Sal, Gala, and Ramban - 10/16/13

We docked in beautiful Barcelona, but opted for a tour elsewhere since we have already spent time in Barcelona. We met our guide, Gemma, and boarded our bus for a 2-hour ride to Figueres. 

Figueres is unremarkable except for being the hometown of Salvador Dali and home to the Dali Museum. On the drive to Figueres, Gemma  gave us a thorough description of Dali's life. Dali hung out with other iconoclastic artists and writers of the early-to-mid-20th century, including Picasso.

Dali's passion for art developed early. He went to art school in Madrid and when he didn't do well on his finals he told the professors that they weren't ready for him yet.

Eventually surrealism became recognized as a new style of art and Dali began to receive recognition.

Dali fell in love with a married Russian woman named Gala who was 10 years older. She became his muse and is featured in many of his works. Many years later they finally got married, but their relationship was a big juicy scandal when it started.

We arrived at Figueres and got off the bus onto a street that smelled like urine. We walked a few blocks to the Dali Museum on more streets that smelled like urine.

At one point, the town fathers asked Dali if he would donate a painting to the town and he said he would donate a museum. They gave him an old theatre and he turned it into the current museum. The museum is a unique building, both inside and out. There are giant eggs on top. Hundreds of loaves of bread are attached to its red-painted walls on the outside. It has a turret on one corner, where Dali lived the last years of his life. 

The museum was very crowded, but Gemma showed us all the highlights while explaining things we would have missed otherwise. For example, there is a large painting of Gala, but if you get really far away from it and squint, or if you look at it through a camera lens, you can see the face of Abraham Lincoln. There are coin-operated mechanical sculptures, There is a weird sculpture of Mae West that you can only see in perspective by climbing a ladder. There are early holograms, crazy self-portraits, re-interpretations of famous renaissance works, and a car that it rains inside of.

Surprisingly, we did not see a lot of melted watches. But next time we are in St. Petersburg, Florida, we must try to go to the Dali Museum there. We have never gone there before because we didn't think we would like it, but now we do want to go.

Our next stop was Girona, about 30 minutes away. Girona is another one of those walled medieval towns that we keep bumping into. Upon arriving in Girona, the first order of business was lunch. We were taken to a large plaza surrounded by cafes and we picked one that offered tapas. We ordered three plates: pate, white asparagus, and chicken croquettes, with a rose wine. It was scrumptious and delightful.

Then we began our tour of the old part of Girona. Girona is known for having one of the best-preserved Jewish quarters in Spain. While the buildings are well-preserved, the Jewish population and culture of Girona was not preserved. The only remaining synagogue is now a Jewish museum and is not recognizable as a synagogue.

We were told that Kabbalah was started in Girona. Girona was also the home of the great Ramban - Rabbi Moses ben Nachman (Nachmanides). As we wandered the ancient cobbled streets and looked at walls built by the Romans we tried to imagine what the Jewish quarter might have been like during the Golden Age from about 1100 to the expulsion of the Jews in 1492.

Passing a little bakery, we stopped in to buy "xuxu."  It was kind of like a deep-fried croissant stuffed with a creamy filling. Good, but not as good as a cannoli. 

On our way back to Barcelona, we drove along the Costa Brava but really couldn't see much of the coast. Every once in a while we could see a small castle. There were vineyards and other small farms and all of a sudden we reached the urban sprawl of Barcelona and returned safely to our ship. Adios, Espana!

In the evening we saw a Flamenco show and the movie "The Heat."

If you squint you can see Abe