Friday, October 12, 2012

It is yet another día festivo here in all of Spain.  What we call Columbus Day is El Día de la Raza.  Since it is a three-day weekend it is what the Spanish call a Puente and that means a lot of people have taken off for the weekend.  As it turns out many of them have come to Valencia and many of the hotels here are at full occupancy.  The seaside town of Benidorm does not have an available room.  The only downside is that this is supposed to be a rainy weekend.  We shall see.

Looking at the forecast for the next ten days it appears that autumn has finally arrived.  Instead of temperatures in the mid or high-80’s, we will see temperatures in the mid-70’s.  That will be a welcome relief.  It will make walking a bit more pleasant.

Yesterday Susan had her appointment with her hairdresser and I with my barber.  On my way back home I picked up my new glasses, which will make a big differences in the quality of my vision.  Before I got back home I stopped off at the Mercado Central to pick up a couple of items and while there took a seat at the new Central Bar, which opened a short while ago.  It is one of three places that the award winning Michelin chef, Ricard Camarena, has opened here in Valencia and all of them at more or less the same time.  Here is a brief video about Central Bar http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/08/16/valencia/1345140382.html.  He has also opened a bistro that he calls Canallabistro and a haute cuisine restaurant that is called, strangely enough, Restaurante Ricard Camarena.  It does seem strange that in this time of economic crisis someone opens three dining spots simultaneously.

It most probably illustrates the fact that those who have always had money, still have money and those who are most feeling the pinch of the economic downturn are the poor and the lower middle class.  This parallels what is going on in the US and signals the growing gap worldwide between the rich and the poor.  It appears that there is somewhat of an economic recovery happening in the States, but most estimates here imply that things will not start to turn around here until 2014.

We had lunch and supper at home yesterday.  I have managed to catch a cold and it has sapped my energy and Susan is just plain tired after two plus months of running around.  We have no grand plans for the weekend, but here in Spain life is filled with surprises.