TigerBlog wanted to get a member of the Princeton men's lacrosse team to do an Instagram takeover during yesterday's stage of the current trip to Andorra and Spain.
As he considered it, he knew he was looking for someone with personality and creativity, someone who would take it seriously but who would also have fun with it, someone who would give great insight into the team's travels in the perfect way.
It didn't take him long to come up with one name: Bear.
That would be Bear Lockshin, who has followed Bear Altemus and Bear Goldstein as Princeton men's lacrosse Bears.
Lockshin is a junior midfielder from California. He checked every box TB had.
When he asked TB for advice, all TB said was "If you have to stop and ask yourself if it's a good idea to post this, it isn't."
Anyway, Lockshin was everything TB knew he'd be on the takeover. If you followed his posts all day, then you don't to keep reading (but you can anyway, of course).
To catch you up:
Andorra is an independent nation and has been since 1278. It is tiny, to be sure, since you can drive from one end of the country to the other in about 30 minutes, but the people here are fiercely proud of their independent status.
The country sits in the Pyrenees Mountains, with an average elevation of 6,549 feet. And Princeton has been experiencing that elevation in a, well, big way.
It started Sunday, when the Tigers went straight to Naturland (no "e") before ever going to their hotel. The first two hours in the park were spent doing the various attractions, all under the watchful eye of the Pyrenees, with their spectacular views.
Those attractions included a zipline, archery and a tall structure that was sort of like a 10-meter diving platform, only into a giant fluffy landing mat. The highlight, though, was the Tobotronic. This was something special.
It's basically a one- or two-person rollercoaster, one that winds and turns and loops around and down the mountain. It's a 12-minute ride to the top, and then the driver controls the how fast or how slow you go as you take off.
Yesterday, though, topped even that.
First there was a trip to the suspension bridge that TB mentioned yesterday. Again this involved winding up the mountain roads, this time to an elevation of just about 7,000 feet.
By the way, Andorra is a major ski area, and though the temperature here has been warm enough that mostly everyone is wearing shorts, the snow will fall soon. When it does, the helicopters will take the extreme skiers to the very top of the peaks, at just short of 10,000 feet, and drop them off for their runs down. When the warm temperatures return in the spring, the snow doesn't melt quickly, and the area is famous for having skiers in shorts and even bathing suits who go for a run and then sit out on the deck by the pools at the resorts.
As the bus climbed yesterday, the village below disappeared further and further, until it was just a speck. Barely visible were the ski lifts that will take the less extreme up from the ski resorts.Even a helicopter that flew by was at a lower altitude.
Then it was a walk up to the top, where the bridge came into view. It's only been open since June, and it serves no purpose other than being a tourist attraction, since there's nothing to do on the other side other than take pictures and then turn around and walk the 2,000 meters back to where you started. Still, as tourist attractions go, you can't really beat this one.
The views were incredible. It is hard to accurately capture just how amazing they are, but TB certainly tried.
And then, of course, there's the fact that you're walking on a grated metal bridge that's about 1,000 feet above a gorge, which means you can look straight down - if you dare.
When the team came back down the mountain, it was off to lunch in Pas De La Casa, which would have been worth it for the food alone, as the team basically split into two groups and went to two different restaurants, both seeming to get great reviews.
Ah, but there was more.
As it turns out, Pas De La Casa is the border between Andorra and
France. In fact, if you walked about 25 yards down from where the
restaurants were and turned left, you found yourself on a sidestreet
that was about 30 yards long. At the end of the alley was a wooden
walkway, with grass beyond it. The walkway is in Andorra. The grass is
in France. The border is made up of a very, very, very small stream in
between them.
Also by the way, Pas De La Casa is a starting point for one stage of the Tour de France, which climbs up the same mountain roads that the buses have been.
Up next is a big hike, also along the French border. The team leaves Wednesday to head to Barcelona. The highlight of the day won't be the three-hour ride back. It'll be the Barcelona-Villarreal game.
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