Saturday, September 02, 2006
The Monks in Andorra
Today has been a wild and wet sort of day so it is good to think of a summer holiday.
On such a day as this it seems apt that football should take centre stage in the world of sport.
The next big footballing championships have begun. In 2 years time we will enjoy the finals of the European Championships when the top 16 teams will battle for the trophy. At this stage, in each of the groups, some of the smallest countries take their places amongst the footballing giants.
I suppose that the separate counties of the United Kingdom may seem small, but in footballing terms each of them (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) have had their moments of glory - and of course in 1966 England won the World Cup.
The "minnows" of Europe see these early stages as their own special moments.
And so earlier today we saw that the Faroe Islands - where Roger and Sue were just over a year ago, were well beaten by Scotland.
And this afternoon England scored 5 times against Andorra.
I expect that the players of these tiny countries have hoped that they might score a goal, but they also knew that defeat was their fate - although occasionally there have been footballing shocks of course.
But today results went much as expected - excepting for Wales who really should have beaten Iceland I guess.
Andorra is a tiny country set in The Pyrennees between France and Spain.
It flourishes as a centre for tourism and as a tax haven. It is a beautiful land and obviously suits people well for it has the highest life expectancy in the world of 83.51 years.
Bill and I have been there twice, in 1967 and 1968.
We were mere youngsters, not long married.
In those days we wanted to see everything during our 2 week holidays. We filled the car with camping equipment and drove each day from one camp site to another enjoying the countryside.
In our more mature years we rather like the idea of thoroughly absorbing a small area and look back on all the places we have been to without really remebering too much about what we have seen.
But Andorra was different. For a start we stayed there for longer.
In 1967 it was the furthest point that we reached.
The following year we stopped there en route for Spain.
The football match has caused us to think back - perhaps we should go back and spend some time finding out just what makes the country tick.
You can see from this picture that it is a wonderful place for walking and breathing in the good mountain air. In winter there is good skiing in Andorra.
And there is our first car; we loved that little Mini. Bill had it sprayed black with a dark green roof and it got lots of
admiring glances wherever we went.
Here I am looking back down the valley into France.
Fortunately you can't see - but that dress was quite short. It was, after all the 1960s, when the mini skirt was the height of fashion. I am also sporting a trendy French peaked hat.
Bill looks sophisticated and trendy too, in his hat.
Maybe I can persuade him to have another straw hat next summer!
Another lovely view of the mountains.
In those days Bill didn't seem to mind having his pride and joy in the foreground - and he accepted having me alongside it too!
We have to accept that in those days we didn't venture far from the car.
We dropped down into the main valley of Andorra and pitched our tent at a site just outside the main town of Andorra la Vella.
There is tobacco growing behind the tent.
We were glad the tent was in a higher part of the camp site, for there was an awful storm one night. We had to dig little trenches round the tent to take the rain water away - it flowed down to the lower part and flooded out other campers.
It is hard to believe that Andorra is part of a world that is almost 40 years away from us.
On such a day as this it seems apt that football should take centre stage in the world of sport.
The next big footballing championships have begun. In 2 years time we will enjoy the finals of the European Championships when the top 16 teams will battle for the trophy. At this stage, in each of the groups, some of the smallest countries take their places amongst the footballing giants.
I suppose that the separate counties of the United Kingdom may seem small, but in footballing terms each of them (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) have had their moments of glory - and of course in 1966 England won the World Cup.
The "minnows" of Europe see these early stages as their own special moments.
And so earlier today we saw that the Faroe Islands - where Roger and Sue were just over a year ago, were well beaten by Scotland.
And this afternoon England scored 5 times against Andorra.
I expect that the players of these tiny countries have hoped that they might score a goal, but they also knew that defeat was their fate - although occasionally there have been footballing shocks of course.
But today results went much as expected - excepting for Wales who really should have beaten Iceland I guess.
Andorra is a tiny country set in The Pyrennees between France and Spain.
It flourishes as a centre for tourism and as a tax haven. It is a beautiful land and obviously suits people well for it has the highest life expectancy in the world of 83.51 years.
Bill and I have been there twice, in 1967 and 1968.
We were mere youngsters, not long married.
In those days we wanted to see everything during our 2 week holidays. We filled the car with camping equipment and drove each day from one camp site to another enjoying the countryside.
In our more mature years we rather like the idea of thoroughly absorbing a small area and look back on all the places we have been to without really remebering too much about what we have seen.
But Andorra was different. For a start we stayed there for longer.
In 1967 it was the furthest point that we reached.
The following year we stopped there en route for Spain.
The football match has caused us to think back - perhaps we should go back and spend some time finding out just what makes the country tick.
You can see from this picture that it is a wonderful place for walking and breathing in the good mountain air. In winter there is good skiing in Andorra.
And there is our first car; we loved that little Mini. Bill had it sprayed black with a dark green roof and it got lots of
admiring glances wherever we went.
Here I am looking back down the valley into France.
Fortunately you can't see - but that dress was quite short. It was, after all the 1960s, when the mini skirt was the height of fashion. I am also sporting a trendy French peaked hat.
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Bill looks sophisticated and trendy too, in his hat.
Maybe I can persuade him to have another straw hat next summer!
Another lovely view of the mountains.
In those days Bill didn't seem to mind having his pride and joy in the foreground - and he accepted having me alongside it too!
We have to accept that in those days we didn't venture far from the car.
We dropped down into the main valley of Andorra and pitched our tent at a site just outside the main town of Andorra la Vella.
There is tobacco growing behind the tent.
We were glad the tent was in a higher part of the camp site, for there was an awful storm one night. We had to dig little trenches round the tent to take the rain water away - it flowed down to the lower part and flooded out other campers.
It is hard to believe that Andorra is part of a world that is almost 40 years away from us.
