For Easter weekend, Katie, Kristin and I traveled up the Costa Brava (Rocky Coast) to Cadaques, a town where artistic & literary folk flocked to, especially after WWII when Salvador Dali and his muse, Gala, made a home in nearby Port Lligat. The only way to get to Cadaques via public transport, is to make a change from train to Bus in Figueres, Dali's birth town. Here are the ladies in a small plaza in Figueres, amongst the Plane Trees.
Cadaques is a really attractive town. Built on a hill, the houses are whitewashed with blue shutters. Here's the view from our hostal:
To the water...
Every time we meandered down to the water, I couldn't help but snap another picture of the same panorama, as the lighting was always changing.
On Easter Sunday, we had a museum appointment scheduled at Dali & Gala's house-museum in Port Lligat. It was a 1.5km walk over the peninsula from Cadaques. We set off...
The house they lived in for 50 years:
The inside of the house was modest & understated, surprising given how surreal & out-there Dali's work was. But I guess if you have that much going on in your brain & dreams, you don't want too much going on in your house.
His studio. The natural lighting was beautiful.
When Gala died, Dali left this house exactly as is and moved to the castle he bought her in Pubol. There are two paintings left unfinished in his studio:
He loved the sound of crickets. So he had crickets in a cage in his bedroom. This cage attached to the wall is the size of my thumb:
He also loved the sound of birds, and so kept song birds in his bedroom as well, in this cage:
This reminded me of the dandelion seeds in "Destina," the film he created with Walt Disney which was only just found in archives in 2007, finished and released this year. There were tons of knick-knacks all over the house. Dali was definitely a collector.
This is Gala's dressing room. She decorated it with pictures of their life together.
This is "Gala's room." Dali created it for her as a gift, and would not go in it. It reminded me of a harem's chambers. This room boasts awesome acoustics.
As in Gala's castle in Pubol, their garden space is equally impressive.
What a view!
No one's backyard is complete without a giant skeleton of a man made out of fallen logs and falling-apart rowboats.
The classic shot:
The pool area was the most out-there. It is where they entertained guests. You could see a marked difference between their private living quarters and their social exteriors. Dali, after all, was a ham whenever the camera was around. It makes sense part of his home is "for show."
Phallic, anyone?
After visiting the Dali house-museum, we stopped inside the little church on the hill for an Easter prayer.
The cemetery out back was gorgeous.
Dali spent much of his youth and childhood in Cadaques, as his birthtown, Figueres, is not too far in land. It makes sense he would return here years later with Gala when he married her.
On our last day, we took a hike through the natural park, heading towards Port de la Selva. That's a look back at Cadaques' Esglesia de Santa Maria on the top of the hill.
Heading back down the trail to Cadaques to catch our bus... home to Barcelona.
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