From travelling around places that interest me in the Bible in Israel and Turkey, and visiting China and Canada and Europe in recent years, I’ve not actually got so stuck travelling and had to give up, until now.

Here’s the problem:-

Getting to Ax le Thermes was not too hard, but my RyanAir flight to Toulouse was cancelled and I had to fly very early Thursday morning.  Then the trains in France had a strike, so I had a replacement bus service.   The trains don’t go to Andorra, so I go to Ax le Thermes, its a pretty town on the outskirts of the Pyrenesse, about 30km away.   I thought it would be simple to take a bus into Andorra itself.  Turns out these are only 3 times a week.    I was told by a lady behind a bar it would be 120 Euros to get a taxi.

I even tried doing some hitchhiking.   Doing this made me feel a bit silly, as I don’t think I’d ever pick up a stranger either.  I saw quite a few cars driven by local Andorrans which have plates on their cars like this one.  After an hour of no one stopping, I headed back into the town for another beer.

Borders into countries often aren’t drawn up by government people with a sharp pencil and a ruler either, spot the tiny piece of Spain above the French border?

I would recommend travellers to Europe’s hard to reach mini country should start from Spain and go northwards and you might need a rental car.

So, a quick 60 Euros later and I had a hotel in Ax Le Thermes and headed my way back to Toulouse the day after.

Introduction – Newspaper danger – Occitane, little known district of France & wannabe new nation – No Andorra for me – Toulouse’s churches –