Friday May 10, 2019

Eye Got the Time

Today, we have a two part journey. We take a train to our first stop, which is the town of Figueres. From the train station, we have about a mile walk to the Dali Theatre Museum. We have a timed entrance for 1200 and left ourselves extra time because we do not know if they have space to store our large backpacks. We allowed time to walk to the bus station where there are luggage lockers and back if we need to. We arrive at the museum, a girl asks to see our tickets and then says we can go in this door. We are a little confused because nothing is said about our packs. We go in and it turns out this is the Dali jewels exhibit. It has sketches of jewelry that Salvador Dali designed and some of the actual jewelry. There are some interesting pieces. I like the eyeball watch pin. We are still not sure if this leads to the entrance or not as we go to a second level. It becomes apparent that this does not. It is a separate exhibit from the main museum.

Entering the Theater

We exit and go around the corner finding the main entrance. I show the ticket lady our ticket and ask if we they will store our packs. She says yes but not until we enter at our time. She then adds, you can go to the ticket window and maybe get an earlier time. Sounds great. I go to the window, ask if it is possible to go now and just like that I get new printed tickets with 1100 on them, return to the ticket lady, hand her the tickets and we are in. The guard points us to the luggage room and we store our packs. This is working out good.

Buried Underneath

The museum is in a former theater and Dali helped design, decorate, and paint it to showcase his work. He also had history here as he had his first public art show in this building when he was 14. The theater was basically destroyed in the Spanish Civil War and Dali made a deal with the mayor that he would rebuild it if the city made it a museum. We enter the courtyard which is designed like a theater with an audience of statues, a faux stage in the adjacent room, and contains Dali’s crypt, which lies below his personal Cadillac.

Boat with Blue Tears

There is a boat high above which is the actual boat Dali enjoyed with his soulmate, Gala. He met Gala, a married Russian woman in 1929, and she became his wife, muse, model, manager, and love. In WWII, he and Gala lived in New York,which became their part time home and increased his popularity. His main home is in the nearby town of Cadeques which we will visit tomorrow. He was a surrealist who self promoted and expanded into jewelry, clothes and other items for the rich and famous. Back to the boat it drips with blue tears from when she died (7 years before him).

Squint for Lincoln

Moving into the stage room, there is a digital type painting of Lincoln which has Gala and her butt cheeks painted into it. When you squint, it turns into Lincoln’s face. Many of his paintings have an optical illusion aspect where hidden faces and objects blend in to a larger picture.

Self Portrait with Grilled Bacon

There are many hidden surprises in this museum including sketches, enigma art, a strange painting of Picasso ( kind of fits) who he was friends with, and decorative art which changes when you step away from it verse being close to it. There is a self portrait of Dali with grilled bacon, because everything is better with bacon. There is a separate jeweler room in here that contains personal items he made for him and Gala. There is a whole lot of different and strange art to absorb. His wife Gala, appears in many paintings either outright or illusions in. There is a famous painting of her with one breast exposed that is both in painting and sketch form.

Mae West Room

We enter another room which has a lips sofa, and a fireplace nostril, paintings that could be eyes, and drapery. When you climb to one end of the room, it becomes a tribute to Mae West, her face appears from the objects. As we climb stairs to another level of the museum, an entry becomes a face when you step back. Carol did not even notice it until I pointed it out. It is just that kind of, you better take another look or you may miss the point, art.

Rock Art

We enter a special exhibit by Antoni Pitxot, which is a series of rock art. Not rock and roll, but rocks also become shapes of women and men as you look closer. From this level we can see into the courtyard for a birds eye view of the cadillac and their boat.

Ceiling in Smoking Lounge

The former theaters smoking lounge contains a large ceiling painting with the feet of Dali and Gala bridging earth and heaven. There is also a cool dragon feet bed, sculptured art, a tapestry of his famous clocks, and more Gala in this room. We see sketches of buttholes and more provocative art as we move along.

Gotta Love It

There are photos of Salvadore Dali, and some video clips of interviews. He said in one that “people say I am not anywhere as good as Valasquez and I do not deny this. But I am the best out there today. Not because I am. That good but because the rest are that bad.” He was definitely eccentric and a strange fun loving man with a great amount of talent and flair. He was once asked if he was on drugs, to which he replied, ” I am the drug, take me”. This was a very enjoyable visit and our first real introduction to his work. I like weird stuff so this fits right into my wheelhouse.

Clowning Around

We exit the museum after a little over two hours which means that because of our early entry, we should be able to,make the 1345 bus to,Cadeques instead of the 1615. This is definitely a bonus getting us to the small seaside town two,and half hours earlier on a beautiful day. But first, I have to clown around with a picture of a clown. We make it to the bus station, buy our tickets and are on the 1345 bus. It is an hour ride and we make a few stops along the way with a bus station stop I the sea town of Roses. From Roses, it is non stop, but up a very winding, very narrow road. The views are great as we climb slowly up the mountain with the bus driver honking his horn at cars going the other way that try to sneak by him on the curves, as he needs room t o make the turns.

Cadeques From the Bus

We reach the top and Cadeques comes into view. Now we descend. There are miles of stone walls along the hills enclosing various olive groves. They are made of slate stones and we can not imagine the amount of labor it took to build these and wonder how old they are. We reach the Cadeques bus station, where I decide to buy our tickets now for Sunday so we have one less thing to worry about. My travel task done, we make the long walk of three minutes to our hotel.

Beautiful Spot

All checked in and happy to be here early, we decide to walk along the waterfront, and check out some possible dinner places. It is sunny and about 72 degrees and picture perfect. The sea colors are deep blue and azure blue.

CNC Cadeques

The town expands in a U shape around the bay. There is a statue here of Salvadore Dali, whose home was nearby on Point Llagat. He often ate in this town. We make reservations for tomorrow night at a restaurant and decide that we will enjoy the weather and our room balcony with some wine, cheese, and chorizo. We go into the grocery store across the street and buy our dinner. Somehow, two cans of beer work their way into our cart along with some coconut cookies. Our balcony looks over a community garden with a few chicken coops and we enjoy people watching the locals tend to their gardens. It is a very relaxing and enjoyable way to spend our evening. It is nice when things and timing work out better than expected. Tomorrow we will visit Dali’s home.

Expenses
Train from Barcelona to Figueres 44.80E
Dali Theatre Museum 28E
Bus from Figueres to Cadeques 11.20E
Hotel Octavia 78.40E
Dinner from Spar Market 13.44E
Walked 6 Miles