Hola from Andorra!

After we left Portugalete, we drove towards Santiago de Compostela along the Atlantic coastline with mountains just to our south. About 90 minutes from Santiago de Compostela we had pounding rain, the temperature dropped to 34 degrees very fast, and there was snow and slush on the road. I got a little more concerned when Anne asked 'where's the clutch?' while driving through that mess; not a question I wanted to hear. I am a nervous passenger! The snow and slush didn't last long and we arrived safe and sound. Most pilgrims walk or bike ride the St. James way, since we drove, our tribulation was the rain and snowy road. The next morning, we walked into the church with its silver and gold altar and we walked a bit through the old town. We drove on to see Finisterre, the end, a little port and fishing town. We then drove on to Portugal's second-biggest city, Porto where port wine originated. It is crowded and dense with people and we had a difficult time finding a hotel because they only seem to put the names of the hotels on the tops of the buildings. On Mon 2/8 we drove to lovely Lisbon on the Tejo River. We rode the hop on-hop off bus and saw many neighborhoods. It is a lovely city, with its parks, squares, statues and tiles on buildings, streets and sidewalks typically black and white mosaics, with designs that varied from street to street, and block to block, made from basalt and limestone. Fado music is popular here, with its stories of life and love accompanied by the viola and 12-string guitar. Portuguese explorers did go to the four corners of the earth to spread the word of Christianity and to establish colonies. We saw the church where Vasco de Gama was buried when his body was returned from India. The next morning we headed east and skirted around Madrid, spent that evening in Alcala de Henares, a quaint university town, home to many storks. The storks are part of the tourist attraction here. We had a great dinner at a pizza restaurant. Driving across Spain, we saw so many stork nests built on transmission towers. One tower had about 10 separate nests. Today we are in the country of Andorra, a micro-state not a full member of the European Union. We drove through semi-arid landscape which resembled our southwest USA. The language here is Catalan. This capital city, Andorra la Vella, is one of the world's highest capital cities and is packed with stores, cradled in the Pyrenees. We had a great dinner of French onion soup (it had cheese, bread and a poached egg in it) and oxtail with risotto and mushrooms. We certainly don't get such meaty oxtail at home - Anne really enjoyed it. We are ready to return to our apartment tomorrow, where we can rest from our travels. We expect a quiet week with cold and rainy weather. Fondly, A & M

The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, a World Heritage Site, is the reputed burial-place of St. James the Great, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ.