We have to start our return — a multistage effort — tomorrow. That’s a downer, but there’s a beautiful day to enjoy, so no frowns. Just these amazing, happy views.
That’s what we spent the afternoon doing, seeing the countryside.
But, first, The Yankee had a bit of skiing to do.
Dr. Lauren Smith — high school All-American, D1 multisport athlete, three-time Ironman, globally renowned sports media scholar — yesterday re-taught herself how to ski from memory, after a layoff of … most of the 21st century. She did this all by herself yesterday, on rented skis, on two runs down the easy slopes. And then she decided to branch out to slightly more challenging slopes. After a dozen-plus runs over the last two days, she pronounced her legs shaky, but very much happy with the skiing. And she stayed upright the entire time.
These are the last two — I’m not sure what you’d call these, runs? — of her time in the Pyrenees. She made it look graceful and easy, as all of the skiers did. And now I want to learn to ski. This is why.
We took a few gondola rides today, to go even higher, for even more sunny, blue sky views.
I’m sure it is an illusion of size, distance and scale, but it seems weird to be above the mountains.
The rides took us to a few other ski slopes. And, look, my hair is as white as this snow. (Thanks for that, Granddad.)
Don’t eat the ski snow.
Off to the side of the slopes there was a very small parking lot. And that lot has perhaps some of the best parking lot views in all of Andorra.
There should at least be some chairs and umbrellas out there.
Apparently that little thing in the background is a slidewalk, much like you’d see at an airport. Apparently this is the kids’ slope, barely downhill. One day, ages hence, when I learn to ski, this will be the sort of setup that will be used.
This part of the world is being impacted by climate change. There should be more snow and winter out there, but things are going green in a hurry. It’s hard to imagine too many more weekends of skiing out there this season.
Here, I’m getting low-angle artsy.
Mountain peak heart hands. MOUNTAIN PEAK HEART HANDS!
These are seriously good parking lot views.
We were the only people there. I don’t know how anyone would go about owning a mountain, but if you have a commanding view of a mountain, and you’re the only one seeing it, that must be what it feels like to own a mountain, if only for a moment.
Here is a video of some of those views. There are also some bloopers. And some outtakes of bloopers in the video. Enjoy.
On Monday we drove over to Val d’Incles. We wanted to walk to a lake out there, but the road was closed to through-traffic and walking the rest of the way would have put us in darkness. So we drove there again, earlier, today. The road was still closed, so we walked down the single-track path.
The thing is, once you walked a fair amount down that paved path, you would have to take a gravel path to get to one of these bodies of water. And that gravel path is where the hiking begins. There are helpful signs pointing out the lakes, and the distance away, and the time your hike would take. We still didn’t allow enough time.
So part of the way up the gravel path, we found this big rock. The one she’s standing on, not the one she’s pointing at.
We sat on that rock for an hour and change, just admiring this view.
Imagine having a little cabin out here. I think many of them are seasonal, since they’re still boarded up. But spring is almost there, and we spent that time imagining leaving your place in the city and coming up to a canyon like this to take in this peaceful scenery.
This is similar to a photo that I put here a moment ago, but there must be a reason for that.
I would not mind a cup of a tea, a good book, and views like these every day.
Plus, imagine how great our greeting cards would be!
And here’s a video with some of the views from Val d’Incles — including just the third cartwheel post-catastrophic shoulder surgery.
I wonder how much time we’d spend next to a small foot bridge if we had one on our property.
There’s a creek behind us, not this one of course, and we hang out there a bit. The difference is ours doesn’t turn into a miniature waterfall, and the water isn’t snow melt. Us flatlanders find this to be a wonderful novelty. And I’ll show you some more miniature waterfalls on Friday. But first this one.
And, yes, a version of that photo will soon be a part of the site’s art, but, then, a lot of things we’re seeing this week will soon decorate the place. There are beautiful things to see everywhere here. I didn’t set this up, and I’m hardly trying, but this is the very next photograph I took.
And walking back down that small road, to where we parked our rental car. The sun was high, but the mountains are too, and the light grows dim in Val d’Incles quickly.
Here’s one more view of the eastern side of the valley.
We went back into Andorra la Vella for dinner, and sat down for a place that takes great pride in grilling meats. We also wanted to return to this playground, which we saw yesterday, to try this contraption.
A kid was on it before we went to the spa. Same kid was on it hours later. This evening, two girls were playing there. We stared them down, ran them off, and took a few turns. This was fun. I don’t know what you call this, but every playground needs one.
After four or five back-and-forths, we drove back up to our apartment in Arinsal. Time to get backed up. We’ll have one more Andorra adventure tomorrow, and then it is back down to sea level and Barcelona, tomoorrow. Then, Friday, the airport, and a long day of travel back to the U.S.
