Figueres

While in grand jury duty last summer, one of my fellow jurors told me that I had to go and visit the town where Dalí's house/museum were, that it was a quick trip from Barcelona by train. That town is Figurers, and the consultants agreed that it was a great trip. So, in keeping with the plan to get out of town on Saturdays and explore, off I went on my first solo Saturday.

It's about an hour by train, and then there are buses into the downtown or one can walk. I took a bus partway, not knowing how lines would be at the museum, and walked the way back. 

They say you can't miss the house/museum. They are right.

 Formerly the town theater, Salvador Dalí converted the building in 1974. If you follow the signs up the hill toward the fortress, then over to the museum, you get the gold-studded pink tower and walls with the golden eggs on top.

If you then follow the directions to the entry, you come around to a classical-style building, with gold figures, goddesses with golden baguettes on their heads, and an undersea explorer.

 Yes, golden baguettes on their heads.

Once again, my ICOM card got me in free, but I had to wait in the line. Bah.

Overall, it was worth it. I learned that surrealism is definitely not my thing. But I explored the entire house, despite the incredibly rude tourists and way too many of them. I blame my first headache of the trip on all of them.

 The inside is just as strange, with the woman pulling the 50s classic car, more gold statues,

 murals that everyone can recognize as Dalí, very strange things that I couldn't even remember long enough to get into my journal that afternoon, 

 and what I think was called the Mae West room. You walk around the installation and then double back toward the entrance so that you can climb a short flight of stairs and see the whole thing looking through the hair (even if your camera can't capture it all).

 I liked some of his early paintings, and there were small exhibitions of other artists' works too. In another part of the building was an exhibition of his jewelry work, and I really did like a lot of that. Super creative without being, in my mind, just for show and shock value.

I then had lunch in a wonderful little cafe along the Rambla. It had been a long time since I had had a whole fish. It was great. I love those daily menus. And always, always, good wine. Sigh.

I still had a few hours before my scheduled train back. What to do? The fortress? It was a lovely town and I could wander. I wanted to sit out at a cafe and read but that's where all the smokers were. But then I stumbled on the toy museum.

Charming! Not very big but packed with great things. Turns out, it's the only toy museum in Spain. They also had a wonderful little shop where I did holiday shopping for the kids on the list. 

Then I wandered for a while and then walked back to the train station. It was really warm and the sun was strong, so I was a bit overheated by the time I got there. Still, I love that lifestyle.

Once back in town, I saw that my landlady had been to change sheets and towels, and left me some new goodies! I went out to gather some things for breakfast the next morning. Good thing, because I crashed on Sunday with the worst headache I'd had in ages. I finally realized that I'd been going, with long very full days, for two weeks straight. Clearly, some down time was in order.

I slept in, the phone died again, and the app to call the States didn't work. I cleaned and did laundry, read. Eventually it faded, and I went out to buy dessert, as I was expected for dinner that evening with the consultants.

 Everywhere you go in Barcelona are incredible buildings. Many like this actually have the designs carved into the buildings; it's not just paint.

This is where the consultants' office is. It's in a very commercial area, but a great location. I always felt very special walking in or out of that door within the door, being the local....

Week two would be a very different one. After class each day I would be going to the office, to work. Monday I had a conference call with professors in England about a program I'm interested in there, and each afternoon had a schedule for completing the translation of a post-doc application for one of the consultants and the text for the media piece for the exhibition. New professor, whom I liked, but many of the same overall frustrations at the school. Not that I wasn't learning, that's always possible. But between work and school, all excursions were on hold until the next Saturday, and the plan was Girona.