Delta are below. Palm trees, water, rice plantations and a beautiful sunset - loved the combination.

 

Here you see all that water which turned out being the rice fields.


So to sum it up, this tiny day trip to souther part of Catalunya turned out to be a pretty asiatic one - starting at our favorite chines place in Barcelona, going over to the buddhist temple hidden in the mountains and finishing on the rice plantations of Delta de l´Ebre. Catalunya will never stop surprising.

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Andorra May 13-15 2011

Andorra la Vella 

With a "base camp" on a catalonian coast it´s only a couple of hours of driving to the duty-free paradise  Andorra. Fresh mountain air, cheap and good hotels, duty-free sales of alcohol and cosmetics make Andorra into an attractive destination whenever we are in Catalonia. However the trip didn´t go so smoothly as we hoped. On our way up to the mountains, TTT got problems with the breaks. Being on the top of the mountain serpentine road without the breaks functioning brings some x-factor to the roadtrip :)
   
Vis større kart

                     

On our way to Andorra 

On our way to Andorra - "Independencia - Socialisme". 

Here´s the first TTT stop in the mountains. We´re making the phone call to Norway, trying to figure out what wrong could it be with the breaks. The next call was to the norwegian automobile federation NAF, where out TTT is the proud member. They had to take contact with the spanish automobile association, which again had to establish contact with the catalonian one and the the one in Andorra.  The fact that it was Saturday afternoon din´t make our situation any easier, but some how we got the assistance in form of the car evacuator, which took TTT to some local service. 

Here´s TTT being taken on evacuator....

....and drived away to some unknown local car service. 

The reparation couldn´t be started before monday, so we had to get ourselves a hotel room and the rental car until then. Being stuck in the capital Andorra la Vella practically without money - because we didn´t know what we should expect from the local service and prices, we had to use or 2 legs the next 2 days to explore this capital of the duty free shopping up in the mountains.

Elvis cow in Andorra la Vella

Beautiful nature from mountain top. I was taking the pictures around while waiting for Rune to figure out what to do with the broken car. 

Still in a good mood before knowing that we will be stuck here for the next 2 days. 

A picture taken from the TTT still on the run 

Mountain flowers in Andorra

TTT posing with an older firemen parked by the local fire station. 

In Andorra la Vella 

Andorra la Vella 

Andorra la Vella 

Local road policeman doesn´t see us coming down from the hill without being able to break

The first thing on monday, we took the rental renault and visited TTT in the local service. Were were told that the work could take up to 3 days. So the only thing which was left for us is coming back to Platja d´Aro and then coming back to Andorra to pick up TTT. 

It was ready as we were told. The price surprised us a lot in a positive way. With around 4% in VAT, the local prices are way to much more attractive then the domestic norwegian ones. Should consider repairing the car in Andorra the next time :) 

Passing by Montserrat mountains on the way back home to Platja d´Aro. We´ll be back to Andorra in a couple of days. 

Our rental Renault with Andorra plates took us back to Spain