Theatrical Experiences - In Madrid and Valencia

February/March 2022

It had been many years since I'd been to a major production of a Broadway show.  After a little research, I discovered 'Tina, The Musical' and 'Lion King' were both still running in Madrid.  My plan: fly to Madrid (a little less than 1 1/2 hrs) early enough to see a show that same night.  Fly back the next day.

February 23 - 24 'Tina the Musical'

REGULAR RT airfare was only $17.98!!!!  With my island discount, I only had to pay $4.50.  NO LIE!  I found a (9.2 rated) hotel smack dab in the heart of the best area and only a few blocks from both theaters and 2 blocks from the subway.  The rooms were completely renovated and the hotel had an elevator (sometimes rare in old buildings)!  $68.  

I wanted to sit in the front row of the first balcony for $69 even though there was $49/$59 seats on the main floor.  I didn't want anyone in front of me.  That all sounded good until I sat down.  WHOA....my knees were crammed into the short wall in front of me.  Others around me nodded their heads in recognition of how awful these seats were.  I was in a LOT of pain having to force my bad knee into an angle it didn't like.  About 1/3rd of the way into the first act, I got up and moved to an empty seat a few rows back.  RELIEF!!!

Though the show was in Spanish (except most songs were in original English) I knew enough about Tina Turners' past to follow along.  The singer sang in a higher range than Tina but geez-laweeze was she GOOD!!  The dance movements were right out of Tina's textbook moves...her mannerisms spot on!  Just watching 'her' and the other dancers wore me out.   Ahhhhh....youth.

The encore numbers were 'Proud Mary' and 'Simply the Best' which rocked the house and everyone was movin and groovin including an elderly man a few seats from me pumping his fists.

 Hotel Palacio Luna

Gotta love the Madrid architecture

I went to a restaurant across the street from the theater and enjoyed their amazing tapas before the shows!

Crab salad & Caviar atop bread

Skewers of shrimp, mushroom, ham with garlic sauce

Smoked salmon and weird noodly fish atop bread

Gran Via reminds me of Broadway with the crowds, architecture, restaurants, and enormous video marquis

March 2 - 3 'Lion King'

The following week, I flew back to Madrid solely for the purpose of seeing the spectacular production of Lion King.   Airfare $5 RT (yes, you read corrrectly), hotel only $50 this time because it just had a single bed, box seat $75.  

The theater, which seats about 1,800 was built in 1949 though it was completely renovated to mount the LK production.  It was near full, on a Weds night, and the crowd very energetic.  Even though the show was in Spanish, I had seen two movies of LK and pretty much knew the storyline anyway.  Sets and costumes were mind boggling, especially the design and engineering of the aparatus's the actors wore to act as animals.  The production involved more than 60 actors/participants.

Here's a 20 sec video of the marquis

A 30 sec video of inside the theater

After the intermission, the show resumed with actors and 'animals' parading down the aisles from the back of the theater to the stage.  In this photo you can see one of them 'flying' a jungle bird from the end of a long pole.

This video is sound-only of the show resuming after intermission.  Obviously, I couldn't openly videotape the performance, so I sneakily recorded a portion of the audio.

On my walk back to the hotel after the show

March 15 - 24 Valencia

The loading dock in Palma with the Cathedral in the background.  This ship took a large number of semi-trucks.  Each of them had to back onto the ferry so they'd be pointing the right direction to disembark.

I've been to Valencia before, but this time I decided to take the ferry so I could bring my motorcycle which would allow me to easily explore surrounding areas.  This was a Home Exchange with folks I knew from Cuenca, Ecuador but had since moved to Valencia.  

There was nothing exciting about the voyage.  In fact, quite the opposite.  It was a slowwwww 8 hour journey with nothing to do but nap in semi-reclinable airline-like seats.  No internet.  Maybe only 50 passengers on board aside from the truck drivers.  It was windy and rough seas.

TransMed ship (operated by Grimaldi Lines)
600 ft long

74 cabins
546 Passengers

7 decks

18 knots (approx 21 mph)

As it so happened, I was staying the same week as Valencia's massive 'Fallas' celebration.  Held annually in commemoration of Saint Joseph and celebrating the beginning of Spring.  Each neighborhood (or barrio) of the city has an organized group that hold fundraisers, design, and build the monuments (Fallas).  The city hosts well over a million visitors during this time.  

Usually, the Fallas figures represent satiric scenes in order to criticise popular aspects of the society such as politics, the current social situation or some odd customs.  They're made of wood, cork, and/or paper mache.  Anywhere you go, you'll spot one or more down side streets as there are hundreds throughout the city.  On the last day, they're deliberately burned to the ground in an anarchic celebration of creativity, mortality, and rebirth.   The burning of the Fallas is called 'Cremas' (as in cremation?).

Can you IMAGINE the fires all over the city?  There's NO WAY this would ever fly in the United States.  There would be soooo many lawsuits!!!  I missed out on seeing any burnings as it was raining out and didn't feel like going out on my moto.  But, I SMELLED it the next day!!

Another element of the Fallas week is marching bands.  They seem to be a mix of adults and teenagers, usually dressed in black attire.  They played in the morning, the afternoon, in the evening, wherever and whenever.

This one passed in front of the house I was staying in, so I quickly grabbed my cell phone and recorded a bit.

Most Fallas displays were cordoned off, but you could pay a few Euros to go inside the fenced area to look at the creations more closely as well as read placards that described the who/what/why.

So much detail...so much to absorb!!

Here's a 1 min video giving you a closeup view

.....and another (1 min 20 secs)

Valencia is a city twice the size of Palma at around 800,000.  The old town is a gorgeous showcase of architectural art.  HOWEVER, outside of the old town area, Valencia is consumed with ugly, plain, big-box apartment complexes, with next to no architectural character, and easily holds a hundred or more tenants.  Obviously, Valencia experienced an enormous construction boom in the 1960's....the bland era.  I couldn't imagine myself living in any of them.  I would lose my identity.  But, I will say, Valencia has a lot of beautiful parks and tons of bike lanes!

Let's look at a sampling of attractive buildings in the old town!!

Mas Fallas!

....a closer look (2 min video)

Even Boris was 'honored'!

....and Covid

...and Her Royal Majesty, the Quinn

(with a cameo by Prince Charles)

Every day, at 2pm, a huge fireworks display was performed on a large plaza in the city center.  You can see how they install them like sausages hanging from a clothesline!!

I went on the 2nd to the last day but by the time I got close enough on my moto (due to many streets closed), then walked to the site several blocks away, I arrived just as they ended.  There had to be 50,000 or so in attendance and there was no way I could even get close.  Never saw anything....just heard it all.  But, no one cared as they were having a good time anyway.  Even though this particular show occurred at a fix time every day, you could hear explosions all over the city, all day long, and into the night....for days.

Observation:   I didn't see ONE Porta-Potty!  50,000 people and many drinking beer....ummmm....I don't get it.

As the thousands dispersed, many stayed around for a drink and snacks from vendor stands and join in the musical fun.  (video 1 min 50 secs)

A Star Wars Falla at the fireworks site

As I was walking back to my moto from the fireworks site, I ran into this group.   What fun!!  I edited the video down to 2 mins 50 secs by cutting some songs short.  Otherwise, it wouldn't upload to this blog.  I was standing in the middle of the percussion section so, yes, that part is a little dominant.

Women, representing their barrios, get dressed up in special garb.  Even their hair must be properly styled.  Near the end of the celebrations, they bring gifts of flowers to the Virgin.

A cart with a massive flower arrangement will be taken to the Virgin the next evening.  Can you imagine the fragrance in the air?

I was walking toward the Church of San Nicolas de Bari and noted the architecture along the way. To my surprise, I ended up at the plaza where the Virgin and thousands of flowers were on display.

It was Sunday, the grand finale burning was done the night before, and everything cleaned up as if it never happened.  Many streets were still closed and tons of people were out and about.

At about 45 ft tall, the end result!!!

I wandered around the plaza admiring all the flowers
(video 1 min 50 secs)

• Sant Nicolas de Bari Church
• Founded in the 1200’s
• Modified in the 1400’s in a Gothic style which exists today
• In the late 1600’s, a baroque renovation occurred which included painting the frescoes that cover approximately 2,000 square meters (25,000 sq ft) of the interior.
• Dubbed the Valencian Sistine Chapel

Video 1 min 50 secs

Church Santa Catarina

• Was built in the early 1200’s
• Interior rebuilt after fire in 1548
• The hexagonal bell tower was completed in 1705 and is about 150 ft tall 

I was hungry after all the walking and sightseeing.  But, it seemed all I could find was sugary sweet vendors.  This one caught my eye, but I didn't partake.

I finally got a table at a small restaurant and ordered an angus burger.  I noticed the trend all around me was people ordering churros (pastry coated in sugar) and hot chocolate to dip the churro....but this hot chocolate was THICK and DARK!!  Gads...I felt like I was going to have a low blood sugar attack just LOOKING at them!!!

By 6pm, it was getting cold and raining.  Pretty much the whole week had been chilly, windy, rain showers, and only averaging maybe 55 degrees.  YUCK!  The next day, I stayed in due to the rain.

The day after that, the weather hadn't improved much, so I decided to take a train trip for the heck of it....just to kill time.  I chose to go to Gandia, about an hour south of Valencia.  There wasn't much to see along the way.  When I arrived in Gandia (the end of the line), it was pouring rain so I had a sandwich in the station then hopped the next train back to Valencia.  $12 for a 2 hour train ride was a good way to kill an afternoon.

Instead of taking a very late night ferry from Valencia back to Palma, I chose to depart from the town of Denia, on a different ferry line, so I'd be home at a more agreeable hour.   I also opted to leave Valencia a day early to moto to Denia, then stay in a hotel so I could see a little bit of Denia before departing at 5pm the next day.

Welllllllll..............

Denia is only 1 1/2 hours drive from Valencia.  Ahem.  Not if you make wrong turns like I did.  It all started off fine but the weather was going south on me.

I had a rain jacket but nothing to protect my legs from the rain.  I got soaked, even through my gloves.  It was beginning to be difficult to see and the wind wasn't helping any.  I decided to get off the road and get a hotel in Cullera, a place I spotted the day before on the train.  It's a beach town on the flanks of a hill topped with a castle.  It felt like a ghost town when I arrived because all the hotels were closed as it was off season.  Ultimately, I found ONE that was open and got a room there.  All I wanted to do was soak in a hot tub of water!!  I wrung out my clothes and hung them around the room and cranked up the heat.  Luckily, in the morning, everything was dry.

Cullera

A beach resort town crowded with hotels clamoring for their position as close to the beach as possible.

In the morning, it had stopped raining.  I took a quick spin up the hill to the castle and fortress but didn't have enough time to wander around.  After a few snaps, I hit the road to Denia.

About an hour later, I arrived in Denia.  Like many other towns, it too had a historic center and a castle dominated a hill that overlooked the center.  Unfortunately, I didn't have time to go up and see it as I needed to go to the marina and get my boat ticket, then grab some lunch before I had to join the line to board the ferry at 3:30pm....even though departure wasn't until 5pm.

My voyage back to Palma was aboard a 'fast boat'.  Instead of 8 hours from Palma to Valencia, it would be only 5 hours from Denia to Palma.  I didn't know it, but that also included a stop in Ibiza along the way.  We should have been back by 10pm but it was an hour late, presumably due to the rough seas.  I felt like I was riding Mr Toads Wild Ride.  Ship staff were passing out barf bags.

Cecilia Payne

one of the Balearia Ferries 'fast boats'

Over 250 ft long

800 passengers

200 vehicles

38 knots (approx 44 mph)

I was soooooo happy to be back on my own turf and see my little girl Gracie!!!

What ever will I write about next??

Stay Tuned!!

Dano

By the way, if you're interested in viewing any of my past entries about travelling around Europe and where I live in Mallorca, simply scroll down past my signature to the end.  There, you'll see 'Blog History'.  You can click on any Month/Year to see the titles I published at that time.  Simply click on the title you're interested in and it will take you to that page.