Spain 2011 – Besalu and Figueres

On March 3rd. we left Girona in the morning and headed towards Figueres, but on the way we turned a little to the left and visited Besalu – a small medieval town on a river:

The weather was not our friend, it was raining, windy, cold…But we did our best, walked around and took pictures in this grey light.

We even noticed a museum of miniatures over there but were not in the mood to study those super duper tiny things through magnifying glasses. Then we drove to Figueres, very close, and were again lost in the town – again hardships in finding teh Los Angeles Hotel…the same story as in Girona. I even thought -maybe it is better not to make a reservation beforehand so that once you get into a town or city – stay where ever you find where to park the car and see a hotel. But not to get into a labyrinth of one way narrow streets from which you have a hard time getting out. But once we found the hotel – we got to know that the parking is outside of the narrow-streeted downtown, almost in the fields, and so we were all set. as they say here. Well, in order to escape the hazard the next day we had to carry all our luggage to the car. So my tip for today is: don’t carry all your stuff once you travel with a car. Have some more small bags, take the most needed things into a bag from your bigger bag and carry to the hotel only that. because it was not the only place we had to park the car pretty far from the hotel, parking is in shortage everywhere in towns and cities, nothing strange about that. And most of the hotels either charge you 10e for parking in their premises or advice you to park in some public parking.

So here how Figueres looksk like:

You can see how cold it was…9C is 48F ( for fellow Americans).

They like hanging things in their balconies – this time it is cows…

There is a Catalonian flag hanging from a balcony on the top, the sight very often seen over there in Catalonia, which is in a way struggling to gain independence from Spain. I say in a way – not all citizens want it as far as my questioning went :-). But what concerns Figueres – I think it would be a very unknown little town if not fro Dali who bought its castle, remodeled it and built a museum-theater here in the middle of the town where he lived during winters himself together with his Gala and where as if he is buried. So here is his castle-museum-theater from the from and from the back:

Yes, the museum looks very different from the front and the back – seems like they don’t belong to each other. But in Dali’s world all the unmatchable is matched :-), as is this to my eyes crazy sculpture on an old root, with some drapes…by the entrance:

But I like this blue picture with a little ladder, also in front of the entrance:

Over the front door, of course, hos and Gala’s heads’ sculptures are installed:

The souvenir shops around are inviting with such images in their windows:

And then you enter the museum:

The pole for the boat is made…from old tires:

If you wonder what is in the car…here it is:

Here are the walls of this cloister:

I guess every country has its own share of artistic people who don’t let anything go to waste . I also believe that those ladies in the windows and on the roof here and there – were his muse-helpers, helping Gala to do her job.

There is a lot of Dali’s artwork in the museum that we have seen in books, that looks familiar. But there are lots of pieces that are not so published. But it covers his development though his stages, from the start, and I would say – it is really worthwhile to visit it. We spent there for maybe 2 hours and I could still walk around longer, though, to tell the truth – it amuses, entertains, but nothing touches your heart. At least my heart. So here are some of his works:

Look at this picture above from far away so that it becomes small…I didn’t see it over there until at home i made it small and here it is!

This was Dali’s bedroom and evidently he liked his soft watches so much that he slept under tham:

In one of the halls we found this and I guess – it is his last resting place (or maybe I am wrong…):

I will end with a pic of Ciutadela – a fortress on the edge of the town where we climbed up and didn’t see much: