ANDORRA in Pyrenees .. LA MASSANA and VALLNORD ski resort

The small state "Principat d 'Andorra" in the Pyrenees in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula, surrounded by France and Spain.

Here, in the summer 2012, you can see a part of the "Vallnord Resort" near La Massana. The "Vallnord Resort" is an area in the west of the state ANDORRA. La Massana is a smaller town with more than 9700 inhabitants, and also one of the seven communities known as parishes of the state ANDORRA:
Parishes of Andorra

Shown here is the mountain side station of the cable-car, that starts in the valley of La Massana and ends here on the mountain at this special place named VAL. The gondola brings the tourists and skiers more than 675 meters higher at 1800 meters above sea level as the valley of  La Massana - more than 1200 meters above sea level, and over a distance of 2250 meters. Andorra la Vella in the Pyrenees mountains

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Nature reserve "Cap de Creus" - Pyrenean foothill into the Mediterranean Sea

The peninsula "Cap de Creus", in 1998 declared as nature reserve, also the easternmost point of the "Iberian Peninsula" and geographically eastern foothill of the Pyrenees into the Mediterranean Sea, extends with its bizarre rock formations about 10 km far into the Mediterranean.
The "Cap de Creus" is the northern border of the more than 15 km wide bay of "Gulf of Roses." The highest elevation of 670 meters above sea level is "Sant Salvador Saverdera".


The "Cap de Creus" is located in Catalonia and is approximately 25 kilometers south from France in the northern Costa Brava.
A famous tourist village on the peninsula is Cadaqués, a few miles south of the cape, the "Punta de Cap de Creus" with its lighthouse.
The "Punta de Cap de Creus" with its rocky bays is a popular destination for tourists and can be reached with motorboats and sailingboats, from Cadaqués, from Roses and from "Port de la Selva".

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These day trips are offered at the beach promenade in ROSES. Also the sea area of the "Punta de Cap de Creus" is a popular diving destination for scuba divers.

ANDORRA Chess-Open 2012 .. a tournament in the Pyrenees

The "Open Internacional d' Andorra" is a well known high level international chess tournament.
It was first organized in 1983 by the Andorran "Benet Pantebre" (1. Andorra-Open 1983), and is organized every year since then.

It is now an international established chess-tournament and attracts many professional chess players, like Grandmasters and International Masters, and is also interesting for many amateur players.

In the video to see the hotel-aera of "Sant Gothard" where the the chess-tournament was played (30. Open Internacional d' Andorra). "Sant Gothard" hotel is in ARINSAL, a small village in 10 km distance north from "Andorra la Vella", the capital of ANDORRA (Catalan: Principat d' Andorra).

Rank	Name	First name	Country	ELO
1	Hammer	Jon Ludvig	NOR	2638
2	Georgiev	Kiril	BUL	2680
3	Illescas	Cordoba	ESP	2601
4	Arizmendi	Julen Luis	ESP	2559
5	Iturrizaga	Eduardo	VEN	2628
6	Alonso	Rosell Alvar	ESP	2502
7	Granda	Zuniga Julio	PER	2657
8	Negi	Parimarjan	IND	2661
9	Kogan	Artur	ISR	2587
10	Szabo	Krisztian	HUN	2548

This "30. Open Internacional d'Andorra" in July 2012 was attended by many grandmasters from Andorra, Spain and France, and also Grandmasters from the Eastern European countries: from Ukraine, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, ...
And Grandmasters from South-America: from Venezuela, Peru, Argentina, Colombia, ... and also GM's from India and Israel.
Among the amateur players were represented countries like: Andorra, Spain, Italy, Germany, Costa Rica, Cuba, India, Israel, France, Holland, Russia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, ...

They played 9 rounds Swiss-system. The winner of the tournament is the Norwegian "Jon Ludvig Hammer" with 7 points out of 9 rounds and an ELO of 2638. The grandmasters on Place 1 to 4 scored with 7 points.

Shown in the table is the final result after the ninth round, the top 10 players are all grandmasters. At the positions 11 to 30 are nearly all players grandmasters and some strong amateur chess players.
Final result after 9 rounds

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Andorra la Vella .. a modern city in the Pyrenees mountains

Andorra la Vella, the capital of the "Principality of Andorra" (in Catalan: Principat d' Andorra) with a population of more than 22,200 inhabitants (year 2012) and the highest capital city in Europe with 0% unemployment, is a modern built city with focus on tourism visited from over 14 million tourists annually. It is also the centre for banks and businesses, that benefit from Andorra's tax haven status. Here is no income tax, inheritance tax or capital tax. Since January 2006, the value-added tax is 4 percent on products and services.

Principality of Andorra is a microstate: Founded in September 1278, Andorra is since March 1993 a "Parliamentary Co-Principality" and is governed by the Bishop of Urgell in Catalonia in Spain and the President of France. Andorra is no member state of the European Union, but its currency is EURO. It has more than 85.000 inhabitants, the official language is Catalan.

Andorra has a well-developed road transport network. But it has no motorways because of the geographical location in the eastern Pyrenees between Spain and France. The speed limit outside of towns is 90 km/h, inside towns 40 km/h. The bus transport network is well in Andorra and from Andorra la Vella start 8 bus routes during the day.

The microstate Andorra has no rail transport network and no train station. Bus shuttle services connect Andorra la Vella to the nearest train stations L'Hospitalet-près-l'Andorre in France and Lleida in Spain.

Andorra has no AIRPORT. Bus shuttle services in Andorra like NOVATEL connect Andorra la Vella to the nearest airports in Toulouse, Girona, Perpignan and Barcelona in a more than three hours bus trip - from Andorra la Vella to Girona Costa Brava Airport in 3 hours 15 minutes for 31€ in the year 2012.

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