Feria de Libro - a low key Spring celebration

After the frenetic fiestas of the First and Second of May, and of San Isidro, Madrid's annual feria de libro seems restful

The Children's Tent at the Madrid Book Fair Shows its calendar of activities

A few days ago a friend alerted me that (unsurprisingly) my bookstore owning friend from Tres Cantos would be bringing her bookstore to one of the stalls at the Madrid feria de libro, which started on Friday and runs for the next two weeks.  She suggested we go say hi, which I thought was a good idea.  Then I realized that of course on the weekend another friend from outside of Madrid was most likely to be signing and presenting her new novel (she has a day job in Ponferrada, so during the week was unlikely).  After an exchange of texts, she confirmed that she was indeed signing Saturday evening from 7:00 to 9:00, and suggested that I stop by toward the end of her signing shift, so we could go have dinner afterward.

So yesterday evening I set out in the late afternoon sunshine and walked to the Retiro, since I hadn't really been out all day, and I wanted some exercise.  Just under an hour and a half brought me to the hordes of evening strollers in the Retiro, and as I wandered past the "Rosaleda" (formal rose garden) and along the crowded paths I saw large numbers of people heading back from the fair, and also a significant number heading towards it (along with a few overheard comments "Is this the right direction?"  "The sign said straight ahead."  "There are people with book fair bags coming from over there.")