In an ongoing list of coincidences, I bring you this.
I sometimes listen to Podcasts when I ride, especially if I will be riding for long distances on the highway. Today one of the podcasts was an old Paul Harvey show, The Rest of the Story about Andorra, a small country I was in just a week or so ago. What are the chances that I would listen to a random podcast on a tiny country that I just recently visited, but had hardly knew existed a few months back?
Now, Andorra is about 18 miles across and 15 miles high at it's most extreme points. It is 180 Square Miles. To put that in perspective, New York CITY is 302 square miles.
Andorra may be small but it has some great scenery. And, apparently, shopping. The two built up areas that I went through had tons of shops of all kinds with plenty of frantic looking shoppers. Gasoline was also about 30 cents less per liter. I saw some motorcycle riding gear places that, even looking through the window, had a ton of gear in stock. I was tempted to stop, but when I was going by they were either closed or I just was not in the mood to shop. Probably just as well, as when I was leaving the country the last time the French border folks asked if I had bought anything. I am guessing there would have been some taxes to be paid.
Back to Paul Harvey.
Andorra is normally considered rather peaceful. Still, it was at war with Germany for 44 years, from 1914 until they Declared Peace with Germany in 1958. You see, the Treaty of Versailles ended World War I, but the participants forgot to invite Andorra. That meant that they were legally at war with Germany for all those 44 years, even though they were considered neutral during world war II. Now, it does not seem that Germany seemed to care, and in 1958, Andorra must have gotten tired of no one caring, that's when they declared peace.
In Andorra, at least when the Paul Harvey show was recorded, every man that owns a gun must be in the Army. You really have to hand it to Andorra, they were able to maintain hostilities with Germany for 44 years at a cost of $5 per year. I don't know how much Germany spent....
I did spend 3 nights in Andorra in a small town with a number of restaurants.... Almost none of them open this time of year, but there were plenty of restaurants. It was pretty centrally located for a set of roads that I wanted to ride.
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