Sunday, March 31, 2013

We are back in Valencia.  We arrived a bit before 4:00 PM yesterday on an AVE that was mostly empty.  That makes sense since the Puente extends until Easter Monday.  Everything should be open again on Tuesday.

Friday in Madrid was another ugly day that was mostly overcast and rainy.  It did not lend itself to exploring the city, so we spent the morning either working on the computer or reading.  I am in the process of doing a lengthy translation for the third edition of El Manuscrito and that helped fill the morning hours.  Around 2:00 we decided that we would head out to have some lunch.  Many restaurants were closed, but Susan had noticed a place on Calle Velázquez that was open the other day.  It is called Lateral and it appears that there are several of them in the city.

Lateral occupies a relatively small space, although it does have a fairly large outdoor terrace.  Nobody was sitting outside on Friday.  The menu features pinchos, raciones, ensaladas, postres and a dish of the day.  The choices are the ones you tend to find on any tapas menu.  Susan and I order a pincho of foie and another of solomillo.  We followed that up with a ración of morcilla and patatas bravas.  We finished our meal with dessert and coffee and then headed back to our hotel.

Friday was not to be a day without magic, so a little after 8:00 we hopped a cab to a small performance space called El Teatro Encantado.  It is owned and run by Woody Aragón.  It is my understanding that he has several partners in this venture.  It is a small space with a capacity of fifty spectators.  The focus is close-up magic and so that all can see there is a large screen television that captures the action on the close-up table.  Since the seats are raked, you can easily see what is going on at the table.  The space is open from Thursday to Sunday and features many of Spain’s top close-up artists.  Our performer for the evening was Alberto de Figureido whose 90-minute program was funny, magical and thoroughly enjoyable.  After the show we headed back home and were in bed a half an hour after walking through the door.