now that's real tapas

After a failed attempt to find the 'old town' in Andorra la Vella, we set out for our next destination, La Fresneda in Spain. It doesn't take us long to get out of Andorra, that country is ridiculously small. It also doesn't take long for the scenery to change. We spend a little while weaving through the mountains again but soon it's flatter, drier and hotter.
I didn't think I had any preconceptions of what Spain looked like, but I found that I was surprised with the landscape we were driving through. I kept waiting for the Road Runner and Coyote to race past. As we drive more through the Aragon region, which is where La Fresneda is, we came into a bit more vegetation. Mum offered a drink for the first person to spot an olive tree. It was me, and come to think of it I still haven't got my drink.
All the buildings we past are terracotta coloured - the villages just appear out of the ground when we come across one. We stop at a supermarket we past on the route and buy some lunch supplies and eat in the car park.
As Charlie (our sat nav) lets us know we are close we spy a church and some ruins on top of a mountain that looks rather interesting. The buildings are on the top of the hill with a village creeping up to it. Turns out that village is La Fresneda.

Three local women enjoy a stroll through La Fresneda

The village is tiny, apparently home to about 450 people. The rest go in search of horse riding to book a ride for tomorrow but it's a bit hot for me outside so I stayed at our hotel, Fonda la Grancha, which is a cute little place.
The hotel restaurant is closed so the owner sends us to another place, which is also closed. So we settle for a pub that does tapas. Tapas is turning into a bit of a trend in Tassie but I'll tell you now: a plate of garlic prawns does not tapas make.
The menu is in Spanish but the owner speaks a little English so we just told him to bring out whatever he recommends until we're full. Out comes a plate of break with a tomato spread, a plate of cheese, a plate of prosciutto, little pastry pockets with a sweet chilli-style sauce inside, octupus, calamari, potato thingys...oh the list goes on. The owner was a little surprised at how much we could eat. We were all completely stuffed by the end and the bill only came to about 50euro.
We work off dinner with a walk up the village (I would say around the village but the only way is up). At the top is the fortified church and the ruins of a calatrava castle we could see from the road. With the sun setting behind us, the place made for some lovely pictures: the village on one side and a great spance of rocks and olive trees on the other.