Snow Shoeing in Andorra

Andorra is a tiny country sandwiched between Spain and France. It is really just a section of the Pyrenees that gets to call itself a country. Most don't know that it exists, but around here, if you love the mountains, then you frequently visit Andorra!

We have wanted to visit Andorra for a long time, and we finally did! Since it's just about a three hours drive, we went with two of our good couple friends and rented a chalet in the mountains for a weekend. While two of our friends loved to ski, the other four of us weren't as fond of it. So we decided to try a new activity - snow shoeing!

Once we realized that snow shoeing really is just like hiking, but on top of the snow, we quickly loved it! We hiked up a mountain to a lake, which was covered in snow, but nonetheless beautiful.

Stumbled upon this on our hike through the woods.

A small village in Andorra.

The whole gang.

The rest of the weekend we spent staying warm, cooking meals together, and using the Spa! We loved being able to escape to the snow for just a couple of days, and then return to sunny Barcelona.

Istanbul

Istanbul is a remarkable mixture of cultures, the many layers of Christian, Islam, ancient Roman, and modern Western influences all clamoring for attention at every turn. 

We arrived from over the Atlantic after a wonderful yet hectic Christmas break in Iowa, and were ready for some good sleep.  Our rented apartment was in the trendy Galata neighborhood, across the river from the main historic sections of town.  Due to some poor directions given us by the owner of the apartment (who barely spoke English), our taxi driver had trouble finding the exact street on which to drop us off, and even at one point had to park the car and run into a market to ask directions, which still didn't really help!  We finally made it, in the rain, darkness, and jetlag, and fell asleep with the heater running full throttle. 

Our first full day in Istanbul (after waking up at nearly 11am) was spent walking around the historic downtown, seeing the Blue Mosque, the Roman Cistern, and the Grand Bazaar.  This bazaar was much more manageable than the Moroccan medinas.  Then we went through the famous spice market and then back over the river to explore the Galata tower itself.  The tower is the oldest of its kind in the world, and has the best views of the city to-date.  We then explored the surrounding area just a bit before settling down at a cozy cafe near our apartment for the evening, still fighting our jetlag.

Dressing to enter the mosque.

The beautiful Basilica Cistern.

The Grand Bazaar - calm enough for our liking.

Boats entering and exiting through the Bosphorus.

The Galata Tower in the snow. 

 

The next morning, we went back downtown to the Hagia Sophia.  This incredible building was actually built to be a Christian church and was converted to a mosque later on.  It was very rainy and cold, and so we quickly made our way back over to the Galata neighborhood to meet up with a local friend at a warm coffee shop.  By then the rain had turned to snow, and it would snow for the remainder of the evening.  

The Hagia Sophia in all its glory.

The massive inside of the Hagia Sophia.

It snowed all night and continued to snow the next morning as we made our way to the airport.  Overall, we were both very intrigued with Istanbul, but our time there was extremely short, and we were exhausted for most of it. So we put Turkey back on our list of places to visit again, in better weather!