horsies and doggies

Natural swimming pool in Beceite

The horse riding place the others found yesterday can't fit us in for a trail ride, however Kim is having a lesson today with the instructor - an English woman who moved to Spain seven years ago. The school is in the next village so we decide to explore some of the other villages near by and then we'll all go to Kim's lesson. The owner of our hotel told us that Beceite was lovely and that's just past where we need to go later so we head there first. We're not sure if there are actual 'attractions' at any of the places we're visiting. We're happy enough to walk around and see what we see. Beceite, like all the villages seem to be, is quite small. There are a few shops but we find that we are mostly walking through residential areas, although it's often hard to tell. Most of the doorways have beads hanging down across them to keep flys out. It's only if we glance through a window that we know if we're passing someone's home, or the butcher.

How much is that doggie on the roof top?

After walking through Beceite and Valderrobres we go to the horse riding school. We're a little early but Tamzin, the owner, had told Kim she could arrive early to look around. There are four dogs running around, one of them is a litle shy and doesn't want a pat like the others. It doesn't take long to win him over though. While Kim gets ready I play with the doggies in the shade. Later we go over to the arena and watch the lesson from there.

I won Rosco over, even though he played hard to get.

Albarracin, our stop for the next three nights, is about three hours drive away. The landscape is pretty barron, with the occasionally rocky hill popping up. There isn't much sign of life except for the occassional ramshackle building, which I assume are shelters for shepherds, and some industrial buildings.

As we arrive in Alabarracin, we're a little disappointed in what we first see. Service stations, old buildings...really not much at all. This was touted as a beautiful spot to see, a 'hidden treasure' in Spain. We check in at our hotel, which is a two bedroom apartment, and hit the streets in search of dinner. We struggle to find much that is open but later we realise it's because we're too early. We end up at a bar and order off the menu: grilled vegetables of our region to start and lamb with garlic and olive oil for mains, ice cream for dessert. The first two dishes are delicious but we pointed to the wrong thing for ice cream and end up with some sort of apple crumble thingy. Occupational hazard.