Dear colleagues,
It is time now to slowly prepare and make a time block in your calendar for our Reunion in Andorra, which is now fixed for 12-16 September 2014. Our host Rudolf (Jonker) has been very busy in the organization of this event and is already well advanced at this stage.
I guess not many of us will have had a chance to visit this picturesque hideaway in the Pyrenees and we are grateful to Rudolf to make such a trip possible for us.
You can reach Andorra by car and even this could be a good reason to come, as for the "northerners", this provides an opportunity to pass through France, visit the Castles along the Loire, the Dordogne Valley and/or the medieval towns of the Midi-Pyrenees Region, following the motto "journey itself is the reward of travel". But again, I guess, many of us will arrive by plane and that is preferably via Barcelona. There is a regular bus service by "NovAtel" from the airport to Andorra and if reservation is made, to Hotel Coma in Ordino. The buses leave at 10h30; 13h00; 15h00; 17h00 and 20h30 from Terminal 1 and 15 minutes later from Terminal 2. The bus trip, which you can pre-book at http://www.andorrabybus.com/en/1/travel-andorra-bus, will take about 3,5 hours at the cost of about €45 one way. We will come back to you with more detailed advice on how to find the bus closer to the event. Rudolf has made a block reservation for 25 rooms at the cozy Hotel Coma ( http://www.hotelcoma.com ) in Ordino, some 10km outside the capital Andorra la Vella.
Rudolf also managed to get a very good package for 4 nights including three dinners and 4 breakfasts at 370€ for a double and €225 for a single room arrangement. Because our Reunion coincides with the National Day of Cataluña, it is necessary that you do the bookings and the payment before June 14. The hotel has agreed for us to accept cancellations with refund until 1 September (it would be good, if you advised us well before September 1 of your intention to cancel, so we can request retaining the room for late-bookers if needed).
Our program includes trips to the many historical, touristic, and scenic places like the Casa de la Vall, Casco Vello, San Joan de Caselles, St. Clement, and Santa Coloma churches, musea in Ordino and an old typical 17th century family mansion. We will have lunches at the Borda de L'Horto (a converted mountain barn) and at Cal Pacho, a local restaurant in la Seu. We will have also a whole afternoon for ourselves to take advantage of Europe's largest Spa with thermal waters or other activities to our individual liking.
Our Gala Diner will be in Spain at El Castell de Cuitat in La Seu d'Urgell and our dinner will be served within the castle walls with aperitif in the castle gardens. We are still working on the organization of some Catalan dance/music performance for the occasion.
The business meeting is scheduled for Sunday forenoon at the hotel.
Since for most of us, the trip to Andorra will be through Barcelona, we were contemplating to extend our group trip by a couple of days for interested participants to include Barcelona. However, with so many different points of interest, it would be difficult to organize this satisfactorily for every individual in the group. It is therefore suggested that this is done directly by those who are interested, individual or in sub-groups. We arranged a bus to take our group to the various hotels in Barcelona and directly to the airport at €25 provided we get at least 30 passengers. Please make the respective bookings on the attached "Booking Response Sheet (BRS)".
I hope, that by now and more so after you read the attached notes on Andorra from Rudolf, you cannot wait anymore to fix your bookings and fill out and return the attached Booking Response Sheet which also gives the detailed program. Please make your transfers to
Acct: Gunter Hecker - AFE Reunions
Bank: Sparkasse Heidelberg, Kurfuerstenanlage 10-12, D-69115 Heidelberg, Germany
IBAN: DE79672500201001990060
BIC/SWIFT: SOLADES1HDB
Should you have any further questions, please let us both know through email to ghecker1@t-online.de and to Rudolf at 7harmonie@gmail.com
Greetings Gunter & Rudolf